Exploring social entrepreneurship as an Expert Panel Member at the UN INFOCUS Conference 20193/26/2020
On Wednesday 12th June 2019, I was delighted to be an expert panel speaker at the #INFOCUS Conference 2019 at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva. I was talking about the value and power of social entrepreneurship to create solutions for people and planet, with a focus on market -making for social enterprise in Russia and youth inclusion in the design and delivery of solutions.   I explored the importance of building the soft skills of entrepreneurial mindset, understanding and living personal and corporate values; and building partnerships and supply chains well ahead of bidding for contracts together.
I was drawing on my experiences of market-making for social enterprise in the UK, particularly for health and social care organisations. Solution: Speaker, Expert Panel Member Topic: Social Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Commissioned by: INFOCUS Conference Date: June 2019 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #socialenterprise #designforflourishing #flourishing #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #climateaction #youth #youthvoices Entrepreneurship journeys are full of challenges on a daily basis. To go fast and far on this journey, you need to be resilient. In this Flow In Action Resilience Workshop, I worked with entrepreneurs from EPFL Innovation Park to embed a resilience toolkit.  Going fast and far on this journey to create successful brands and businesses requires resilience. That means moving from a strong core of flourishing to cultivate the conditions for problem-solving creativity and innovation thinking.
As entrepreneurs, being resilient does not mean pushing yourself over the edge: if you are burnt-out, your business is at a stand-still. By deepening your resilience so that you adapt and navigate personal, professional and organisational challenges, you stay agile, dynamic and moving towards your goals. Resilience is about joy, deep play and staying creative to find new perspectives for solutions and open up new opportunities. As you embed resilience tools, you make the space for your team to be aligned with and delivering your vision, mission and values. Sharing this knowledge in this interactive workshop enabled me to work with the group, ranging from start-up to established entrepreneurs to:
Topic: Resilience, Entrepreneurship, Innovation Commissioned by: EPFL Innovation Park Date: October 2019 #flowinaction #imagination #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sdgs #designthinking #designforflourishing #systemsthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #flourishing #resilience #epfl #epflinnovationpark In a Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop at Soft-Space in Geneva, I worked with a group of bi-lingual children (French/English) with a challenge on cleaning the oceans of microplastics. Working in collaboration with Aurore Bui, Founder of Soft-Web, we explored SDG 14 - Life Under Water. We took Sustainable Development Goal #14 as our inspiration, valuing each person’s imagination and creativity, as we played with ideas to solve the specific challenge of cleaning up microplastics. There is an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of microplastics – pieces of 5mm or less - in our oceans and water systems. Explore this sustainability issue for yourself through the links below. From ‘Flamotrash’ to the ‘Clean-o-rator’, ‘Poisson Man’ to ‘The Water Walker’ and ‘Robot Fish’ to ‘Pent-o-Pus’, the ideas were phenomenal. I shared the children’s ideas and prototype descriptions with Prof. Jonathan Rossiter, Professor of Robotics at Bristol University, whose team is doing innovative work on robots cleaning up oil pollutants in the oceans. See his TED talk. This is what he had to say: I am so impressed! They have come up with some amazing ideas which are at the cutting edge of technology. They have hit upon some pressing questions…please congratulate the children for doing a great job. Stretching the imagination and challenging conventional wisdom like this is what scientists and engineers do every day. It's so enjoyable and that's how the next generation will be able to solve tough scientific challenges like this.” I also shared the children’s work with Keith Tuffley, Founder of Neuw.com, sustainability advocate, polar explorer, Board Member of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and environmental entrepreneur. Wow these are fantastic. What great ideas - well thought through, inspiring, and exciting. And I love the videos with the explanations and presentations. The best ideas come from young people! Keep them flowing, so we can save our planet.” All children have the capacity to be agents of change today. It always amazes and inspires me, seeing the enormous capacity of children and young people as they play in these Flow In Action ‘change-maker’ spaces, using design and innovation thinking to develop resilience, wellbeing and life-skills; and connecting to a sense of purpose and hope about using their creativity to make positive change happen.
Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: SDG 14, Creativity, Innovation Collaborating with: Aurore Bui, Soft-Web Date: February 2017 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #resilience #designthinking #designforflourishing #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #sdgs #worldwaterday #youthvoice #youth #climateaction #Nature In 2017/2018, I ran a series of Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenges for students (ages 11-16) at Verbier International School, during each school term. Each challenge was designed to increase their understanding of how they could take action as global citizens, using design thinking as a process to connect with creativity and come up with innovative ideas. From January – March, I asked students to focus on SDG6 and World Water Day 22nd March, to deepen their understanding around sustainability and climate action.  I set them the challenge of designing a water carry to put to the test on the 22nd March on the mountain; when they would walk to a set point to collect 20 litres of snow (or near enough) and then back again. World Water Day connects to Sustainable Development Goal #6 which sets out targets for all people to have access to water and sanitation. Water poverty is a growing issue globally and with mountains playing a key role in our water ecosystems, we need to take action to protect them. Additionally, WHO, the UN and other organisations such as WaterAid, indicate the nearly 1 billion people – mainly women and children – still must walk a minimum of 6km daily to collect water for drinking, cleaning and washing. Time spent collecting water also means it is often impossible to school or work, keeping people trapped in the cycle of poverty. We started the challenge with an ideas download, working in groups to come up with ideas for their water carry. Over several weeks, ideas were refined in class, miniature prototypes from recyclable materials were built to test the concepts; and then each group put together their full size prototype to be tested on the day. The students’ walk and water carry experience equated to a distance similar to the typical 6km walked, where they would collect 20 litres of snow per team – although the norm in a developing country is 20 litres of water per person - and carry this back to the starting point. (They were NOT expected to drink the water that they collected.) Accompanied by mountain guide, Cherries from Cherries Walks, students also developed their understanding of the mountain and its water systems. Class E were totally rocking it yesterday building their first prototype designs for their water carry on the mountain on World Water Day 22nd March. Not to be outshone, Class F also totally rocked it yesterday building their prototypes of their World Water Day - Water Carry designs. I work with young people this way, to build their critical and creative thinking skills as they design within the parameters of the challenge, encouraging them to collaborate. This challenge was also an opportunity for them to raise awareness within the local community about World Water Day, giving them a sense of purpose through their own creativity.
Working in this way, gives the time and space to build their resilience and entrepreneurial mind-set. Each group collaborates to create their prototype and on the challenge day, it is not about a winning concept but about adapting in the moment to the conditions, reframing failure into reorganisation as invariably the prototypes being tested respond to the test conditions! Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Topic: SDG 6, World Water Day, Creativity, Innovation Commissioned by: Verbier International School Date: Jan/March 2018 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #resilience #designthinking #designforflourishing #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #sdgs #worldwaterday #youthvoice #youth #climateaction #Nature In March 2019, I welcomed a student group from The British School - New Delhi to a Flow In Action Youth Entrepreneurship Workshop run in collaboration with UNCTAD-DIAE at the UN Palais des Nations. We explored achieving SDG-11 at a local level in their school and community with innovative ideas to stop air pollution. The students were on a week-long trip to Geneva organised by service-learning trip specialists, CAS Trips.
For this workshop, students took on the innovation challenge I’d set them of cleaning up Delhi’s air by the end of 2020. Delhi is the 6th largest air polluter on the planet. It was an interactive, rapid download workshop, working in groups. Ideas. Value Propositions. Exploring how to set up prototypes with Lama Sha'sha'a, the Co-Founder of IRA - International Robotics Academy, Jordan, who I was delighted to welcome to the workshop. And finally, informal 3-min pitches to share their concepts with me, the team from UNCTAD-DIAE and Lama. Incredible students, already innovating and dreaming big on enterprises to achieve the SDGs. Solution: Youth Entrepreneurship Workshop
