Notes on a soft launch

Last year we started chipping away at a refreshed website for The Big Idea. 

The goal was to start from scratch without going bankrupt, keeping all the key functionality in place whilst removing all the unnecessary weight that comes with a platform heading in to its 25th year. 

It’s been a challenging undertaking – trying to honor The Big Idea's past whilst at the same time building a new foundation for its future  – but we’re pleased with where we’ve landed, despite a few inevitable hurdles. 

We’d planned to launch later this month, but after our old site packed a sad after suffering a hacking-induced meltdown, we decided not to sink any more money into temporary band-aids. Instead, we’ve forced the old site into early retirement and fast tracked the release of our new one.  

So welcome to our soft launch.  

It isn’t perfect. Not all the bells and whistles are turned on, content migration is still ongoing and there’ll be some bugs to splat but perfection is the enemy of good, and good feels good enough to get this next iteration of The Big Idea moving forward. 

Once things are humming and you’ve had time to reacquaint yourselves, we’ll start rolling out new pages and features but, in the interim, have a peek around and see below for a few nerdy notes: 

With nearly a quarter of a century of content to contend with, we’re migrating stories over year by year – starting with 2025 and working back to 2020. 

All content published prior to 2020 will then be incorporated into a new archive project but more on that to come. 

If there’s an older story you need for your portfolio, or one you’d like reinstated on the new site, flick us a message via our Contact Us form and we can fast track the process for you. 

Overall, our revised stories navigation should make browsing much easier. The filters are more accurate, author profiles more user-friendly, and article pages offer more space and functionality – meaning we can experiment with formats, and yes, it all looks a little flasher.  

We’ve made significant changes to how listings work, so we’ve written a separate article explaining the updates, which you can read HERE.   

The short version: we’ve revised our pricing tiers, simplified our offering, and streamlined the listing process. 

Jobs and Opportunities now live in two distinct spaces, each with different pricing tiers – reflecting the real difference between, say, an artist residency and an arts marketing role. 

If you’re a community group, a non-funded organisation, or simply working with limited resources, you can now apply a community discount across most Jobs, Opportunities, and Events listing tiers via a simple tick box. 

Overall, listing on The Big Idea should feel far less like a chore – and in some cases, you may even find the process enjoyable which we hope will be welcome news to our regular listers. 

We’ll start with the bad news: you can no longer list an event for free on The Big Idea. We know – it’s a shift. But managing this area of the platform is incredibly resource-intensive, and introducing a small fee (starting at $8) helps us move toward a more sustainable model – we are a charitable trust after all. 

The good news? Our Events page has significantly improved. Cleaner layout, better filters, and there’s even a map view. If your event is free to attend, we’re also offering additional discounts on our second and third-tier packages, which can be stacked on top of community discounts. 

This added level of management also means fewer irrelevant listings – less muck to wade through. 

You don't need an account to browse listings or stories. You can save articles, jobs, opportunities, and events to your Favourites tab, which will stick around on the same device thanks to the magic of cookies. 

You can now pitch a story, submit a press release, or share feedback with our editorial team via the Pitch an Idea page. 

We’ve lowered Advertising costs across the site and now have much more flexibility in terms of how ads are used and where they can be placed. 

The Learning Network hasn’t disappeared – it’s just hiding while we refine and reimagine it. We’re aiming to relaunch it in a few months with a face lift and some new features. 

And the desktop version looks cute but the mobile version looks even cuter. 

Despite staring at this thing for months, we’ve almost certainly missed a few things. If you spot something awry or a bug that needs splatting, we’d love to hear about it. Let us know via our Contact Us form. 

None of this would have been possible without the incredible support of our web team at Gravitate. Huge thanks to Abdullah Radwan – our guardian angel, Jamie Saint Merat, whose enthusiasm and care shaped the design, Weida Xue, whose wizardry brought it all to life, John Mandawe for calmly solving every problem we threw his way, and Dave Chhour, Charly Morfin, Freeda Goy and Rose Lincoln.  

We’d also like to thank our board for backing this project despite the inevitable risks and lack of funding and as always, The Big Idea team for piecing it all together. Sananda Chaterjee, for her sharp insights and nimble fingers - migrating hundreds of stories and listings. Gabi Lardies, for her keen eye and always keeping our writers front of mind. And finally, an extra special thank you to Kate Rylatt, who has worked side by side with me on this project since day one, and whose job managing the complexity of listings was by far the toughest of all. 

There’s more to come, and no doubt a few bumps along the road. Thanks for your patience and support as we’ve worked through this rebuild – we hope you enjoy this new iteration of The Big Idea and what's to come.