Real Solutions Emerge from the Catalytic Environment of HATCH Labs
The HATCH Lab experience connects experts from diverse perspectives, experiences, and industries to focus on specific global challenges. From climate change to racism to public health, each dedicated think-tank forgoes the status quo to identify breakthrough solutions that create broad positive impact.
HATCH labs unlock visionary thinking through the process of immersive discussion and using creative tools to yield action – all against the qualifier, “does this hatch a better world?”
The cross-pollination of creative catalysts is the magic key that leads to successful collaborations- when experts are able to align their respective logics, they develop a more comprehensive approach to a problem.
This year during the Hatch Big Sky summit, the creator of Siri teamed up with a world-renowned oceanographer, award-winning deep sea photographer, CEO’s and bright NextGen’ers to address the challenge of protecting and salvaging the ocean’s withering ecosystem.
After only a few hours spread out over several days, a campaign was launched to partner with successful film production companies and produce a stream of short films to shed light on the issues destroying the sea and galvanize support to make a change. Facebook’s head of immersive media, Eric Cheng, plans to leverage his global network of underwater photographers and is already setting the target date for the first film festival submission.
In a nearby room, another circle of people gathered – as diverse in age, background, color and profession as the sound of their voices. This Hatch Lab focused on diversity with the notion that if we first solve racism, we can more successfully address other issues of equality. The conversation concentrated on confronting what each of us can do to end oppression. Through a passionate and heated volley of possible solutions, they ultimately developed a three-tiered plan beginning with a comprehensive website guiding people on how to start the conversation about racism – an often ignored first step.
The second step involved a powerful social media campaign giving visibility to important messages that will be carried across global platforms. Finally, they suggested a virtual reality opportunity where you can experience situations through the eyes of different ethnicities and genders, eliciting increased understanding, awareness and compassion for someone “other” – potentially used in police training and other fields where embracing diversity has been a contentious issue.
It’s fascinating to watch as NextGen’ers and professionals decades their senior begin to lean into the conversation together. As the former realize their voice is heard and valued, intimidation gives way to eagerness to participate and commitment to being part of the solution to these major global dilemmas. Similarly, the professional who has been looking at an issue from the perspective of their field of expertise suddenly has the opportunity to change their lens and reconsider the problem from the fresh perspective of other professionals and youth in their group. In this way, bright minds continuously shifting viewpoints often leads to a spontaneous combustion of powerful new approaches.
Whether the HATCH Lab was focused on mitigating the negative impact of social media, making public health more about preventative health, uncovering and abolish human trafficking, increasing access to education, confronting and addressing climate change and other staggeringly important issues, the driving force was always how to turn ideation into action.