Four locations participated in Impact Hub’s fourth global MashUp event around the theme Sustainable Cities and Communities, sharing how entrepreneurs can support #11 of the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But it wasn’t only the local Impact Hub communities in Budapest, Floripa, Stockholm, and Zurich that enjoyed the lively presentations in PechaKucha style.
The world was watching.
And interacting.
For the first time in MashUp history, Impact Hub Budapest hosted a digital Super Speaker–Martin Powell, Head of Urban Development at Siemens Global Centre of Competence for Cities–whose presentation was live-streamed on the Impact Hub Global Facebook page. Other participating Impact Hubs were invited to incorporate the live-stream into their local event lineup, and anyone tuning in from around the world was able to pose questions to the Super Speaker in real time.
The full Impact Hub Budapest event was also live-streamed and recorded, making MashUp available to the entire Impact Hub network and general public. This, coupled with the #ImpactHubMashUp Tagboard, left the audience feeling not only inspired to take action but with the sense of belonging to a greater global community.
Impact Hub global MashUp is a free open-to-the-public event series organized around different SDG themes once per quarter. Participating Impact Hubs organize an evening of thought-provoking speakers, appetizers, drinks, and networking on the same day, as close to simultaneously as possible across time zones.
Read on to learn how MashUp #4 engaged both the global and local communities on September 29, 2016.
Budapest
This was Impact Hub Budapest‘s inaugaral global MashUp, but–from their seamless hosting of our first-ever digital super speaker to the unique touch of a graphic recorder live-illustrating a recap of the event–you would never know!
Kicking off the evening was Logan Strenchock, researcher and the Environmental and Sustainability Officer at Central European University and the co-founder of Cargonomia, a sustainable urban logistics and local food distribution center in Budapest. Logan’s research focuses on accelerating the impact of citizen driven sustainability initiatives in urban locations. and his presentation was filled with great examples of local sustainable solutions.
Martin Powell speaks as graphic recorder, Misha Altman (right wall) illustrates
“In 2050 you will share the same space with twice as many people – but only use 20% of the energy” – Martin Powell
Next up was the digital Super Speaker himself, Martin Powell. His role at Siemens involves working with City Leadership and providing expert advice and support to those cities striving to meet tough economic, social and environmental targets. In a speech that revealed the important changes ahead for cities, he stressed the importance of focusing on goals rather than existing processes to move in the right direction–the one that leads to optimal energy use.
Watch both speakers in the recorded Facebook Live stream, which has received more than 1.2K views!
Floripa
Impact Hub Floripa also had two speakers in their lineup, just the right number for the second global MashUp hosted at this location.
The first was Gabriel Longo of Recicladora Urbana (Urban Recycler). This B Company specializes in the sustainable management of electronic waste, with a focus on reverse manufacturing (electronics decomposition) and the environmentally correct disposal of electrical waste and electronic equipment.
The audience at Impact Hub Floripa’s second global MashUp
Speaker number two was none other than Impact Hub Florida’s own architect, Christian Krambeck. As founder of Estúdio Terra (Earth Studio), he transforms spaces into friendly places for local citizens (the one where his presentation took place was a perfect example).
Stockholm
Impact Hub Stockholm knows a thing or two about global MashUps, having participated in all four that have taken place to date! They organized another successful event featuring three local speakers, plus the digital Super Speaker, and made sure to capture it all in a Periscope live-stream.
Expert in innovation policy, social innovation, and social entrepreneurship, Åsa Minoz opened the evening. She is the co-founder of an ingenious step in alleviating Stockholm’s infamous lack of housing. One House, Two Generations is an organization that matches seniors with free space in their homes to students with housing needs. The idea was inspired by exploring the development of the collaborative economy during her travels in France and her interest in promoting intergenerational exchanges.
“People only judge buildings from the outside, but they should experience the space first hand so that the general public can discuss the architecture, to be informed and engaged.” – Peter Santesson
Speaker number two was Peter Santesson, an architect, real estate developer and social entrepreneur devoted to innovative architecture for a better society. He is a board member and co-founder of the Swedish Association for Building Cooperations and Open House Stockholm, a two-day event offering free guided tours of the city’s most exciting buildings and sites (including Impact Hub Stockholm!). His believes that the more citizens engage with their surrounding spaces, the more active they will be in future conversations around how their cities should grow.
Cristian Suoaz during his presentation
The final speaker was Impact Hub Stockholm member Cristian Suoaz. Motivated by the great number of unoccupied spaces for meetings, he runs the startup bokarum.com, an Airbnb for meeting and conference rooms. bokarum.com was the first site in the Nordics to offer the online booking of meeting rooms not only for professional venues, such as hotels and conference centers, but also for normal businesses as a way to monetize spare meeting spaces.
Read Impact Hub Stockholm’s MashUp blog post for details on their three local speakers.
Zurich
Our other veteran MashUp participant, Impact Hub Zurich, has now hosted four out of four global events. Watch the Periscope live-stream to see their lineup of two local speakers and the digital super speaker working an always-full house.
An Impact Hub Zurich host making announcements and introductions – Photo Credit: Valentina S. Velandia (@vsvelandi)
“More decentralized solutions are the future of energy.” – Aoiphe Brophy
The first speaker of the evening was Aoiphe Brophy, who works in the Group for Sustainability and Technology at ETH Zurich. Her presentation covered the main factors and challenges in creating sustainable energy systems. She left us with three lessons: don’t shy away from thigh upfront investment costs, avoid separating responsibility by project phases, and build up new and needed skills internally in every organization.
Our goal is to bring communities together around this online news platform. In a way: make them go online to go offline more often. – Mauro Bieg
Speaker number two was Mauro Bieg of 2324.ch, an online hub for communities that combines local news, events, and social content. He describes it as “half social media and half newspaper,” with an aim to increase the feeling of connectivity diminished through community sprawl.
Gregor Kaelin, Head of Business Development at Allthings, drew the evening to a close. His venture is like an “app store for homes and buildings,” collecting and integrating various data points related to space. He believes Allthings has the potential to lead to a 50% efficiency improvement and the standardization of 80% of interactions between property managers and tenants.
Read additional quotes and more information on all four speakers in Impact Hub Zurich’s MashUp blog post.
Want in on Impact Hub’s next global MashUp, physically or virtually? Join us Tuesday, November 29 for an event that coincides with #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. When we make donations of time, money, or expertise, it’s very often with the goal of relieving hardships like poverty and hunger. Keeping with the SDG theme, our fifth MashUp will explore entrepreneurial approaches to supporting Goal #1, No Poverty, and Goal #2, Zero Hunger.
To find out more or learn how to host a MashUp at your Impact Hub, simply fill out this form.