Topic: Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Climate Action, SDG – 11 Commissioned by: CAS Trips Collaborating with: UNCTAD-DIAE, International Robotics Academy Date: March 2019 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #resilience #wellbeing #designthinking #designforflourishing #peopleandplanetcentredesign #flourishing #sustainability #sdgs #climateaction To celebrate the 110th Anniversary of College Alpine Beau Soleil in 2020, students from Year 7-9 worked on a social entrepreneurship project, coming up with a sustainable celebration product for the school community and Alumni, selling it to fundraise for good causes. To support them, I ran a Flow In Action Youth Entrepreneurship Workshop, connecting them to their creativity, mapping their ideas to the UN SDGs and into value propositions, ready to pitch.  On a sunny Saturday in April, I ran the first workshop with the students on-site at their school. Working in teams, each group downloaded their idea, turning it into a value proposition that would be refined into their pitch. Flow In Action Youth Entrepreneurship Workshops focus on taking incredible ideas and turning them into workable solutions; complementing the Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Workshops which focus on learning how to have those ideas. By the end of the workshop, every team had their value proposition mapped out and had started to fully explore the ‘wicked problems’ of supply chain to source their materials from ethical and sustainable sources. I returned to hear their pitches on a rainy afternoon in June. The students had taken on board all of the advice and insights I’d shared with them, and every 3-min pitch made reference to ethical supply chain, the UN SDGs being targeted, modelling social enterprises in their approach to covering costs and creating surplus. Every team did an excellent job, bring together creativity, ideas and curiosity for taking action. When I work with students like this, whether online or face-to-face, I'm also embedding wellbeing and resilience tools - empowering them as the new generation of innovators taking action the planet. Thank you to their amazing teacher Aurelia Thompson-McNicol who commissioned me to work with them. From the very first interaction I had with Elaine, two things were clear: she knew what she was talking about and she had what it takes to help my students raise the game. Solution: Youth Entrepreneurship Workshop
Topic: UN SDGs, Entrepreneurship Commissioned by: College Alpine Beau Soleil, Villars, Vaud, Switzerland Date: April/June 2019 #flowinaction #iamunprecedented #youthentrepreneurship #youthvoices #youngleaders #wellbeing #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sdgs #sustainability #beausoleil #climateaction #noplanetb #resilience #designthinking #designforflourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign Running a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshop with students at Verbier International School (VIS) in November 2019, focused on equipping them with the right tools for taking climate action in their local community. For this school in the Swiss Alps, that means exploring how to make their local ski resorts sustainable. Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenges use design and systems thinking to build youth wellbeing, problem-solving skills and give them a starting point for real projects. It all starts with opening up a safe space for them to imagine, download and test ideas. We specifically played with the challenge of making their local ski resorts sustainable by the end of 2030. First, we imagined and downloaded ideas. Second, we reverse engineered from 2031 to the present day to understand our path for achieving our ideas and impact.
I used futures-thinking as our starting point, we dreamed bigger to bring in new perspectives and insights; exploring what we need to do to make it happen, opens up the incredible space of understanding impact. Finally, we uploaded ideas onto the Flow In Action Hazu Edtech platform, so that they were captured as part of a global library. From a hyperloop inspired vertical transport system to, and around, the resort; to fully solar-powered housing; to telecabines which carbon-capture. To turn these ideas into reality, the students had fantastic insights on repurposing existing solar panels, incentivising different behaviour of residents and tourists; thinking about ways to manage the value chain, so as not to cause more damage and move away from a consume/dispose culture. Why do it this way? This style of challenge-based learning, makes a space for every young person to show up with their unique creativity and become a problem-solver, enabling them to explore essential questions about impact on people and planet, so that they can adapt solutions to respect and protect. Plus, it’s practicing and embedding the design and systems thinking skills recognised as essential future-of-work skills for Industry 4.0, if not the most vital. This learn to move mountains® approach becomes people and planet-centred design-thinking, empowering students as the innovator and entrepreneurs of the new decade. Solution: Youth Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: Creativity, Innovation, Climate Action, SDGs Commissioned by: Verbier International School, Valais, Switzerland Date: November 2019 [Coursera Global Skills Index: https://www.coursera.org/gsi] #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #wonder #lovefortheplanet #sustainability #sdgs #climateaction #peopleaandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing In December 2018, I was an expert panel member evaluating pitches at this youth entrepreneurship pitching event for the Hult Prize Local Round held at the Amman Private Science University. As a guest in Amman, Jordan of Empretec Women In Business Silver Award Winner, Lama Sha'sha'a, the Co-Founder of International Robotics Academy, I was honoured to take part, listening to the pitches, offering insights and support on how to evolve ideas and celebrating the immense interest of Jordan's young people to find new solutions for their communities. Our panel selected Partman as our nominee. They went on to win the event and in July 2019 were nominated Hult Prize Regional Winners for Jordan.
