DISRUPT! / DESIGN! / REPORT The MENA Design Research Center in collaboration with Zoomaal and Mideast Creatives created and organized the Disrupt! /Design! program, which encompassed a 3-day ideathon for the development of design projects with a social significance that was followed by a crowdfunding campaign that leverages the platform of Beirut Design Week for maximum exposure and ensures the continuity and sustainability of the winning proposals of the ideathon. The MENA Design Research Center is a non-profit organization that focuses on the role of Design in education, entrepreneurship, and social impact. All members of the center are academics and industry professionals from various fields of design (graphic, digital, fashion, product, service, industrial, interior, and architecture). The center is also the initiator and organizer of Beirut Design Week, which brings together (now in the 4th year) more than 25, 000 visitors to come together and experience local and international design through workshops, conferences, tours, exhibitions, films, and networking events. The main purpose of developing such programs in the MENA DRC is to pinpoint challenges that the design industry and institutions face, and to develop strategies that improve the current situation. Design, in this sense is more than an end product, but a process of strategizing and problem finding/solving. Throughout the last 3 years, entrepreneurship and emphasis on the digital start-up culture has been one of the main focuses of the Lebanese government, and therefore an ecosystem of companies and organizations have been set up to develop the scene through a variety of events such as competitions, start-up weekends, conferences, and workshops. As a member of that ecosystem, MENA DRC has been highly involved in supplying mentorship in the Design and Design Thinking aspect of these initiatives. However, the majority of these workshops that aim to start new businesses have failed due to lack of funding, very little time, and no follow-up. Taking all the above into consideration and the initiative of Mideast Creatives to disrupt this process, MENA DRC would like to design an ideathon that aims to create projects that are useful, feasible, and sustainable. By pooling together the creative human resources of the Beirut Design Week network, we will be ensuring that some of Lebanon’s most talented and dedicated young designers will be reached and asked to take part in the ideathon.
THE PARTNERS The main partners of this DISRUPT! / DESIGN! are Mideast Creatives/ Hivos, MENA Design Research Center (main organizer) and Zoomaal. Zoomaal is the leading crowdfunding platform for creative projects in the Arab world. Zoomaal offers a place for people to find funding for very specific products or projects across a variety of categories, through a large amount of small investments. Each project offers a series of rewards or perks for different support levels to give backers an incentive to get involved. If a project doesn’t reach their requested funding level within their set time limit, the money is reimbursed to backers. An initiative launched in 2012 by Wamda, N2V, Sawari Ventures, and MEVP. DISRUPT! DESIGN!
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THE SPACE The space that was selected for the ideathion fit all the criteria necessary for the project. Dawawine – espace des arts de la scène, du son, et de l’image- first not-forprofit space of its kind, is a cultural center located in the heart of Gemmayzeh. The center houses a 32-seat movie theater, a bistro serving delicious food, a library, a bookshop specializing in books on film, dance, theater and music, and a conference room.
THE MENTORS Mentors were at the core of the ideathon providing expertise that every project needs in order to achieve success, taking into consideration the three lenses of Design Thinking: feasibility, sustainability and viability. PAUL HUGHES A Dublin native and Amsterdam resident, Paul Hughes comes from a long tradition of Irish storytellers. This heritage created a unique form of storytelling: Paul draws live as he speaks to make the complex clear. This engaging format revealed along ten meters of paper, is called Ten Meters of Thinking. He describes himself as having ‘designer DNA’ as for over 15 years he has been teaching the process of design, Design Thinking. In his work to stimulate Entrepreneurial Mindsets he has moved from ‘the Business of Design to the Design of Business’. Clients who have engaged with Ten Meters of Thinking include Coca-Cola, 3M Innovative Technologies, Renault, ABNAMRO Bank, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Yale University, New York University, Carnegie Mellon Qatar, University of Amsterdam, and a number of TEDx events.
