the thinking hotel 24h workshop

A 24hr Workshop to prototype the business model.

What happened at The Thinking Hotel?!

The Thinking Hotel

Photo by Stefan Lubo http://www.stefanlubo.com

2TTH – Workshop 7-8-08-2010 – Report © The Thinking Hotel

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

(Albert Einstein)


Introduction Discovery 1 Discovery 2 Imagination Fun Clarity Incubation Action Courage Insights Next steps

Welcome to The Thinking Hotel

Hello Kim! This is your welcome package to The Thinking Hotel. Here you have your room key, but as you know we don’t have real rooms yet, therefore your room exists in our minds. We believe when you unlock the two parts, something magic will happen, and you have opened the door of your room at The Thinking Hotel. This is a little message from our team, to inspire your imagination. And this…is your TTH little book of thoughts. We would like you to write here every though, idea and feeling you may have while you stay. When you check-out you can take the room key with you and the leave the book with us, another guest will add more thoughts and we will reflect on these.

This document is the public story to report and share the process and outcome of our first 24hr workshop, a process to prototype the business model for The Thinking Hotel.


Introduction Welcome Discovery 1 Discovery 2 Imagination Fun Clarity Incubation Action Courage Insights Next steps

The aim of the 24hr workshop: a triple target thought…

The aim of the 24hr workshop: a triple target thought…

Target 1 – to prototype the business model for The Thinking Hotel.

A business model defines the value proposition, how it creates value, who and with whom it creates value for, and how a business retains value.

To prototype the business model is an engaging process, simultaneously a creative and structured method. It implies ‘ideation’ and ‘iteration’ as a process, it is about exploring possibilities and not knowing the all answers, as well as expecting open-ended outcomes.

The Thinking Hotel © project starts with a clear vision – this workshop is a step forward towards making it happen.

Target 2 – attract a team of engaged social innovators, meet members of our Linkedin group and discover what The Thinking Hotel means to them, as a way to obtain insights of demand and what social needs our project can tap-into.

Target 3 – design and test (prototype) a ‘thinking hotel experience’ – which is the essence of this project. We were also curious about how much fun we could generate and how this experience could create value for those who engaged with their time and creativity.




Why a 24hr event?

The first answer is …why not?

You might have experienced the frustration of engage with an event, and when it achieves its best momentum, we have to interrupt the great work and leave, and the room stays…empty. To us, at The Thinking Hotel, this is a waste of resources including creative capital. With this in mind, we wanted to be open to the different types of personal ‘clocks’ and allow anyone engage for how long they wanted as well as at their favourite time, night, day or evening.




The structure of the workshop

We planned 8 stages (Ages) for the 24hr journey: • the age of discovery 1 and 2, • the age of imagination, • the age of fun, • the age of clarity, • the age of incubation, • the age of action • and the age of courage

Each stage had different tasks, facilitated by a designed process and executed in parallel teams. Before and after every age (a 3hr time slot), our guests could check-in or check-out.

There were no pre-requisites to engage at any age; and no pre-defined numbers for each activity. To support the guests’

flow (in/out) we had different short activities designed to promote a creative and collaborative state of mind through playful activities. We also had a report back moment to share the findings.

Age of discovery 1 Age of imagination Age of fun (that ends with a big bang)Age of discovery 2

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

13:00

Welcome! Refreshment for soul and body.

4 groups and 4 tasks25 min each task.(Guest, guest journey, brand and trends.)

4 groups and 4 tasks25 min each task.(Stakeholders, sensorial experiences, SWOT, activities.)

3 groups creates the storyline of 3 BIG IDEAS.Preparing three presentations.

MAD HAT dinner party! One great idea based on three big ideas.

Positioning and value propositon.W

ELC

OM

E

14:00 15:00 16:00 17:0012:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00NIBBLES, SALAD AND CHEESE A YUMMI LUNCH DINNER TIME FOR HUNGRY THINKERS

NUT, FRUIT AND CHEESE TOAST, JAM AND COFFEE FRESH BREAD AND FRUIT

Age of clarity Age of incubation Age of action Age of courage

01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:0000:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00

Fact finding.(Resources, Costs, Revenues and Market.)

