By Marc Steinlin, and the IPK team
Background to the Climathon
A Climathon was held in over 100 cities, including in Winterthur in Switzerland, where solutions were worked out, how a city can become more sustainable. Various online groups were held over a time span of 24 hours, and 35 participants created ideas to improve the climate.
One of three questions that were tackled were called Challenges. One challenge dealt with incentive systems that inspire less energy and resource use. The challenge “from A to B emission-free” dealt with emission-free mobility. Another challenge was about “thinking in circles” where the participants looked for recycling und upcycling solutions.
Due to the global pandemic, the Climathon was held entirely in the virtual space. The discussion of the topics and the development of solutions all took place online.
Source: Winterthur newspaper
IPK’s Role in the Climathon
A Climathon borrows its core concept from a hackathon, but it has a specific thematic focus. In a Climathon, a group of committed people get together to solve problems to do with the climate. Co-creative brainstorming was the result of such a gathering. Climathons live from a few special characteristics: First, there was the dynamism of people being together in a space. Second, there was the enthusiasm and self-initiative felt by these people. Third, there was an energy of emergence, of something that nobody had anticipated before emerging. Lastly, there was a feeling of serendipity amongst the participants.
The Process Design Challenge and How We Approached It
These features are easily achievable in the physical space – and more challenging to achieve in a virtual meeting format. A challenge we at IPK were excited to take on! Our leading question being: what is possible in the virtual realm? How can we best emulate these characteristic Climathon features in the virtual realm?
1. A spatial structure was created using Qiqochat, with a range of rooms. Each was equipped with tools on offer, both technical and also mental tools. Technical tools included collaborative boards, and text tools, whereas mental tools included different templates for brainstorming, structuring, testing and organising of ideas and proposals.
2. A time structure was put in place, with a well-dosed amount of guidance and facilitation. The point, in a hackathon, is to strike a balance between structure and freedom. As such, this was different to a technical or a strategy workshop, which would have been more precisely and somewhat rigidly structured. For the hackathon, there needed to be a high level of openness and freedom. Enthusiasm, self-initiative, emergence and serendipity are suffocated with high degrees of structure.
A Few Insights Gained
In this setup, a vast range of diversity was prevalent, both in terms of dynamics, and passion. Consequently there were different results from different groups. Whilst some initially very loosely formed groups ended up working well, others with a strong start lost momentum later. It was difficult to predict the direction the group would take.
Unlike in a hackathon in a physical location, most groups stopped working before 10h00 at night, because other realities of life distracted people in their home offices. So, within the space of the given 24 hours, it was necessary to take more and longer breaks. Yet, interesting ideas and projects were still presented at the end of the day. Three projects were presented, and all of these were well developed.
In retrospect, with more time and careful preparation, IPK may have been able to build in more asynchronous collaboration elements. It would have been nice to not be limited by the inherent limitations of making a 24 hour event synchronous. However it was positive that the event did still take place under unexpectedly severed conditions, as it was not originally planned for the virtual space. A cancellation of the event would have been a great loss. IPK was pleased to make a contribution to the Winterthur event happening, and to begin to explore virtual adaptations of Climathon events.
Please contact us at info@i-p-k.co.za or on WhatsApp +27 67 608 7464 if you would like to ask us any questions, regarding how to take a brainstorming session, an event or a conference online.