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DOREEN TOUTIKIAN Doreen Toutikian is an interdisciplinary designer and a social entrepreneur. She holds a Master degree from Koeln International School of Design in European Design Studies and a bachelor in Communication Design from Notre Dame University. Her professional experience involves a range of projects that deal with service design, branding, and user experience. In 2008/9 she spent a year in the product & service design department of the Glasgow school of Art working on projects with Skills Development Scotland, Careers Scotland, and HooverCandy. In 2010, after winning the Koelner Design preis for her book ‘Design Education in the Middle East’, she returned to Beirut to pursue her career in building a collective design community and enhancing the understanding of design and research in the region. She became head of Research & Development for Cleartag & TAGBrands, while co-founding and managing the MENA Design Research Center. She believes that the key to all successful design is collaboration. This belief has inspired her to initiate various projects such as: ‘Public Design Intervention: Beirut’, 'Desmeem: Rethinking Design through Cross-Cultural Collaboration' and 'Beirut Design Week'. She is currently Director of the MENA DRC, and of Beirut Design Week, educator on design research methods, board member of the International Gender Design Network, fellow in the Salzburg Global Seminar and a regular guest speaker at various conferences around the world. You can learn more about her work at menadrc.org, desmeem.org, and beirutdesignweek.org DIALA LTEIF Diala is an information and process designer with experience in visualization, community work and field research. Her interests orbit around design-led research, participatory methods, systems thinking and storytelling, all tools she uses to address pressing social issues and complex problems. She has an MFA in transdisciplinary Design from Parsons the New School for Design. She is currently deputy director of the design department at A.L.B.A (Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts) where she co-leads the global design studio to first year masters students. She is also a design collaborator at Mirada Madrid, a freelance information architect at Visualizing Palestine, a writer at the Outpost magazine and an avid podcast listener. You can learn more at dialalteif.com STEPHANIE AKKAOUI HUGHES Founder & lead architect of AKKA Architects, Stephanie is part of a new breed of young visionary architects, who operate beyond the nowadays-restrained realm of architecture. A strong advocate of value created through cross-disciplinary interactions, Stephanie believes that the most sustainable innovation will happen at the intersection of different fields. Sustainability, as she defines it is the daily innovative solutions & opportunities we ought to actively create for a sustained longterm future. VROUYR JOUBANIAN Vrouyr is a multi-disciplinary designer and consultant with experience in products, services, and systems. He holds two Master degrees: one in Design for Social Impact from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and another in Product Design from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) in Lebanon. In his work, he aims to build empathy and trust to ensure sustainable design strategies by using co-creative methods with users and stakeholders. He believes this approach to finding solutions to complex social problems and services can create impact on a social and systems level. His particular expertise is in impact measurement tools and assessment.
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He is currently a faculty member in two universities in Lebanon: ALBA’s Design department, where he co-leads the first year graduate design studio in the Global Design Program, and Lebanese American University where he introduces Design Thinking into the Bachelor Graphic Design Program. You can learn more about his work at vrouyrjoubanian.com RICHARD VAN DER LAKEN Richard van der Laken was born in The Netherlands in 1970. He studied graphic design at the School of Art Utrecht and did a post graduate at the Amsterdam Sandberg Institute. Since 1995, after graduating, he runs a designcompany with creative partner Pepijn Zurburg, called De Designpolitie (The Designpolice). As De Designpolitie Richard and Pepijn won numerous Design Awards and merits. These include the Dutch Art Directors Club (ADCN), Dutch Best Book Design, Dutch Housestyle Awards, Dutch Design Awards, Red Dot, British D&AD, I.D. Magazine, New York ADC and lately the European Design Awards (including the Jury Prize). As De Designpolitie Richard and Pepijn exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Boymans Van Beuningen Museum, the New York MOMA, the San Francisco MOMA, Institut Neerlandais Paris, Designmuseum London and Brno Tsjechia. As De Designpolitie Richard and Pepijn published their work in numerous Dutch, European, American and Japanese magazines and books. In November 2008 their monograph ‘The ABC of De Designpolitie’ came out. In 2006 De Designpolitie started a visual column ‘Gorilla’ on the frontpage of Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. At the end of 2008 an international collection of this award winning visual column came out with the title ‘The Daily Gorilla’. In 2011 Richard and Pepijn, together with a group of Dutch Designers, initiated What Design Can Do, a major international design event about the impact of design, annually held in Amsterdam. Richard also lectures on a regular basis and gave workshops in different countries like The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The United Kingdom, Poland, South-Africa and India. MARTA BIELIK Marta is a brand positioning and marketing strategies expert. Born in Poland but raised in Germany, Marta started her career working for German based Marketing and PR agencies being in charge for high-end luxury clients. At the same time, she finished her Diploma in Marketing and Communications and started her Bachelor of International Business in Austria. In 2008, she joined the International Marketing Department at the consultancy company Booz & Company. Later, she was in charge of the international lifestyle communication for MINI and LEGO at FischerAppelt in Munich. In 2013, she moved to Beirut and is since November 2013 a Senior Strategic Planner at Interesting Times. She will be mentoring the teams on branding, positioning, marketing, traditional and new media (including social media, and PR. LILIANE ABOU ZEKI Liliane is a business designer focused on using design as a medium to drive business innovation. Currently she works with businesses/ start-ups on creating & monetizing value through design thinking while leveraging consumer centric culture and user experience. She holds a BFA in graphic design from the American University of Beirut with a background in art direction & branding for several years in diverse fields, especially those of business consulting and Luxury fashion retail in the MENA region; experiences which led her to further explore the role of design in business and its fundamental strategic functions. She attained a Master degree in Business design from DOMUS academy (Milan). During that time she worked on projects with Armani hotel, Interni Magazine in fields such as customer experience, technology and F&B. DISRUPT! DESIGN!