Shhhh…Zzzz…we are busy dreaming. Please do not disturb too much.

Rise and shine. Prepare for a new day, new ideas and make great presentations.

Sharing vision and a brand new business model. Questions, feedback, critics and forward looking.

Still asleep?



The structure of the workshop (Cont)

Teams were self-organised, randomly and without pre-structure. Guests were also free to shift from one group to another, as they wished. At the end of each task, our teams were asked to dedicate 5 minutes to fill a ‘report back’ file. Along their stay in The Thinking Hotel, they were also asked to record their thoughts, ideas and feelings in their little book of thoughts.

Age of discovery 1 Age of imagination Age of fun (that ends with a big bang)Age of discovery 2

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

The big

and hairy

13:00

Welcome! Refreshment for soul and body.

4 groups and 4 tasks25 min each task.(Guest, guest journey, brand and trends.)

4 groups and 4 tasks25 min each task.(Stakeholders, sensorial experiences, SWOT, activities.)

3 groups creates the storyline of 3 BIG IDEAS.Preparing three presentations.

MAD HAT dinner party! One great idea based on three big ideas.

Positioning and value propositon.W

ELC

OM

E

14:00 15:00 16:00 17:0012:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00NIBBLES, SALAD AND CHEESE A YUMMI LUNCH DINNER TIME FOR HUNGRY THINKERS

NUT, FRUIT AND CHEESE TOAST, JAM AND COFFEE FRESH BREAD AND FRUIT

Age of clarity Age of incubation Age of action Age of courage

01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:0000:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00

Fact finding.(Resources, Costs, Revenues and Market.)

Shhhh…Zzzz…we are busy dreaming. Please do not disturb too much.

Rise and shine. Prepare for a new day, new ideas and make great presentations.

Sharing vision and a brand new business model. Questions, feedback, critics and forward looking.

Still asleep?

We selected various design-led methods and innovation tools for each task, and also expected each participant to bring and add their own inputs, as they registered through the booking services.

We served food for thoughts and bodies, along the 24hr served by the great ‘room service’ team, however the majority of our guests engaged with the idea of self-service!



A million thanks for the amazing 45 great thinkers!

Patrin Watanatada Hannah Charlton Carole Osterweil Stefan Lubomirski de Vaux Elizabeth Sawyer Kim van NiekerkRobert Urquhart Consuelo Yavar Larrain Yashoda SampathJoao Mello Nani Brunini Eva Karia + Partner Jordan Dalladay-Simpson Hina Patel

We don’t really know if we had 45 or 55 thinkers, as some guests arrived as ‘friends of guests’, however we know the following co-creators joined at some point, and made an amazing contribution:

Marianne PetersenVincenzo Di Maria Johnnie Moore (never made it, but as like being there) Paul SturrockMarzia Arico Ayisha de Lanerolle Olga Casamonte + 3 childrenKaterina Symiakaki Hua Dong Will HillDavid Pinto Hyaesook Yang Max Yates

Farnaz Nickpour Regine Wilber Kalam Ali Monika Hestad Andy Patterson-Jones Anna YangMaria Ana Neves Lili Larratea Jeremy Barry Ayako Fukuuchi Neishaa Gharat Hally Bowman + HusbandAnders Groenli

Skype Participants: Maria Azevedo Coutinho Bruce Lloyd Blake Cotterill Ian Lewis



Early adopters profile

And this is the mind-profile of our collective thinking, which may help us understand the pioneers (or early adopters) profile:



Why people wanted to join the workshop

People gave different reasons to join the workshop. The main reasons listed was curiosity, eager to learn and explore, meeting like minded thinkers and the attraction to the concept The Thinking hotel.

"The idea.. and the concept - never tried anything like it before"

"The concept is great - fantastic alignment with much of my work"

"Collaborating with others who believe in the art of thinking"

"I'm curious about how this event will work out"



A million thanks to Sense Worldwide

As designers we are well aware of the impact of the space in the ways we think. Luckily we met Sense Worldwide Network’s manager who was open to the idea, and working in a company that is well aware of the value of human

engagement… and made it possible to host this first ever 24hr event.