Solution: Expert Panel Member
Topic: Youth, Entrepreneurship, Pitching Commissioned by: Hult Prize Local Round Organisers Date: December 2018 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sdgs #amman #hultprize #sustainability #resilience #designthinking #designforflourishing #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #nature I started collaborating with UNCTAD- Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE) in 2017, supporting the 10 young entrepreneurs from developing countries selected for the Start-Ups for SDGs event with pitch preparation over their week in Geneva, during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2017.  We worked on their personal resilience for their entrepreneurship journey, focusing on the challenges of the week, as well as the forthcoming milestones. Throughout the week, informally in conversations and in sessions, I grounded them in their unique creativity and connected them to their resilience, providing them with a set of tools to access at any time. Resilience plays a huge part in flourishing as a changemaker and entrepreneur, unlocking new perspectives and enabling you to adapt in a constantly changing environment, to bring your solution to the people who need it. Here's what Emily Chin, one of the young entrepreneurs had to say: I had the wonderful opportunity of working with Elaine as part of UNCTAD's GEW 2017 program finalist. My most memorable interaction was the 15mins #flowinaction moment on the public bus enroute to an event. I also ran a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge with the audience, as a rapid, interactive download to engage them whilst the Expert Panel were judging the pitches from the young entrepreneurs. Bringing on stage young students to share their ideas in response to the challenge, was a wonderful way of hearing their voices, appetite and hope for new solutions for the planet. Solution: Entrepreneurship Event Topic: Resilience, Entrepreneurship, Pitching Collaborating with: UNCTAD-DIAE Commissioned by: UNCTAD-DIAE Date: November 2017 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sdgs #unctad #gew2017 #designthinking #resilience #designforflourishing #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentredesign #sustainability #nature
The Start-Ups for SDGs Youth Pitching event took place at the UN Palais des Nations, during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2018, welcoming 12 young entrepreneurs from around the world. I worked with UNCTAD - Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE) to organise and deliver the event, training the young entrepreneurs in resilience and pitching; and hosted the event held in Hall IV.
Over the course of this week in November 2018, we welcomed our 12 young entrepreneurs to Geneva, immersing them in a learning journey and preparing them for their pitches. Entrepreneurship is a key economic driver in developing countries to support young people to create flourishing lives and communities. Each entrepreneur had a 5-min pitch, telling the story of their product and how it connects to achieving the UN SDGs in front of an audience including the Expert Panel, delegates from UN Missions, students from local schools and diplomats. The event was livestreamed on Facebook too, so audiences in their own countries could watch. During the event itself, as the Expert Panel decided on who should be awarded the grant and loan prizes provided by Olivier Ferrari's One Creation, we invited the audience members to share their ideas, particularly the students. This week is about building a deeper understanding of their products and businesses, as well as deepening their own resilience for their entrepreneurship journey. Throughout the week, I worked with each individual to support them on their personal and professional journey, developing their resilience toolkit for the challenges of moving forward. Solution: Youth Pitching Event Topic: Resilience, Entrepreneurship, Pitching Collaborating with: UNCTAD-DIAE Commissioned by: UNCTAD_DIAE Date: November 2018 #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #sdgs #unctad #UN #flourishing #sustainability #impact As MBA students taking the sustainability specialisation at Grenoble Ecole de Management, their exploration is about how to engage colleagues and implement sustainability solutions in their workplaces or entrepreneurial ventures. As visiting faculty, I ran a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge to teach my method on raising awareness in business environments. The workshop was an opportunity to explore sustainability and its application in their specific settings; and how they, as a leaders of change, would create spaces for colleagues to explore new perspectives and innovative solutions designed around flourishing of the planet, to do things differently. A really valuable exploration, aside from connecting to creativity to play with ideas around achieving the UN SDGs, was to understand what living corporate values meant in this context, particularly in the oil/gas and automotive industries.
