Top ten innovators from around the world presented their best shot at solving the toughest global sustainability challenges, focused on “energy”. Over a course of several days, the innovators, together with NASA, USAID, Department of State, NIKE and the Launch Council engaged in an effort to turn these projects into commercial realities.
Real life stories from previous Launch initiatives set the bar – such as the LifeStraw® water filter introduced at Launch: Water, now being distributed to over 900,000 homes in East Africa.
I encourage you to check out the details about each Launch: Energy Innovation. I won’t divulge my favorite, as they all really did a fantastic job.
I would like to highlight the process – which was unique. Many conferences like this involve presentations, a few questions, and everybody goes home.
Here, we engaged in a well-planned, moderated, and fully documented process of feedback, brainstorming, resource gathering, network expansion, and goal setting, across multiple iterations.
It helped that we were sequestered a hundred miles from nowhere, deep within Kennedy Space Center, and that were together for nearly four days without any distractions – morning to night. The results were surprising – actionable “to-do” lists for sure, but most importantly, the relationships that were formed.
Now on to making it happen in the real world!