Sense Worldwide has for over ten years helped global companies by transforming their approach to insight, innovation and strategy.

You are all invited to become part of their global Sense Network co-creation community of articulate, creative, thinkers and doers and

can sign up here: http://www.thesensenetwork.com

A brand new website is coming in November for the community, along with several events linked to the launch.

The light, the furniture, the space, the sound were definitely key factors on creating an atmosphere for innovative co-creation.



The “24hr preparation”

Key success factors for the prototyping workshop were a venue for 24hr, curious people, an experience programme designed with a particular mix of processes and the tools.

First priority: to find a committed and enthusiastic team. We had two project leaders (Maria Ana and Monika) two event experts (Sarah and Lili) and 5 great advisors, thinkers and linkers (Paul, Susana, Sofia, Stefan, John and William) with the extra cool help from Ayako and David.

The second and third aspects were People and Place: once the venue was agreed with Sense Worldwide, we had 10 days to organise and deliver the event, with a challenge: how to engage a reasonable number of people to join us?! Our priority target was our Linkedin group members, which response was extraordinary. Other enthusiastic supporters offered to disseminate through their blogs and tweets.

The fourth factor was the Process –

how to design experiences to help gather relevant insights, promote fun and engage groups of diverse people with and without previous connection with the project. For each task (15 in total) we designed tools, including ideation cards, a report card and an insight card, as well as a task instruction card. Monika, Lili and Maria Ana were the main designers of the sessions, with great help from Sarah.

Food was taken seriously and was prepared at home by Nick, a great chef, who helped create a menu to please everyone and to be served along 24hr.

Sarah also highlighted the need to have a dedicated team for cleaning, create scenarios ‘what if’, to be prepared for worse case scenarios, and define clear roles for the team, a good plan to pack-up at the end, prepare a good welcome message as well as for the end of the event.

We also had a last minute insurance

panic attack and found a good insurance package!

The fifth factor was Purpose. Although prototyping a business model for someone else’s business may seem anything but purposeful, we found that those who joined, had one of the three agendas: designing their own enterprise – therefore wanting to learn, rethinking their personal choices due to a transition stage and/or excited to contribute to a new venture that was meaningful for themselves.

The budget: This initiative was accomplished within a budget just under £1000 – including catering for 50 people over 24hrs, and all materials needed even the insurance package. Of course this was only possible due to the support, commitment and generosity of everyone who helped us making this workshop happen. We estimate if we had covered all costs we would have had a £7K event (i.e. a cost of around £150/pp ) for a workshop with 50 participants. (Detailed costing available on request)



The age of discovery 1

The Age of Discovery had two main objectives:

For the project: to get a collective insight on what people’s ‘think, see, feel and believe’ the Thinking Hotel can offer and to whom, and achieve a sense of shared direction.

For participants: offer a co-creative experience in which participants engage with a shared vision, as well as contribute to shape the project with their own input: The Thinking Hotel is…what we want it to be.



“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

‘’That depends a good deal on where you want to get to’.’ Said the Cat.

I don’t much care where / Said Alice. Then it doesn’t matter which way you

go, said the Cat.”Lewis Carroll



Four tasks to explore dimensions of the TTH

PersonasDescribe a person you know really well and that you think will be a ‘guest’ at TTH.Then define a need that you know is real, and that you think TTH can provide a solution.Then…imagine solutions.

TTH personalityEach brand has a unique personality, and there are various ways to define it. We asked our guests to choose key words that would define emotional and personality traits, as well as identify references, such as a parallel with other brands, famous person, or a place.

Guest journeyThere will be various touch points between Guests and the TTH, which will happen at various stages, from becoming aware of TTH existence, to make a decision to check-in, arrive and spend time at TTH or engage with an activity, to pay, use services, and extend the experience through a mobile phone or website.Think of each possible touch point and describe how this will work. Link those touch-points with Personas and their needs.