The group left with a set of tools to test in their respective corporate settings. Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop, Speaker Topic: Creativity, Innovation, Sustainability, SDGs Commissioned by: Grenoble Ecole de Management, Grenoble, France Date: 4 June 2019 #flowinaction #pureenergyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sustainability #sdsg #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing #climateaction #nature In April 2019, I delivered a Flow In Action Resilience Workshop for the young entrepreneurs participating in Capacity Zurich’s Incubator Programme for entrepreneurs with refugee and migrant backgrounds. Being resilient is something we can all learn, develop and deepen. Starting your own enterprise, means adapting to the everyday challenges, to stay creative in problem-solving and flourish; and resilience is what enables you to do that. I led this group of talented, feisty, focused start-up entrepreneurs through a series of activities, designed to build their resilience toolkit. From demystifying resilience (it’s not about suffering, it’s about learning to let go and adapt), to reframing ‘failure’ into a trigger for their unique creativity to flow into their ideas and solutions, to understanding what to do when they face specific challenges on their entrepreneurship journeys. Here’s some of their feedback about the impact that the session, delivered by me in English and live-translated into German by Isabelle from Capacity Zurich, had on the group. "Attending the Resilience session with Elaine was a moment of inspiration and supportive coaching to move forward with our project. It was really beneficial as members of a team and as individuals with personal stories to heal and look back on them. The concept of realizing ‘I Am Unprecedent’ is something I´d like to remember all the time. Personally, it gave me an assurance that it´s right to listen to ourselves, not only for personal situations but for all situations we are in. It is not common to find workshops that do this link between how we are inside and how we perform at our 'business level´. I wish more people/Companies could take a look at this. I felt an incredible rapport with Elaine, she is sensitive, knowledgeable and inspiring to be around! Can´t wait to connect again." Spring 2019 Programme, Capacity Zurich "I felt your facilitation and the journey you took us on was more then that. I felt that you shared your life experience and passed on your valuable lessons learned. I felt that your workshop had so much ‘Herzensblut’ as it said in German. Herz - Heart + Blut - Blood ==> so much passion, compassion, commitment and enthusiasm! This way - your way - can only be facilitated by someone who knows exactly what she/ he’s talking about! I felt you cared. And this all made your training , facilitation , session on resilience so valuable, so genuine, so wholehearted!" Spring 2019 Programme Participant "Amazing workshop Elaine! Thank you. Your open spirit and joyfulness inspired us to jump in and out and test the tools. You reinforced the power of positivity and how important it is in building resilience, which is essential for entrepreneurship. For me it was the channel which reached not only my understanding but also my emotions." Spring 2019 Programme Participant Solution: Resilience Workshop Topic: Resilience, Entrepreneurship Journey Commissioned by: Capacity Zurich Date: April 2019 #flowinaction #resilience #imagination #creativity #ideas #iamunprecedented #joy #gratitude #migrationmatters #innovation #entrepreneurship #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing #sdgs
“So, they have a program, they have like every subject, they have kind of I think five subjects, different from, starting from resilience, from prototyping, like soft and hard skills. So, this was amazing because of them. We covered what you needed to do to be an entrepreneur and to run a startup. So, everything was useful. For me the most useful part was probably the resilience part and the business idea. (…) The resilience part, it was a coach and she was talking about resilience within the group, within our cohort. And resilience for everything that you encounter outside and the resilience you need to have it to be successful with your project. This was amazing. And this and the work they do at the end is where you can get exposed. And also, I think what was very useful, the pitching and the contact with the mentors. We really get close to the mentors; we still are in a chat and we try to communicate with them. And they became like really part of our project.“ Spring 2019 Participant
Turning the SDGs into reality will take innovative, courageous and dynamic investing. For participants taking part in the Certificate of Advanced Studies in SDG Investing at The Graduate Institute in Geneva, immersion into the UN SDGs starts on Day 1. And I was there to run an introductory Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenge with the group.
Opening up to the level of innovation needed to bring new, radical solutions which make real impact, means challenging business-as-usual. That requires everyone to show up with their unique blend of problem-solving creativity. Designing solutions means thinking across systems.
Which was the purpose of 90-minute scene-setting workshop! Setting the 20-participants an ambiguous challenge around making a product sustainable, looking back from 2031 to how we achieved it, disrupted old patterns of thinking. We played with ideas, tinkering with some reverse-engineering and understanding impact across systems and supply chains; building an understanding of how interconnected the UN SDGs are; and the need to be focused on designing for flourishing. All of which opens up new perspectives from different stakeholders with different expertise, creating an opportunity to come together and generate more impactful solutions designed around people and planet. Connecting with creativity is the vital starting point for radical risk-taking and Flow In Action’s Innovation Challenge Workshops invite participants of all ages to step into this problem-solving space to be risk-takers and changemakers. Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: Systems Thinking for the UN SDGs Location: Geneva, Villa Barton, The Graduate Institute Commissioned by: SDGI, The Graduate Institute, Executive Education #flowinaction #imagination #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sdgs #designthinking #designforflourishing #systemsthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #flourishing The Student Ideas Challenge, was designed as part of the Empretec Women in Business Awards 2018, to engage young people ages 8-18 years as future innovators and entrepreneurs. I created it as a toolkit, in collaboration with UNCTAD, distributing it as a pack to schools; inviting young people to respond to five innovation challenges linked to SDGs 2, 4, 5, 11 and 12. Sponsored by leading impact investor, Symbiotics SA, the toolkit was distributed to over 200 schools and shared via The Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network to youth across the Commonwealth, and via UN Women also.