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She also collaborated with Experientia UX to develop projects with Intel, HelloBank, Unicredit & Liebherr. Currently she lectures at the Lebanese American University on "Design thinking & innovation". You can find her on medium.com/@lilianabouzeki AISHA HABLI Zoomaal is the Arab World's leading crowdfunding platform. It is focused on empowering Arab creatives across the MENA and providing them with access to funding and support through their online platform under the slogan Aisha Habli is the events manager at Zoomaal. She is on a mission to contribute to social impact on the local and regional scale, and is passionate about building and supporting communities and empowering Arab creatives. PATIL TCHILINGUIRIAN Patil Tchilinguirian is a Beirut-based Lebanese-Armenian visual communicator. She graduated from the Lebanese American University with a BS in graphic design and a minor in fine arts in 2007. Later, she attended the studio arts summer intensive program at Metafora, in Barcelona. At the intersection of graphic art, social innovation and public space design, she is a multidisciplinary designer. She is also one of the co-founders of Public Interest Design Levant, with a focus on curating, facilitating and researching creative placemaking and social interaction in public spaces. Currently she is the senior art director at Visualizing Impact. More about her work at patchil. com ROY KHALIL After studying History at the American University of Beirut, Roy Khalil went to Los Angeles to pursue filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in Universal Studios. Upon his completion of his degree, he worked as a director-producer at OSN from 2008 to 2014. He also directed "All Birds Whistle" a silent short film that won 6 international awards and was featured in more than 30 festivals worldwide. Today Roy is the co-founder of Workbench Media Factory, a production company specializing in online content, corporate videos and documentaries. He also enjoys working as a freelance director-producer for TV shows and documentaries. More information at www.workbenchmf.com
THE BRIEF & THEMES
Submissions were open to any form of design but should be of public or social interest, under any of the themes cited below. Participants must apply as a team of 2 to 5 people. DESIGN DISRUPTS: local production Lebanon has long been known for its unique craftsmen expertise and its artisanal production. Today this sector is facing a decline and awaits some design disruptions. If your idea can revitalize any aspect of the craftsmanship industry in Lebanon or maybe build bridge between design and artisans, then your idea disrupts local production. DESIGN DISRUPTS: learning methods In our era of social media, creative commons, and open source it might just be high
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time we disrupt traditional methods of education. Whether you develop new tools, design new approaches or re-adapt education to the latest tech trends, your project is welcomed as long as you introduce some new form of creative education. DESIGN DISRUPTS: environmental systems From cradle to cradle and towards more sustainable living solutions, this theme encompasses all environmentally aware, grass root initiatives, and bottom-up approaches. Your idea needs to help -in any way- transform or re-use existing resources into disruptive creative solutions. DESIGN DISRUPTS: social divides In the midst of societal disputes and sectarian boundaries, we look for initiatives that can disrupt the divide. Your idea needs to bridge a gap on a cultural, religious, or behavioral level in an innovative and creative way to bring different communities of different backgrounds together. DESIGN DISRUPTS: collective memory The same memory, although perceived subjectively, can be shared by a large community and affect in many ways their common future. Some memories can be better forgotten, yet many others are important to be remembered as they conceal and preserve important aspects of our shared identity. In this disruptive category, projects can focus on such things as identity, history of space and people, narratives and memory. DESIGN DISRUPTS: digital space To disrupt the digital space your idea needs to break a boundary or a barrier and translate languages between the worlds of coder and designers. We are looking for coders who understand design, or designers who love coding. We are searching for an idea that can help connect the two languages and decode complexity to make it accessible to both other parties. DESIGN DISRUPTS: business model Design and Design Thinking are today the leading fields in innovation, yet they have not found their entry point into the business world of Lebanon. This theme is looking for ideas that could disrupt the corporate world by introducing design tools, approaches and solution into the board meeting.