TrendsWhat is happening in the world that may have an impact on the TTH? Can you identify a current / emergent Political agenda (such as The Big Society), or a social trend (such as an increasing level of uncertainty) or environmental trend (such as the paradigm shifts we face and the need to be more imaginative) or technological speed and the fluid/dynamic markets without boundaries (which calls for innovative ways of thinking). Connect trends with the offer of The Thinking Hotel.

Guests worked in teams, in parallel sessions, based on various creative methods to help define: customer profiles and their needs (Personas), the customer journey, explore current trends and the context for this project and the brand personality.



Personas

The personas gave insights into who can be visitors and what kind of needs these have.

The TTH could be for young busy people, value had to be according to the outcome, basic pricing or membership. Another suggestion was that the TTH was perfect for people that needed time to meet their inner seslf. The experience was young and improvised. The TTH learned from the visitors.



Guest journey

The guest journey proved to be the most difficult task. It evoked many discussions:

- is TTH a place or space, if there were other relevant metaphors- how involved people should be at TTH, the need for consultations- diversity of TTH- payment methods- why people should come to TTH

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TTH personality

The brand personality was defined in various ways. Among the people char-acteristic there where Dalai Lama and Jamie Oliver. The color was purple because it was cool, complicated and calm.

Some of the personality traits that was used was daring, funny, imaginative, friendly and inclusive.



Trends and PESTL analysis

The TTH is part of many trends: - paradigm shift in value- lack of time, distraction everyday- no time for self reflection- aging population, people working after retirement- talent/thinkers available- crisis - what worked doesn’t work any longer- hard to sustain like minded people- lack of fait in legal system

The TTH was seen as a place to reflect over values, to meet interesting people and to share valuable knowledge and insights.



Play rethink

Between the two ages we had a group checking-in and a group checking out, integrated by a Play Rethink moment. This transition was designed-in the programme to stimulate creative collaboration for the following stages. In order to integrate new guests into the process, we established a need to pause, reflect and communicate ‘discoveries’, and created the space to ask all kinds of questions, even silly questions …because they were not there!



The age of discovery 2

The age of discovery 2 was simply a deeper level of the earlier stage, towards defining the value, the challenges, the positioning and the brand look and feel.

The aim of this age was to explore with our co-creators the opportunity, the challenges, the value proposition and for whom, and the positioning axis, emerging from the insights of the previous age.




Four task to explore dimensions of the TTH

SWOTWhat are the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats

Look and feelCreate a moodboards to describe the ‘look and feel’ of the brand

Value propositionWhat value do the brand deliver to a potential client?

Position axis

How to position the brand in the market?



SWOT

The SWOT analysis highlighted the need to have a better defined value proposition. Guests felt as a particular threat the uncertainty of how TTH will generate revenues, and as a particular opportunity and strength the fact that the Hotel Industry is quite conservative and therefore new and more innovative models may find easier to penetrate. However, if the business success is based in establish partnerships with existing key players, this could be a weakness – as a conservative industry the resistance to change can be higher. One key word emerged as ‘multiplicity’ – probably referring to the nature of this Brand concept, which can be from ‘spaces’ to ‘processes’.




Look and feel

This task aimed at creating a mood board for the brand, therefore a visual outcome, which we hope to explore in various stages of development.



Value proposition

In the definition of the value proposition the first question was “a TTH for whom?”. TTH have different value propositions for groups business, individual, government. However, the discussion went soon into cross pollinating. The different groups will have interest of sharing the same TTH.

Key findings: Business - semi random people joining the hotel, outside perspective on your ideas, angles, prototyping ideas, sharing ideas with public, play

Individuals - prototype, experiment, share work, show portfolio to individuals, play

Government - neutral space, integrated synthesis for coalition, bring in local people to pilot policies.

All - networking, place/space to create, networking, seeds of ideas, rehearse/reading script, forever changing, to experiment, possibility to play, create, balance thinking + relaxing, cross pollution



Position axis

At the core - The Thinking Hotel brand is an innovation platform, and as such, it is a place that allows ambiguity, in other words, the ability to be something and it’s opposite as well.