We wanted to encourage young people to see their imagination and creativity as the starting point for innovation and to explore entrepreneurship as a key tool for achieving gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and girls. The toolkit was adapted from from Flow In Action’s learn to move mountains® innovation challenge workshops for young people and UNCTAD’s VISION youth entrepreneurship training programme. I created this easy-to-use pack, complete with lesson plans, challenge questions and research links, for educators to use with their students as a rapid download or multi-lesson activity; or give to students for self-directed learning, especially for service-learning projects. Its purpose was also to enable whole schools, classes or clubs to take part. Embedded into the toolkit approach was the development of core skills, fundamental to having an entrepreneurial mindset: critical and creative thinking, growth mindset, risk-taking, perseverance and many more. And, it included the process of moving from problem to ideas for solutions to prototype descriptions, as a first experience of the entrepreneurship journey.
Young people shared their posters and short videos of their ideas, which were featured in a display in the Pas Perdus in the Palais des Nations, during the World Investment Forum (WIF) 2018 from 22-26 October 2018. Watch the youth videos on UNCTAD’s Youtube site; and see the posters here. With over 5000 delegates from around the globe attending the WIF and walking past the display, it served as an important call to action from young people to listen to youth voices and take action for gender equality. Solution: Toolkit
Topic: Youth Entrepreneurship, Gender Equality Collaborating with: UNCTAD-DIAE, The Commonwealth Businesswomen's Network, UN Women Commissioned by: UNCTAD-DIAE, Symbiotics SA #innovation #entrepreneurship #flowinaction #pureenergyofcreating #empretec #unctad #imagination #creativity #ideas #designthinking #designforflourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #sdgs #genderequality Getting young people involved in achieving SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, means exploring how to take action at a local level in their communities. On 24th June 2019, Ecolint La Grande Boissière Year 11 took a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshop, exploring how to make their school campus sustainable.  As an end of term activity organised by Laura Italici – Head of Year 11, over 120 students from Year 11, arrived at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva to take the challenge workshop, which I ran in collaboration with UNCTAD's Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE). It was one of the hottest days of the year and with the magnificent, crystal clear view of Mont Blanc in the background, we were able to work outside, under the trees, in the gardens of the Palais, inspired by nature in the centre of the city.  I asked students to come up with ideas to make their school campus sustainable by the end of the 2020 academic year, turning SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities into reality in their community.
Having set the scene for the challenge, students split up into groups to with accompanying teacher mentors to do a rapid download. This Flow In Action workshop was a journey from ideas download to 1-min value proposition pitch, instilling a spirit of youth entrepreneurship as well as local social impact. The students were incredibly impressive in their creative thinking, dreaming big and with a practical understanding of how to take action when they got back to school in September. 11 groups of students came up with viable ideas that could transform the biodiversity of the site, reduce CO2 emissions, repurpose and recycle plastic, use flat-roof buildings for growing fruit and vegetables, composting food waste...and many more concepts that could become real projects. I was evaluating the pitches with guest facilitator Siobhan McLoughlin, 2019 Ship Director of Class Afloat specialising in #blueeconomy insights; and Fiorina Mugione, Fulvia Farinelli and Jayne Winter from the UNCTAD-DIAE team, sharing their insights and expertise of innovation and entrepreneurship. In Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshops, everyone’s imagination and creativity matters and new perspectives emerge as ideas are exchanged. And that is exactly what happened! These young people demonstrated patience, perseverance and resilience in face of the logistical challenges. With students demonstrating immense empathy and appetite for taking action, it’s clear that they have started their journey as leaders of change and as a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs taking action for the planet. Solution: Youth Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Topic: SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities Location: Geneva, Palais des Nations Collaborating with: UNCTAD Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE) Commissioned by: Ecolint La Grande Boissière #flowinaction #iamunprecedented #wellbeing #creativity #ideas #resilience #innovation #entrepreneurship #youngleader #climateaction #noplanetb #sustainability #sdgs #unctad #ecolint #youthvoices Using wellbeing tools to deepen creativity and unlock innovation A new generation of start-up entrepreneurs want to create powerful solutions for a flourishing planet, that means being more creative and innovative than ever in ideas for products and services which challenge the status quo in competitive markets. To give them the tools to deepen creativity and unlock innovation, I ran a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Workshop in collaboration with Webster University Geneva’s Center for Creativity & Innovation (WCCI), during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2019 in Geneva.
