We're excited to be attending the Meeting of the Minds 2015 urban innovation conference in Richmond this year as a presenter on some of the incredible outcomes from the THNK Innovation Challenge on digital finance and access to affordable housing.
According to provocateur and THNK alumni Michell Zappa, “an industry-toppling, government-shifting, sector-disrupting revolution is underway. Think Napster, but bigger.” You’ve probably felt the undercurrents. Yet as economic waves rock the boat of capitalism, many are unprepared for what’s next. Excitement and fear mix as so-called sharing economies, shifts in philanthropy and alternative currencies emerge, balancing possibilities with the untested nature of new models. Capitalism as we know it, even money itself, is one of the most complex systems mankind has ever created. And part of the problem we face, as our world is bending and breaking, is how to describe the relationships between systems – they are nested, intertwined, interdependent, and deeply emergent. From a cultural and emotional perspective, we sense the inadequacy of our financial systems but often feel powerless to change something that feels monstrous and unshakable, yet everywhere we turn our attention to we can find signs of change.
So, in my role as the Director of the Challenge track at THNK’s newly launched Vancouver campus, I couldn’t wait to dive into examining the Future of Capital(ism). THNK School of Creative Leadership is a C School that combines venture design and innovation leadership and focuses on action and implementation. We take the best from business schools and design schools to create a greater sum: truly transformational creative leadership to build human-centered systems for a better future. Within this journey, the Challenge is a 6-month effort that takes a humble, curious, and forward-looking cohort, a global network with a shared intention for impact, and trains them in a structured approach to human-centered creativity using a topic of deep societal relevance.
Read the rest of the article here...Or watch the panel discussion as it unfolded at the event.