The positioning axes identified provide us guidance of which dualities/conflicts we need to consider and the basis for the business design strategies.

Suggested axis: inclusive - exclusivetraditional hotel - spiritual hoteldistance - localkeeping secrets - sharinglocal people - travellerssecret info/protective - open sourceindividual - collectiverelax - workchallenging/provocative thoughts - meditation



Something interesting from the outside

After this session, guests were asked to go outside, and find something interesting, which they could bring into The Thinking Hotel – an inspiration from outside.

One guest brought cards which made him think…and two guests accidentally discovered the Soho Hotel,


where they had a nice chat with a Guest that was reading a book.

Sharing the external discoveries was the way we moved from age of discovery into the age of imagination.



Something interesting from the inside

The transition between age of discovery and the age of imagination was also catalysed by a Sacred Geometry meditation. We only did around 10 minutes, and we wanted to use this to integrate the new guests, as well as help each guest unlock something inside them.

A real Sacred Geometry method requires a few days of continued work, however we felt this could have an impact…but we will not know as we didn’t really manage to measure and track changes, so…who knows? Perhaps an interesting activity for a future workshop.


After the period of discovery, which was useful to ‘set the scene’ we made a radical move into imaginative techniques of strategise.

Guests were divided into three groups and each group had to write a book. Each group had a different briefing, with a specific agenda: one team would find how we made The Thinking Hotel happen, one had to describe the experience of the thinking hotel, and the third team had to describe the impact of TTH in a community.

This is a process that combines story telling, with creative visualisation and strategy, and is extremely powerful.

Resources to help the groups included a decision making dice (yes, maybe, no), children books to show simplicity, and magazines, scissors and drawing paper.

The outcomes of this age of imagination were…beyond imagination!



The age of imagination




Three books of imagination

Guests were divided into three groups and each group had to write a book.

Each group had a different briefing, with a specific agenda: one team would find how we made The Thinking Hotel happen, one had to describe the experience of the thinking hotel, and the third team had to describe the impact of TTH in a community.

This is a process that combines story telling, with creative visualisation and strategy, and is extremely powerful. Resources to help the groups included a decision making dice (yes, maybe, no), children books to show simplicity, and magazines, scissors and drawing paper. The outcomes of this age of imagination were…beyond imagination!



The TTH as a liquid



The TTH as transformative as a butterfly

Photo: Stefan Lubo/ http://www.stefanlubo.com/

This was a story of a 3 brother’s immersion in a Thinking Hotel, to think and imagine their futures, post job losses in financial careers.

The team approached the briefing with highly visual and imaginative thoughts, in which the story heroes transformed themselves from cats and dogs, into donkeys and people. But not only personal physical transformations occurred during their staying at the Thinking Hotel, the place and people in it keptchanging.

So…what do we think of this? We have no doubts about two core messages: The Thinking Hotel is a platform for transformation through fun, and…it transforms itself as well. Imagine a company where there is a dedicated creative team, with magicians and film makers, which constantly design new experiences…Well…think how Selfridges create new themes for their windows every month,

and each theme has stories in it. Now think the same culture will be applied for the experiences at The Thinking Hotel…which will be beyond ‘just look at me’.



The TTH as The Analog Web

Part One: The Thinking Hotel process is used to develop a collaborative solution to London’s bike crisis: adjustable bike lanes

Part Two: When the grid goes down, a series of ex-hotlliers uses sets up local ad-hoc Thinking Hotels to address urgent infrastructure needs

Part Three: As the thinking hotels nodes grow and establish communication with each other, a new human based analog collaborative grid develops to replace the old. when the old grid is restored, peolpe decide to avoid reliance on it and concentrate on cultivating the new Thinking Hotel Grid.

This team had a challenging task – write a story about the impact of a Thinking Hotel in a community. Through this co-creative method this story offers a space for the Thinking Hotel as a platform to restore the communication with each other which as the potential to



The age of fun (that ends with a big bang)

Most guests didn’t want to leave, the energy at The Loft was high and the conversation about the new insights from the stories was quite exciting. However we had a mission and we had to move on, and meet the new guests.

