Three things made the 1%EVENT unforgettable
Written by Christiano Kwena
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12 October 2011
The 1%Event Nairobi was a brilliant and cool end-of-the-month experience. Held on 30th September 2011 at the Nailab the event allowed participants to collaborate by openly sharing and exchanging experiences, information and ideas to come up with solutions to a set of local and international socio-economic challenges.
The 1%EVENT is the Open Space event that connects people with smart ideas for projects that stimulate the self-reliance of individuals anywhere in the world and improve their standard of living. The 1%Event is the largest global co-creation event ever! Participants get updates about the newest trends, getting inspired and meet the biggest innovators in your field in just one day.
The 1%Event was an international cooperation of PARTICIPANTS and innovative LABS in the following cities: Amsterdam, Nairobi, Buea, Cape Town, Kampala, Ramallah, Cairo and London.
Three things made the 1%EVENT unforgettable
1. Challenges
Participants to the 1%Event Nairobi assembled into add hoc teams to solve various challenges within a few hours. Each team had to come up with a workable solution to the problems and present it to the rest of the cheetah crowd in 20 minutes. Additionally, while presenting, each team had to answer questions regarding their challenge, from the audience.
There were three groups at the 1% Event Nairobi. One group worked on a solution of using social media to assist in creating community cohesion in Kenya to eliminate a repeat of the post election violence witnessed after the 2008 presidential elections. A second group worked on understanding the menace of the ‘matatu’ (public service vehicles) industry and the best way forward to resolve it. A third group came up with a practicable solution to assist TextToChange.org, an organization having a problem of presenting data in an easily interpretable way. The third group assisted TextToChange.org by coming up with an automatic program that cleans up their huge data stored in excel files and presents it in a simple way that a non-technical person could understand and use.
2. Collaboration
The interesting thing about the 1 percent event is that it highlights the process of collaboration and the promise of the cheetah generation. Young professionals are able to combine their expertise in different fields; come up with awesome visualizations, problem analyzing, develop key indicators that lead to pragmatic solutions. The solutions are readily applicable to the society.
Individuals are different and have different capacities to tackle challenges. On the other hand, individuals and their unique characteristics make up communities. The collaboration of individuals who consult amongst themselves and present different perspectives of the same challenge depending on their understanding, skill and experience, best solves community challenges.
The 1% Event Nairobi was a revelation. Participants learnt that it is better to learn how to fish than be given fish, which you will only eat for a day. Moreover, participants learnt facts and concepts that influence our socio-economic existence.
III. Open Exchange & Sharing
During discussions and brainstorming sessions, all opinions and suggestions were treated equally. Age, career, economic status and gender were irrelevant. All participants respected and considered the input of others in an open way, which further enhanced the casual setting of the meeting and made them contribute more.
We can embrace our diversity in careers, geographic location and socio-economic status in a positive way. Through collaboration in sincere and open ways, we can come up with solutions to the current problems we face and work towards making and realizing a common vision for growth. It all begins with avenues that bring us together to share our challenges and learn about theirs. Thereafter, through exchange, we assist and obtain a mutual benefit. The 1%Event is such an avenue.
To sum up, the 1% Event Nairobi was a university.
