When coming back from this amazing trip, our heads and hearts were full of impressions. Time to bring it all out! Together with the team that went to Thailand we went through a reflection process and shared our views on what social innovation really means.
If you are waiting for the great revelation right here, I must disappoint you. No new magical ways to save the world or to aquire ever lasting happiness. Basically, what it comes down to, is just living an ethical and joyful life.
Just this...nothing more, nothing less.
Now I could go on rambling about personal leadership, responsibility, how do you achieve this whole thing?, values, being honest blablabla. For once, I don´t want to. I want to go and sit outside, enjoy the last rays of sun on my balcony, listen to the birds and practice one thing this trip taught me well: know what you want, and stand up for it.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
So what is social innovation after all?
The trailer is online!
We are proud to present the first glimpse into the experiences of this trip:
www.youtube.com/kaospilots
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Our great team...
From left to right:
Joep, our driver
Alex, moviestar
Guus, assistent producer
Stefan, our assistent director
Jord, our devoted cameraman
Selma, producer
Ursel, communication
Anne, camerawoman
Inga, moviestar
Janosch, our Polish friend
behind the camera: Joris, our director
behind the people: our firetruck and best friend ever...
questions unanswered
we have been on the road for 9 days, visited numerous projects, interviewed countless people on the street, talked among ourselves and with our coaches, all to figure out what exactly is Social Innovation, one of the buzzwords of our time.
What we know now is mostly that we still don't know a lot. But our quest has risen some important questions for me:
How come that so many initiatives are so young? Is it that they have a hard time surviving, or is it that they only now start to thrive? And how come they mostly survive on funds and grants? Was Mrs Schreiber from Democaris right when she said that we are not used to express social value in hard coin?
Another learning was that the more concrete the project was where we interviewed, the easier it was to show the passion of the founder or co-worker to the viewer. The more abstract the idea behind the project, the more words it took to explain, and the less emotion we were able to capture.
the way back
On Monday morning we left Vienna after some early deep cleaning of the appartment we had stayed at.
In the evening we arrived at Würzberg where we stayed in a hostel that reminded of good old DDR times. Inga and Ursel would stay in Germany so that we did a quick check-up to see where we are with our project, and what needs to be done still in the post production: a lot...
Jord, Stefan and Guus celebrated St. Patricks with green beer and figured there is no 'Wurst' in Würzberg.
Tuesday: there was such a stiff traffick jam that we took our picknick table out and ate our sandwiches on the highway, not unnoticed by the other truck drivers who could appreciate the joke. Back at school was the joy of reuniting with lovers and friends, and the overrated Dutch rain that welcomed us back home. So far for the trip!