The Mad Had Dinner shifted from a non-sense conversation into a deeper and meaningful conversation, which may be appropriate to call…serious fun! This is also an important aspect to reflect: fun may not always be what we pre-conceived as fun, and for that we (the event organisers) must be open to the possible shifts led by the participants.


Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Alice: But it’s no use going back

to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

Lewis Carroll



The age of clarity

The age of clarity was designed to be based in fact finding research, to support the business case developed through the previous ages, however we suspect that minds that were awake at this stage were not interested in facts and figures, so we moved into feelings and the human side of the project.




Our 2am … deep insight: what brought you here?

Curiosity

ChangeCo-Creativity – the ability to collaborate and apply creativity

Connectivity

We already knew, from the PESTL trends analysis and the stories shared, that TTH was a place for transitions – and now we had the core values and value of TTH well described by the guests at the age of clarity!

In a round table, non-planned activity, we asked each guest to share their feelings. This was a real moment of honesty, openness, insight and co-activation.

The 4 key words emerged from this round table:



The age of incubation

The aim of the incubation age is to catalyse thinking, joining the dots and create more meaningful visions; it’s the proc-ess to find answers to…what does it really mean?

There are different ways of ‘incubate’ ideas, insights and discoveries, and at The Thinking Hotel we respect this by not having rules or structured activities, therefore our guests were free to make their personal choices: sleep, dream, chat, draw, or just look at the stars in silence.

We think…and will continue our research, that integrating the incubation stage into the process of a co-creation ac-tivity may have an impact on the quality of the outcomes. (This idea is not new, in a way, retreats and away trips have made us think about the real value of a time of incubation as part of the process)

zzzzzzzzz

Photographers sleeping...



The age of action

Good morning! we have work to do, guests to arrive and the challenges ahead. This was in fact an energiser mo-ment – Monika did her stretches, Ayako looked as if she came back from Mars, Maria Ana was unsure of what to do, Farnaz, Joao, and Jordan were still asleep, and Ayisha and Hyaesook were in perfect Sunday Morning shape!

HOWEVER we had to make decisions forward – and this is when we went back to our business modelling: IF we had all the money and resources in the world…what would be our investment priorities, and what would we need to set up our project to be a successful enterprise?

This time we focused on defining the Team, the Partner-ships (alliances and copetitors) as well as the resources.

And…we had breakfast!


Conviviality



Mapping the business on the business canvas

Hotels

Museums

Universities (CSM, Goldsmith…)

A government People

(that sure)

RSA

Local business

Human reserves

Different organisation

Department

Local business

EU, funding organisation

Research institutions

Linked in

Local government

Linked in

blogSocial media

Twitter

Brand ambassadors

Word by mouth

Network

Network

Press

After sale

Online network

Libraries

Courage - to try sty new/to change

Under-stand-ing and framework

Space where you can develop own ideas

Balancing relaxing + thinking

Sence of ‘thinking’ community Connection

- with other people + resources

Innovation - space to create

Create memory

Space - to let go of everyday life

Networkng

Physical Archive

Connection with people & com-munity

Open-ness

Deep democracy

Fun - space to be creative and engage

Big question - enjoy the challenge

Time

People/Staff

Must be value driven Maintaining

the network, branding

Events

Philan-thropy

Different packages

(specialised)

Kick off for business

Networking

Events - participa-

tory interactive

Conversa-tion

Inspiring suround-

ings

Individual space

Potential

Diversity

Group dialogue

Co-activation

Lost prop-erty office

Philosophy of human interest

Quirky, related professional

Co- creation

Establishing individual wants

Access to different process

Loyalty

Creativity

Warm welcome

Sharing enjoy

Interpre-tation‘Personal

touch’

Thinkers

Niche

Innerself travellers

Diversified busi-ness, freelance, entrepreneurs, students, yuppiesOpen

inquiryCol-

laborative dialogue

Dynamic spaces that are open and secure

Open minds

Space for sharing

Different skills areas



Defining team, resources and partners

Creating a team was an exercise to visualise and stra-tegically identify what do we need and who do we know that can help us, at such an early stage of the project. Defining job titles and salaries was also interesting – so we understand the cost and makes us prioritise.

