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Holidays are about coming together, creating a space, and sharing; and last week on Tuesday night, 23 of refine+focus’ friends and colleagues did exactly that. While still keeping the holiday tradition of giving, we decided to do things a little differently; rather than exchange gifts, we exchanged ideas we were passionate about. Think of it as a “Yankee Swap,” except everyone goes home with both new connections and new curiosities.
THE EVENT
This November’s event brought together brilliant artists, C-level strategic innovators, non-profit financial consultants, biomedical geniuses, and more for an evening of merriment and idea-sharing. This month’s attendees brought in their ideas in many forms, ranging from PowerPoint slides to YouTube movie trailers and even an augmented reality demonstration.
HOW IT WORKS
This month’s event followed the same format as previous months’ Curiouser evenings, with each attendee bringing an idea that excited them and sharing it with the rest of the group in three minutes or less.
WHAT WE DISCOVERED
If you’re curious about what ideas were shared that night, read on; we’ve recapped them all for you in this list:
Jorge Sanabria – What if you could pay for a car with only YouTube views?
Steele Divitto – A neighborhood concierge service that sparks introductions between entrepreneurs and business owners
Ornella Botti – Augmented reality enhanced holiday cards
Toria Rainey – How can we make youth sports more inclusive and affordable?
Eduardo Pujol– A new bicycle helmet for urban cyclists that deploys an airbag
Michael Evans – How to use technology to incentivize participants in research experiments
Babs Ryan – An app that brings together children and sports psychiatrists to keep young athletes healthy, both mentally and physically
Raghu Appasani – How listening to patients with mental illnesses and learning their stories can help eliminate stigma
Dhivyaa Thamil Chelvan – A smartphone app that tracks trash to help keep cities cleaner
Rachel Cossar – How business professionals in all fields can learn movement efficiency from classical ballet training
Caroline Suttlehan – A lovingly created, gorgeous newsletter that brings together music, literature, art, and other thinkpieces
Nupura Bhise – A school in Bangalore that is breaking down discrimination by offering free tuition to children in poverty
Zach Braiker – What if we could harness the power of virtual reality to create immersive experiences that support our favorite charities?
Leigh Tucker – Fully customized sales training for media, trade show, SaaS, enterprise, manufacturing, startup and technology sales teams
Henrik Totterman – An interactive online group writing tool that brings together reading, writing, teaching, learning and technology both in the classroom and beyond
Daniel Goez – A new nonprofit aiming to empower low-income young adults to go from poverty to professional careers in Latin America
Peter Russell – The importance and entertainment of bringing friends and family together in unconventional ways (like renting out a movie theater and having a film screening!)
Hakan Satiroglu – An innovation foundry that works to reframe social justice issues and generate sustainable companies
Megha Dahiya – How collaborative productivity tools like Justick, Livescribe, and Microsoft Surface Hub are changing the way we work together
Mike Cucurullo – The Adventures of Pablo and Anna, a comic strip by a Boston illustrator based on the real lives of an adventure-loving couple
BONUS: FOOD FOR THOUGHT
We took a few minutes to recap our night, and here are some interesting questions that came up in discussion:
How can we maximize human connection?
How much of our personal memories of what we cherish are integrated with or colored by the media?
Where will we all be in one year?
AN OPEN INVITATION
We’ll be announcing events like this one in the beginning of 2018, so keep an eye out if you’d like to be a part of these inspiring evenings. Until then, happy holidays!
Did any of the ideas you read spark a new one within you? Do you have ideas of your own you want to share? If you’re a curious person and interested in attending our future “Curiouser and Curiouser” events, feel free to send us a message at hello@refineandfocus.com.
Cove photo by rawpixel.com
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