APPLICATIONS & SELECTION OF THE PARTICIPANTS A total of 29 projects (teams of 2 to 5 persons) applied to take part in the Disrupt!/ Design! series. A total of 10 teams (30 participants) were selected by a jury that included four members from MENA DRC and two members from MEC. The 10 finalists who took part in the ideathon are:
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TEAM 1: Tamara Qiblawi, Mireille Raad and Monika Halkort The KnoozRoom team hopes oral history and creative storytelling can prompt recognition of new memories of the Lebanese civil war. The team plans to screen its 27-minute documentary film in a Spears Street bomb shelter-turned-interactive space in order collect untold stories that upset existing narratives of the war. “The aim of the project is to solicit stories of human survival,” Qiblawi said. TEAM 2: Fadi Mansour, Lea Helou , Karl Hitti and Candice Naim Inspired by regional refugee crises and frequent power outages, this team is producing portable solar lamps. While tapping into a disappearing heritage of glassblowing within Lebanon, the team hopes to serve underprivileged communities with a safe and sustainable solution to the basic need for light. TEAM 3: Ray Chawki Ghafary, Ghinwa Chlouk and Charbel Afif Recognizing that traditional below-the-knee prosthetics have left many amputees ashamed, the team aims to make a prosthetic that users could wear proudly. With more attractive covers and an emphasis on aesthetics, the team wants to battle the stigma many amputees face. “We’re not reinventing the prosthetic,” Ghafary said, “we’re enhancing its usage.” TEAM 4: Dina Alwani, Ayman Moadad and Ali Ahmad With its 2D animated web series drawn from the experiences of daily life in Lebanon, this team of animators hopes to entertain and educate Lebanese young and old about the issues affecting their nation. “It shows what everyone is suffering from,” said Alwani. The key to the series, Ahmad stressed, is that it will draw attention to the issues as well as the inaction that allows them to persist. TEAM 5: Adib Dada, Yasmina Choueir, May Khalifeh, Raya Tueny, and Alia Fattouh Though its project is still in the development phase, this team has a series of major interventions planned around the Beirut River. Among them, the team hopes to crowd-fund a project to build a footbridge linking Badawi and Bourj Hammoud, and to build parks on either side of the river. TEAM 6: Hassan Kanj and Rawad Hajj Between coders and designers, there isn’t much common ground, which is why this team believes if coders knew the basics of design and designers knew the basics of coding, collaborations would be a breeze. “If they can understand, they can appreciate,” said Hassan Kanj. With a platform for collaboration between the two communities, the team hopes to make it easier for designers and coders to find each other. TEAM 7: Cyril Kallab, Iva Kovic, Rana Taha and Laeticia Honeine Feeling that designers and makers have been left out of the supply chain that leads from craftsmen to consumers, this team hopes to work with established craftsmen to fill in the missing links. By bringing designers into the fold, the team is seeking to influence the market for the benefit of all stakeholders. TEAM 8: Collette Hogg and Asil Sidahmed Seeking to draw a positive collaboration out of the conflict in Syria and influx of refugees within Lebanon, this team hopes to forge bonds around Syria and Lebanon’s shared history of crafting tile mosaics and glassblowing. While traditional methods of producing these tiles and glass have all but disappeared in Lebanon, the team hopes
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displaced Syrian craftsmen could work with artisans in Lebanon to reintroduce these time-honored techniques while fostering dialogue. TEAM 9: Dima Boulad, Pamela Haydamouth, and Celine Khairallah Looking for a way to convert unused corners of urban sprawl into gardens and green space, the team hopes to partner with the municipality to identify city-owned plots that are currently lying fallow. Boulad said the key to success would be fostering a sense of stewardship among neighbors and allaying any mistrust within the community. “If you give people trust, they give it back,” Boulad said. TEAM 10: Angelique Sabounjian, Missak Hajiavedikian and Cynthia Raffoul Perhaps more than any other corner of Beirut, Bourj Hammoud retains a bevy of local craftsmen and ateliers. This team is seeking to build bridges between generations of Bourj Hammoud’s craftsmen and artisans by creating links among the future makers, the established craftsmen, and the suppliers. “It’s creating this full circle in the production cycle,” Sabounjian said.
THE INTRODUCTION SESSION The selected participants gathered on Friday 10th of April in an introductory session giving them an overview of the upcoming steps lead by Doreen Toutikian, Aisha Habli and Diala Lteif. During the session participants shared their ideas and met the other teams. This time allowed also the teams to express their specific needs and hopes from the ideathon.
