Cookhouse Labs and ELITE bring the magic of innovation to China!
Cookhouse Labs is your space to be your most creative and innovative self, and we aim to recreate this space in cities around the globe. This is also why we added the letter ‘s’ to our name. On December 14, we packed our suitcases with the Cookhouse Labs methodology and lots of innovation and jumped on a flight to China!
In collaboration with the ELITE community team, Cookhouse Labs and Impactathon facilitated and conducted a two-day innovation sprint. Impactathon is an innovation community that is inspired by and in collaboration with Cookhouse labs. The sprint was in a hackathon format, with the design thinking and lean startup process adopted by two project teams. These teams were tackling 3 main problem topics facing the industry.
We prepared for the event by creating a WeChat group chat with about 25 participants. Within the chat, we posted recent news articles about community sharing and social entrepreneurship published in the China Daily newspaper. This was a great way to build conversation around the topics a week before the event, and get participants involved and thinking about the sprint!
During the two-day sprint, we split the group into two active problem solver teams. To stay true to our commitment to make insurance better, we ensured that the sprint was collaborative, filled with fun and of course, innovation.
We engaged all members through our WeChat app by posting videos that the teams created from their ideation and prototyping. This was a helpful tool as it was a platform for participants to communicate, collaborate and co-create. Again, following our very core methodology at Cookhouse Labs.
In just 24 hours the participants created Team Orange Host, which is an A-to-Z service for property owners who want to be host for short term rental accommodation. They also created Team Sino-Easy, another multi-sided platform for connecting local Chinese university students with foreign travelers to China for culture exchange experiences.
The results were fascinating!
At the end of the two-day sprint, we had:
– 6 videos
– 2 business model canvasses for global community sharing ideas
– 16 registrants who joined in the market validation
– 4 solvers also won the 4,000 RMB winner prize money!
– 1 solver got to take home the big cheque as a memento!
Stay with us in 2020, as we journey around the world to collaborate and facilitate innovation in the industry!
Come visit us and explore your new home at Cookhouse Labs, visit: www.cookhouselabs.com