7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 1/9
crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
Thought for
Food Challenge
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 1
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 2/9
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future ofCitizenship
Thought ForFood Challenge
100+ thinkers and planners within MSL-GROUP share and discuss inspiring proj-ects on social data, crowdsourcing, story-telling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP
Insights Network. Every week, we pick upone project and curate the conversationsaround it — on the MSLGROUP InsightsNetwork itself but also on the broadersocial web — into a weekly insights report.Every quarter, we compile these insights,along with original research and insightsfrom the MSLGROUP global network, intothe People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from ouryear-long endeavor throughout 2012 to
provide foresights for business leaders andchangemakers — in the ten-part People’sInsights Annual Report titled Now & Next:Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engage-ment.
People’s InsightsIn 2013, we continue to track inspiringprojects at the intersection of social data,crowdsourcing and storytelling, with a fo-cus on projects that are shaping the Future
of Citizenship.Do subscribe to receive our weekly insightsreports, quarterly magazines, and annualreports, and do share your tips and com-ments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
People’s Insightsweekly report
People’s Insightsquarterly magazines
People’s InsightsAnnual Report
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 3/9
3
What is the Thought for Food
Challenge?
The Thought for Food Challenge is a global stu-dent innovation challenge, established in 2011, toinspire a new generation of thinkers and innova-tors around food security. The program challeng-
es students to answer the question – how will wefeed 9 billion people by 2050.
TFF is sponsored by global agri-business Sygen-ta to engage global youth and build a communityof changemakers.
Source: Initiate. Energize. Solve. Thought for Food Challenge 2012
The finalists will then enter round 2, a four month phase where they work with $1,000 seed money andprofessional mentorship to refine their idea. The five teams are then invited to the TFF Global Summitin Berlin to present their proposals and compete for $5,000 and $10,000 startup investments.
Source: http://www.tffchallenge.com/
How does it work?
In its first year, TFF invited student teams fromten leading European universities to participate
in the challenge. Now, in its third year, TFF invitesuniversity students from across the globe toparticipate.
In round 1, students are given four missions:research and understand food issues, brainstormsolutions, create and publish a project proposaland conquer social media. As in previousseasons, TFF offers resources to support stu-
dents in these missions, in the form of education-al reading material and tips and tricks on using
social media.
After two months, and a round of public voting,five finalist teams will be selected based onthe project’s potential to create awareness andincite social change, and the business plan mustdemonstrate a long term plan and out-of-the-boxthinking.
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 4/9
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future ofCitizenship
Thought ForFood Challenge
Reaching out to colleges
Organizers contacted leading colleges withinvitations to participate in the challenge andoffered promotion support to help excitestudents and professors:
“To get started, please click “Join the Challenge” for
more information. We’ll simply ask you to encour-age your students to form teams of five and sign
up by April 9th at www.tffchallenge.com. We’ll
even provide you with everything you’ll need to get
started, including:
• Asampleemailyoucansendthroughyourcom-
munication networks
• Aposteryoucanprintandpostaroundcampus
• AninfodocintroducingtheThoughtforFood
challenge
• Testimonialsfrompreviousparticipants
Feelfreetopassontostudentgroupsorprofessors
that may be interested in helping pull together
teams.”
Colleges participate to enhance their reputationand offer unique learning opportunities to theirstudents.
Source: borlaug.tamu.edu
In our Now & Next: Future of Engagement report on Collaborative Social Innovation, we highlightparticipation of education institutions in collaborative social innovation initiatives as a growing trend in2013-2015.
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 5/9
5
Engaging the Next Gen
With TFF, Sygenta joins companies like Dell, HP,Siemens and Samsung, in reaching out to schooland university students to energize them aroundreal issues and subjects declining in popularity,like STEM education and agriculture.
Christine Gould, Senior Manager of Global PublicPolicy and Head of Next Generation Engagementat Sygenta noted:
“Young people are increasingly becoming discon-
nected from agriculture and don’t understand the
complex challenges and opportunities facing us.
As we focus on the long-term vision to improve
agriculture, the environment and communities
around the world, we are taking this opportunity
to engage some of the brightest minds of the next
generation.”
Through design, structure and gratification, TFFaspires to bring in a cool factor and create ex-citement. The program is also designed to makestudents talk about their project, publish theirideas on websites (like Team Demeter) and You-Tube (like University of Reading’s Mission 3), andgather votes, thus spreading the cause to theirnetworks as well.
Source: twitter.com/AUTFFChallenge
Students participate for the forum to share theirideas and the opportunity to do meaningful work.As Beau Barnette, member of one of 2012’s win-ning teams, said:
“I love to seek real life solutions to supposedly out
of reach problems. Researching to develop ideas
and confronting the individual aspects of the situa-
tion is a thrill. As a landscape architecture student,
it is of course exciting to pursue design problems
and solutions outside of the classroom setting.”