THE IDEATHON PROGRAM The program of the ideathon is divided into a series of sessions throughout the three consecutive days. The sessions are designed in such a way where the mentor introduces the subject to the teams, and then the teams are given tasks to implement before the next session starts. The program is designed to help the teams complete their Disrupt!/Design!/ checklist by the end of the ideathon.
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DISRUPT!/DESIGN!/ CHECKLIST ◌ Problem / problem addressed ◌ Solution / value proposition ◌ Identity / name and core values ◌ Brand positioning / in regards to competitors ◌ Marketing strategy / target audience, cost and price ◌ Business model / revenue streams and lifetime value for customer ◌ Team / team members and roles of each ◌ Timeline / milestones, short term and long term plan DAY 1 10:30-11:00 Welcome + icebreaker .............................................................................................................................................. 11:00-11:15 Split into teams. Give your team a name .............................................................................................................................................. 11:15-12:00 SESSION 1 / Paul Hughes Intro to the ideathon: Overview of Design Process .............................................................................................................................................. 12:00-12:30 Mind Mapping, using checklist framework .............................................................................................................................................. 12:30-13:30 Stakeholder mapping .............................................................................................................................................. 13:30-14:30 LUNCH BREAK .............................................................................................................................................. 14:30-15:00 SESSION 2 / Stephanie Hughes Value Proposition of a Design Idea .............................................................................................................................................. 15:00-16:30 Detail value proposition, and connect it to stakeholder map .............................................................................................................................................. 16:30-16:45 COFFEE BREAK .............................................................................................................................................. 16:45-17:00 Define core values .............................................................................................................................................. 17:00-18:00 Internal review .............................................................................................................................................. 18:00-18:30 Team review DAY 2 10:30-11:00 Welcome + recapitulation .............................................................................................................................................. 11:00-11:45 SESSION 3 / Richard Van Der Laken Position, branding and What Design Can Do .............................................................................................................................................. 11:45-13:00 Position and review branding and identity .............................................................................................................................................. 13:00-13:30 Market assessment .............................................................................................................................................. 13:30-14:30 LUNCH BREAK .............................................................................................................................................. 14:30-15:00 SESSION 4 / Lilian Abou Zeki Business Model Generation .............................................................................................................................................. 15:00-16:30 Create/improve BMG .............................................................................................................................................. 16:30-16:45 COFFEE BREAK .............................................................................................................................................. 16:45-18:00 Determine marketing strategy .............................................................................................................................................. 18:00-18:30 Team reflection
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DAY 3 10:30-11:00 Welcome + team objectives .............................................................................................................................................. 11:00-11:45 SESSION 5 / Aisha Habli ZOOMAAL and crowdfunding .............................................................................................................................................. 11:45-13:30 Storyboarding .............................................................................................................................................. 13:30-14:30 LUNCH BREAK .............................................................................................................................................. 14:30-15:00 SESSION 6 / Paul Hughes Nail your pitch .............................................................................................................................................. 15:00-16:30 Finalize pitch .............................................................................................................................................. 16:30-16:45 COFFEE BREAK .............................................................................................................................................. 16:45-18:00 Finalise presentations .............................................................................................................................................. 18:00-18:30 CLEAN UP .............................................................................................................................................. 18:30-20:30 FINAL JURY
THE Jury At the end of the 3-day ideathon, the teams pitched their project concepts using storyboards and prototypes to the panel of jury members, who selected 3 winning projects and rewarded them with prizes. In alphabetical order, the jury members are: HANI ASFOUR Hani Asfour is an architect and a creative strategic thought leader with over twenty years of experience. He combines a unique mix of design expertise, entrepreneurship skills, academic depth and hands-on experience. Hani is a founding partner of Polypod, a multi-disciplinary collaborative design studio in Beirut, Lebanon, that offers integrated design services in architecture, interior design, branding, web design and development, graphics and information design for local and international clients. He studied architecture at MIT and Harvard, and currently teaches at LAU and is president of the Beirut Creative Cluster. CARMEN GEHA Carmen Geha is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the American University of Beirut. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Her research interests are focused on the constraints on political reform and civil society facing societies with weak states and power-sharing agreements. She wrote her PhD on the notion of ‘partially’ critical junctures and path dependence in Lebanon and Libya. Carmen is a founding partner of Beyond Reform & Development where she specializes in consulting and advising public institutions, international organizations, civil society and political groups on policy research, public administration reform and capacity development. She has worked on issues of constitutional dialogue, electoral reform, women political empowerment, political parties reform, and civil society in Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Iraq and Kuwait. She is an activist by background and a former board member of Nahwa el Muwatiniya.