Hyaesook transfered the ideas into posters.



Welcome (back) to The Thinking Hotel…age of Courage!

This is 9:00am …and a Sunday, first weekend of August, and we had an amazing group of thinkers checking-in, excited to find what we have done over the previous 21hrs, and ready to press on our courage to commit to the next steps.

In a scale of 1 to 10…the commitment from our guests was 8 to 10!




Challenged to pitch the dragon’s council!

We asked the Dragons, to shift their mindset from investors into potential partners.

We’ve explained the Vision: Create space for thinking in every city which would combine an environment, with the tools and services, designed to sup-port personal and professional decisions, to boost creativity, imagination and collaboration as well as strategy.

And what we believe the TTH core value is about. It is a platform for transition in a company, community, society


or in the world. We’ve also explained what attracts people to the TTH- Triggers curiosity- Allow people to apply their creative ability- Connections, engagement and work with others - Platform for change

So… what is it? Our last guest from Skype, Ian Lewis told us: what The Think-ing Hotel is doing is: co-activation!



Action cycle commitments

So what were the commitments:

One team decided to write their understanding of TTH and share on Linkedin

The other team said they would contemplate for 10 days and then share personal insights.

There were attempts to act within one week, such as – define a pitch to deliver a TTH experience and find a client/partner to organise one TTH workshop.


BUT the truly target was well achieved: we have a beginning of a new product, a much clearer understanding of who needs it and why, and…a fantastic team around this brand!



Guests from the Sky(pe)

This was another innovative challenge. In an event that has multiple actions, where people check-in and out, and collaborate…how do we bring in those that are far away? The idea sounds simple to implement: skype them into the room. However we haven’t done this before, neither we had a 24hr prototype to predict what would happen. BUT…we thought, why not?

So out of 8 Skype Guests, 4 made it.

Skype 1. Saturday 5:30pm Maria A. Coutinho (in Lisbon) What happened? We had a chat, Maria asked questions, and two of us explained what was going on.

Skype 2. Sunday 08:30am Blake Cotterill (in Birmingham) What happened? We showed him around, showing each board, and told him what we knew. Blake had a chat with two of us, but this is at the end of age of action, we were worried with everyone arriving, and no

sleep. He might have been so confused he sent us a really good questionnaire…to help set up a normal business. Are we a normal business?

Skype 3. Sunday 09:00am Bruce Lloyd (in Guernsey) What happened? This was the second attempt! A lot of background noise, but was nice to hear from Bruce (who knows all about this project from day one).

Skype 4. Sunday 09:30am Ian Lewis (somewhere in UK …miles away) What happened? It worked!! Ian arrived when we were making the decision to do the Dragons, and he sat on the middle of the table. Jordan helped moving the laptop around. He took part of the discussion, asking to speak, as well as listening.

And he was so tuned with us, that his final input clarified the essence of what TTH will do to users: co-activation!



Insights

• People came to contribute and meet other interesting people

• The atmosphere was unique, helped people to also work with their own projects

• The TTH is a ‘liquid’ not one project but many

• Sharing and openness is important to develop the TTH

• There is a need for a TTH• Yes! We are inspired to move it a step

forward



Next steps

• Sharing the information and key lessons with the world

• Developing the 24h concept into a work-shop concept for businesses (First stone of the project)

• Defining the strategy for the next stone of the project

• Start to work with the next prototype: - a prototype where people can come with their own projects - a workshop concept for a potential partner


to all attendeesto Stefan for picturesto Sense for the loftto Nick for delicious foodto readers, thinkers & inspirators

Thanks....


So what do you THINK?

The Thinking Hotel Workshop report

Contribution by all attendees

Edited by Maria Ana & Monika

Most photos by StefanSome by Monika and Ewa

If you have comments or content please share at the Linked in discussion

group, or send us your thoughts.

the thinking hotel 24h workshop

Business

age of imagination age

thinking hotel project

age of clarity

age of action

age of incubation

thinking hotel experience

hr workshop

thinking hotelphoto