TFF also piqued the interest of other studentslike Pascal Muller, who commented:
“I like it because it focuses its attention on the
future generation (us) and because it demonstrates
how easy social media and the Internet allow for
easy get-together’s of like-minded people that can
help share ideas.”
In the first two editions, TFF winners were flownto the One Young World conference to pres-ent their ideas to other student changemakers.Here’s a video of the TFF winners sharing theirlearnings and ideas at the conference:
And here’s a video of how TFF engaged otheryoung delegates at the One Young World confer-ence:
Source: TFF Challenge winners take to the One Young World Stage
Source: Thought For Food 2012 @ One Young World
Quality of ResponsesOrganizations usually opt for collaborative socialinnovation challenges to reach out to new andnumerous thinkers. Dwayne Spradlin, CEO ofopen innovation platform Innocentive, highlightsthis point in his recent Tedx Talk:
“What we have created are systems where we
build large facilities and large buildings full of
the researchers that we think can solve the most
important problems. We hire the best in the world
to work on those problems, but we all know thefundamental limitation of that kind of system. We
couldn’t hire all the smartest people in a given field
if we wanted to, we can’t.
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 6/9
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future ofCitizenship
Thought ForFood Challenge
In addition, organizations are looking for freshways of looking at the same problems or, as TFFputs it, ideas that “Disrupt the Status Quo.”
Students who participated in the challenge havediverse educational backgrounds (in business,psychology, architecture, technology and agricul-ture) and also diverse personal experiences (liketeaching part time at a local school) and beliefs(like freeganism). As a result, their responsesvaried from slam poetry sessions, flash mobsand research experiments to generate awarenessat the grassroots level; to plans that proposedinsects as alternative food choices, and eco parksand behavior change games to educate peopleabout the food generation process.
Source: University of Reading: Food for Thought challenge
Evolution of the TFF challenge
model
In 2011, TFF was positioned as an idea generationand awareness platform. Recent changes to the2013 program structure indicate a move towardsbuilding a community and support platform foryouth changemakers.
In year 3, TFF invites sustainable business pro-posals that last beyond the six months of the
challenge, and encourages students to createtheir own start ups with investment grants rang-ing from $1,000 to $10,000. Also new in 2013is the introduction of a Thought for Food GlobalSummit in Berlin to connect student innovatorswith other changemakers around the world.
TFF’s community-model of inspiring innovationis showing early signs of success, with formerparticipants sharing their current entrepreneurialplans and commitment to their winning ideas onthe TFF Facebook page.
Indeed, as Jill Beraud, former CMO, PepsiCoAmericas Beverages once said:
Source: facebook.com/tffchallenge
Source: facebook.com/tffchallenge
Source: dellchallenge.com
Changemaker platforms
While some brands use collaborative social inno-vation initiatives as a way to give back to society(Samsung Solve for Tomorrow) and recruit talent(Siemens Green Dream contest), we are seeingmore brands, like Sygenta, create long lastingplatforms to connect and support changemakers(Dell Social Innovation Challenge).
Branded changemaker platforms have hadsignificant traction, with platforms like Dell SocialInnovation Challenge and Mahindra Spark theRise crossing 250,000 members each.
“The best sources for the great ideas we’ll need to
keep moving forward are the people we surround
ourselves with everyday… friends, children, parents,
and grandparents who motivate and inspire curi-
ous minds and creative spirits to achieve a greater
good.”
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 7/9
7
Source: sparktherise.com
Michael Dell, CEO and Chairman of Dell, sumsup the opportunity this positive multi-stakeholderapproach opens up for all:
“The new engine of innovation driven by collabora-
tion, openness, stewardship and the power of the
social web gives all of us an opportunity to drive
even more rapid, meaningful change across global
institutions.”
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 8/9
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future ofCitizenship
Thought ForFood Challenge
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietarycrowdsourcing platform and approach thathelps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platformhelps organizations build and nurture publicor private, web or mobile, hosted or whitelabel communities around four pre-configuredapplication areas: Expertise Request Network,Innovation Challenge Network, Research &Insights Network and Contest & ActivationNetwork. Our community and gaming featuresencourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content andcollaborate to find innovative solutions.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platformand approach forms the core of our distinctiveinsights and foresight approach, which consistsof four elements: organic conversation analysis,MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-specific insights communities, and ethnographicdeep dives into these communities. The People’sInsights Quarterly Magazines showcase ourcapability in crowdsourcing and analyzinginsights from conversations and communities.
People’s Lab:Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab
7/29/2019 Thought for Food Challenge: People's Insights Vol. 2 Issue 1
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/thought-for-food-challenge-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-1 9/9
For People’s Lab solutions, contact