In this interactive workshop, we started out with wonder, stepped into love and reverse engineered from 2031, experiencing the tools through playing with ideas. Set in a framework of using design and systems thinking, we focused on how to design around flourishing of the planet. Dr Vlad Glaveneau, the Director of WCCI, specialises in researching wonder as a trigger for creativity and innovation, so he asked the group to look through the lens of wonder and ask, “What is it? What else is it? What could it be?” to bring new perspectives. I like to disrupt old ways of seeing, by asking people to look through the lens of love and love for the planet; bringing in a boundary that inspires you to think about impact across systems and supply chains from the end-point of flourishing.
With contributions from Scott Poynton (Principal at Scott Poynton SaRL), Philippe Rudaz (Economic Affairs Officer, UNCTAD-DIAE) and Aurore Bui (Founder, SoftWeb), participants were constantly refreshing their creativity to find new ways of seeing the problems that they want to solve.
It was also fantastic to be running the workshop live in the Hazu.io platform, capturing in real-time each group’s ideas and concepts in response to the challenges. Meanwhile, Andy Abgottspon the Founder and CEO of Hazu.io turned the workshop into a Virtual Reality demo, enabling us to experience what it will be like to explore our concepts and impacts on the SDGs. A participant fed back: "Dear Elaine, Thanks a lot for your workshop. It was as informative as it was fun. Your original and creative approach enabled us to look for new solutions and fostered a "think out of the box" mindset. I also appreciated the mix between using our child side with colours, pens and imagination combined with the technology side and mapping. I can only highly recommend your workshop for any team or organisation who wish to create new product or service. Or just want a one-of-a-kind team building. Finally, merci for your kindness and openess. You managed to motivate everyone and gently pushed us out of our limits." Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop Theme: Wellbeing Tools to unlock Creativity Location: Webster University Geneva Collaborating with: Webster University Geneva’s Center for Creativity & Innovation Commissioned by: Global Entrepreneurship Week Geneva, Liberez Vos Idees #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #impact #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing #sdgs #wonder #love #gew2019 #wellbeing #resilience #nature #climateaction Your unique blend of imagination and creativity, is the starting point for creating solutions for a flourishing planet. As a speaker at the International Symposium on the Real-World Impact of Creativity, hosted by Webster University Geneva’s Center for Creativity & Innovation, on 6th December 2019, I shared the why, how and what of how I use wellbeing tools with innovation challenges to inspire radical solutions for a flourishing planet.  Alongside academics specialising in researching creativity and innovation, I shared the insights and experience from my work, particularly with youth and start-up entrepreneurs, talking about 'A Different Starting Point to Create Solutions for a Flourishing Planet.' "We need radical solutions to truly tackle challenges in communities and at a global scale, which means we need a new generation of intra- and entrepreneurs with the courage, vision and skills to imagine and design around flourishing, for flourishing of people and planet. We need to cultivate the conditions for people to show-up in their organisations in this way, to create their best solutions and challenge the status quo. That means connecting them to their unique creativity and giving them the space to explore and discover. Bringing together wellbeing tools and innovation challenges, provides a new lens to look through and ‘change-maker spaces’ to play with ideas, break entrenched rules, take risks and change perspective to generate innovative solutions; as well as building complex problem-solving, design and systems thinking skills."  Listen to me sharing my talk, I come in at approx. 33.20
Solution: Session and Panel Speaker Topic: Creativity, Wellbeing Tools, Innovation Challenges, Sustainability Location: Webster University Geneva Commissioned by: Webster Center for Creativity & Innovation #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #designforflourishing #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designthinking #impact #socialimpact |
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