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JIMMY GHAZAL Jimmy Ghazal joined “Quantum Group” in 2001. His journey started in “BrandCentral” as a corporate identity and Arabic typography designer. He later moved to the advertising arena with “Saatchi & Saatchi” where he headed the digital division. Today, Jimmy is Innovation Director at M&C Saatchi MENA in charge of digital thinking and implementations across group companies. He also heads the digital operations at “Mercury” the digital division of the group. RICARDO KARAM A chemical engineer by training, followed by an MBA, Ricardo first honed his media skills as an apprentice in the pioneering days of Lebanese radio station Magic 102. With his engaging personality and photogenic appearance, the move across to television became inevitable. All these skills combined to propel Ricardo up the career ladder from Talk Show Host, to author, screenwriter and innovative producer. Now, in his 20th year with almost two decades of experience and the maturity of age, Ricardo Karam is at the peak of his game. Using his media profile and connections, Ricardo Karam is a philanthropist and the driving force behind the pioneering TAKREEM Arab Achievement Awards, now in its sixth year. Stephanie Hughes, also on the mentors list was added as the fifth jury member. ********************** A NARRATIVE ON THE IDEATHON BY IAN LARSON Social & Environmental projects win Disrupt!/ Design!/ Funding Three minutes may be longer than an elevator pitch, but it isn’t much time to explain the innovation, impact and feasibility of a social design project that’s been months in the making. But that was the challenge design teams faced at the Disrupt!/ Design!/ ideathon this weekend as they sought to convince a panel of experts their projects deserve a $1,000 grant, an advertising budget and mentorship from the MENA Design Research Center. The teams that won funding Sunday proposed projects to tackle a host of environmental and social problem in Lebanon. Khalik Mitl Sami is a platform for fostering open dialogue on race in Lebanon. Starting with a pop-up stand highlighting the food and cultural of Sudan, the team hopes it can facilitate interactions between groups who wouldn’t normally engage each other. The genesis of the project and its name are rooted in team member Asil Sidahmed’s own experience in which a Beirut service driver upbraided a passenger for racial insensitivity.
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“When we look at the Beirut River, what we see is two walls and a sewer,” said Adib Dada, whose team has a master plan for rehabilitating the Beirut River. By creating two parks on either side of the river and building a footbridge connecting Badawi and Bourj Hammoud, the team hopes it can tap into memories of a time when the natural river was a bigger part of daily life. “If we can bring back that emotional relationship, they will fight for it to be cleaner, to be rehabilitated,” Dada said.
Setting out to demystify the Bomb shelter, this team is turning the bomb shelter into an interactive space as it compiles a fresh oral history of the civil war. Tamara Qiblawi said the team hopes the stories of human survival it gathers will fill in the blanks left by war stories that all too often end with “ba3dein zilna 3lmelja.” With its plan to make a gray city greener one square meter at a time, the Square Meter team plans to distribute hydroponic kits to bring much-needed plant life to rooftops and unused lots throughout Beirut.
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Most important for the organizers behind the Disrupt!/ Design!/ campaign is longterm follow-up, which gives them hope the projects will be self-sustaining. “Great ideas happen all the time, but sometimes they go nowhere,” MENA RDC Director Doreen Toutikian said. Mideast Creatives Project Manager Arthur Steiner said the Disrupt!/ model, which has already succeeded in Cairo and Amman, is proof that fields like design, typography, video gaming and music can be engines of social change and economic development. Although designers had in the past been relegated to the role of facilitators for the stories and ideas of others, ideathon lecturer Richard van der Laken said designers are now claiming new agency to pursue their own projects. “We have, suddenly, a very different role,” van der Laken said.
The ideathon teams not selected for the funding campaign are not walking away from the workshop empty-handed, as all the teams have the option of joining a crowdfunding campaign to take their ideas directly to funders through Zoomaal. The campaign will launch June 1 at the opening of Beirut Design Week, where funders will be able to view the projects and meet the designers.
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Over three days at Dawawine, the Design!/ Disrupt!/ ideathon teams also worked with a slate of international mentors specializing in fields as diverse as design interaction, monetization and crowdfunding. The teams have spent months, and in at least one case years, developing their ideas, and feedback from other teams and the mentors helped them hone these ideas.
