Panama’s Top Newspaper, La Estrella, Puts Spotlight on HATCH Latin America
HATCH Latin America has gained significant regional interest as the event kick-off draws closer. This morning Panama’s top newspaper, La Estrella, featured an article titled “Four Days of Innovation in the Panamanian Jungle” covering HATCH’s focus on sparking creativity to create a better world, highlights of the inaugural HATCH Experience in Latin America, and key partners Kalu Yala and Selina Hostels.
The HATCH Experience summit has taken place 16 times over 12 years, with tremendous success. Dozens of companies have been launched, HATCH inventions have hit the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and social and environmentally-focused organizations have made significant impact on issues ranging from arts education to climate change #becauseofHATCH. HATCH Latin America has been designed as an intellectual and entrepreneurial super-highway for innovators from Latin America to North America to impact economy and education.
The article recounts the tremendous potential for world-changing connections between incredibly diverse creative catalysts: “next Wednesday will meet in the Panamanian jungle Emmy award winners, NASA astrophysicists, filmmakers, toy designers, musicians, yoga teachers, educators and students, to name a few…125 people carefully selected [from] the United States, Panama, the United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Israel, Argentina, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru and Venezuela [will] share and connect in Kalu Yala, [and] become part of the same network.”
Some points of interest about the inaugural HATCH Latin America:
- Aggregated social media audience is + 2Million for HATCH Latin America
- 14 countries will be represented
- 20% of participants are students
- 25% of participants are Panamanians
- Within 5% of a 50/50 Latin American/North American participants balance
- Within 5% of a 50/50 participants gender balance
About our partners:
Kalu Yala is a vision master planned to grow into the world’s most sustainable modern town. The vision was started 10 years ago, and in that time Founder Jimmy Stice, has been seeking out and connecting with some of the world’s foremost experts on sustainable energy, permaculture forests, and community design. The site for the new town is a 600 acre farm set in a 7,000 acre valley, backing up to the 310,000 acre Chagres National Park. This is one of the world’s Top 20 Biological Hot Spots due to its biodiversity. The questions trying to be answered here are equally important: Can civilization and nature coexist? Can our diverse cultures coexist with each other? Answers are now emerging. Permaculture food forests are feeding the community and returning species complexity to the area. Intercultural exchange is happening through shared work and Kalu Yala’s teaching in 4 local schools, and running after school programming like tutoring, and science clubs.
The first phase, and the foundation of the plan is the Institute; an educational platform for students from around the world who are collecting, implementing, and documenting best practices in sustainable living. The work-study program has hosted students from all over the world from 25 countries and 150 colleges. From the institute, successful businesses are launching.
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SELINA Hostels is re-imagining the modern day hostel by converging co-work and co-play spaces for digital nomads. Selina is only a year old, and is quickly growing from 2 locations to 10 by the end of 2016, and over 90 locations within the next 4 years. Selina has been extremely thoughtful in finding premium locations at epic destinations, taking several important factors into consideration.
It’s clear that Selina is building more than a chain of places to sleep; the vibe at Selina is carefully designed for those with a zest for life, and appreciation for conscious living. All of the furniture and fixtures are hand-crafted by up-cycling found trash, rubble, and debris and giving second life to previously consumed resources. To accomplish scaling at this rate with such artisan craftsmanship, Selina’s Creative Director trained ex-gang members to be carpenters, builders, and welders.
Digital nomadism as a term is used to describe knowledge workers who have taken the tech economy’s move away from traditional office culture—and its flexing of the boundaries between work and leisure—to an extreme solution. Your after work and lunch break activities at Selina allow you to explore cultures, exchange knowledge, and live a fun, adventurous life.
The world is your office. But your office is now a community. A place that inspires dreamers and doers; a culture of possibility. A connected series of work destinations where you can intersect and collide with diverse international world views, and exchange knowledge in a healthy, sustainable, and intentionally designed environment.