Paul Hughes kicked off day No. 1 of the ideathon with a lecture on design thinking, and Stephanie Hughes coached the teams through the value proposition. On day No. 2 Richard van der Laken shared his experiences about brand identity and positioning, while Lilian Abou Zeki walked the teams through nontraditional business models to sustain their projects. On day No. 3 the designers worked with Zoomaal’s Aisha Habli to up their crowdfunding IQ, and they learned from Paul Hughes how to nail the pitch. Ideathon participant Ghinwa Chlouk admitted the workshop’s schedule was grinding, but “throughout this whole process we’re having a lot of fun,” she said.
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The ideathon closed with the teams pitching their projects to a five-person jury consisting of: - Hani Asfour (architect and creative strategist, president of the Beirut Creative Cluster) - Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes (lead architect at AKKA) - Ricardo Karam (talk show host and philanthropist with TAKREEM Arab Achievement Awards) - Jimmy Ghazal (innovation director and Saatchi & Saatchi) - Carmen Geha (professor specializing in political reform and civil society at the American University of Beirut)
Deliberations stretched from an allotted 10 minutes to half an hour as the jury struggled to agree on which three teams that would receive funding. In the end, the jury wasn’t forced to make its shortlist any shorter—a last-minute donation of $1,000 by Ricardo Karam on top of the $3,000 pledged by Hivos broke the deadlock and allowed the panel to select a fourth winning team. More than 90 designers submitted proposals for the Disrupt!/ Design!/ ideathon, and although only 10 teams were selected for the workshop and four received direct funding, organizers found the strength of the ideas encouraging.
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“At a certain point, we hope they all fly,� Steiner said. **********************
THE PRIZES The 3 selected winning projects were each rewarded with USD 1,000, as well as support from the MENA Design Research Center to implement the project. They were also offered a desk and regular meetings at the MENA DRC offices. Ricardo Karam, one of the jury members and a prominent TV figure in Lebanon chose to donate an extra $1000 to a fouth winner. So all in all the winners were Khalik Mitl Sami, Beirut River, Mitr Mrabbaa (Meter Square), and Bomb Shelter.
CROWDFUNDING / VIDEOGRAPHY MENTORSHIP & BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK PREPARATION The teams that chose to enter the crowdfunding campaign were not only the four winners of the ideathon, since many of the teams wanted to lear more about developing crowdfunding campaigns and benefit from the Beirut Design Week 2015 exposure. Along with our partner Zoomaal participants were provided a mentorship program facilitating the development and production of their campaigns. A special one-on-one mentorship session was given by Roy Khalil to create the storyboard for their promotional videos. Our videographer on the project, Christine Nohra, helped all the teams in editing their videos. During the Beirut Design Week exhibition, Zoomaal facilitated online and offline payment at the launching of the crowdfunding campaigns, and promoted the projects through their regional platform and database. MENA Design Research Center, designed the setup and was in charge of communicating the project to an audience of more than 5000 visitors.
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THE DISRUPT!/DESIGN! IDEATHON VIDEO
To view this video please visit: http://goo.gl/e3Vg10
********************** A NARRATIVE ON DISRUPT!/DESIGN! DURING BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK 2015 BY IAN LARSON DISRUPT! DESIGN! CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES AT BDW2015 No one acted surprised when the lights went dark in Beirut Souks on a Monday night early in June—power cuts are regular enough. But that blasé reaction turned to curiosity when the sounds of the rainforest, not generators, followed, and that curiosity turned to excitement as fog poured in and video footage of a waterfall shined through the mist onto a bare souk wall. “It’s the rainforest!” one young shopper enthused as crowds gathered with smiles on their faces and cellphones in hand to record the unfolding display. The dramatic public intervention jumpstarted Beirut Design Week, and showed in a very public way how design can make a social impact in the region. As far as campaigns for change go, that was just the beginning. Only a few hundred meters from the pop-up rainforest, teams of Lebanese designers were busy pitching their own social initiatives.
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Tackling a broad swath of social issues, the groups of designers participating in the Disrupt! Design! initiative were appealing directly to Beirut Design Week attendees for the funding they needed to get their projects off the ground. Through the Disrupt! Design! initiative the teams had already been equipped with training from the MENA Design Research Center and the crowdfunding initiative Zoomaal. The diversity of their projects showcases just how many different paths social intervention can take: Ensa Project With a 2D-animated series, the Ensa Project is looking to empower young Lebanese to address persistent social issues. One key to the project is the online platform where users can interact, share their own stories, and submit ideas for future episodes. Beirut RiverLess Having already gained UNHabitat and municipal backing for its ambitious strategy to revive and restore the Beirut River watershed, Beirut RiverLess is looking to change the public’s relationship with a once-vital waterway. Inara Initiative The Inara Initiative designed and launched pitched BDW2015 attendees on its specially engineered lids—one a lamp, and the other a water filter— for the household jars commonly used in underprivileged communities. While the team was appealing for public crowdfunding, its designers were keen to point out that anyone can fund the project by simply buying an upmarket version of the lids, which subsidize the donation models. Look Me in the Leg The final crowdfunding project to launch at BDW2015 was a team touting its plan for customized prosthetics that provided enhanced functions such as Bluetooth speakers or cellphone chargers. The team hopes it can alter the perception of both prosthetics and disabilities among the public as well as its users. Showcased alongside the Based in Beirut exhibition in Beirut Souks, the Disrupt! Design! projects were nested near the heart of Beirut Design Week, and the Ensa Project’s first promotional installment played on the silver screen during the
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BDW2015 international conference, but all the designers had the chance to meet potential funders: from interested individuals to aid organizations. As the crowdfunding campaigns continue and the design teams push harder to make their interventions, one thing is clear: they can’t do it without a little help from the public pulling them along. This project has been developed in partnership with Hivos and Mideast Creatives. **********************
FOLLOW-UP & EVALUATION All participants were asked to fill out an online survey on the last day of the ideathon. Generally all results were very positive and all participants found the tools that they were given as well as the mentorship sessions very useful. Most confirmed that they would reuse the toolkits in other projects as well. Moreover, the 4 winning projects and those who wanted to wanted to join the Beirut Design Week exhibition and learn more about crowdfunding were especially given attention and feedback whenever they needed more help or advice with their campaign and project development. Unfortunately, those who applied to Zoomaal's crowdfunding platform did not make the amount they needed in time, and others who were planning to join, felt a bit discouraged. A meeting was set with each team to discuss the crowdfunding issues, and most felt that if their project did not meet the funding amount needed, they would be embarrassed and not pursue the project further. They also thought that the public might perceive their inability to raise the fund as a negative aspect of the project itself. This was a very interesting insight and a lesson learnt for MENA Design Research Center. Although, learning how to develop a crowdfunding campaign was very useful to the participants from a marketing and branding perspective, perhaps it is not the best idea for such projects in the MENA region yet.
THE FINANCIALS APPROVED BUDGET
ITEM
TOTAL IN EUROS
Organizational Management Fees
2500
Ideathon Trainer Fees
1400
Printed Material for Training
300
Marketing / Flyers/ Banners
450
Site redesign / updates/ translations
350
Online Marketing Campaign
300
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Prizes
2500
Venue
1500
Compensation judges/mentors/presenters
500
Award Ceremony
1300
Follow up meeting
0
Catering
3000
Logistics + Transport
300
Photography & Video
450
TOTAL LOCAL COSTS
14850
ACTUAL EXPENDITURES
ITEM
TOTAL IN EUROS
Organizational Management Fees
1100
Ideathon Trainer/ mentor Fees
3500
Printing
620
Copywriting
600
Online Marketing Campaign /facebook
50
Prizes
3000
Venue+ Catering+ Award Ceremony
2660
Intro Session & Follow up meeting
100
Beirut Design Week Exhibition stand & screens rental
2500
Logistics + Transport
150
Photography & Video
570
TOTAL LOCAL COSTS
14850
EXPLANATION OF THE BUDGET & EXPENDITURE DIFFERENCES Although there are no major differences in the allocations of budgets within the project, some funds were shifted due to the actual developemnt of the project and the needs of the participants. These needs were for example, (1) the editing of all the videos that wanted to be exhibited in Beirut Design Week, (2) the change in mentors according to the team projects and their needs, (3) a larger number of guests per day for the catering services, (4) extra rental of screens for Beirut Design Week to showcase the videos, and (5) ectra prize money to make sure each winning team gets an equal share. The exchange rate between Euros and US dollars at the time of delivery was: 1 Euro = 1.12 USD
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Administrative Data Organization Name: MENA Design Research Center Program: Mideast Creatives Reporting Period: 10/04/ 2015 - 25/09/2015 Contract Reference: 1010829 Contact Person Doreen Toutikian, Co-founder & Director of MENA Design Research Center & Beirut Design Week T: +961 71 895 714 E: doreen@menadrc.org More information on the MENA Design Research Center blog: menadrc.org and menadrc.wordpress.com THANK YOU FOR READING, WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR COLLABORATION.
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