A slightly delayed update from our Arcade meetup from almost two weeks ago now.

The Earth Lab is intended to be interactive and game like so it was fitting to have a meetup with some games. Not everybody wants to sit round a table and talk so it's nice to have different environments to bring people together for the project and it may be that we bring elements of the Earth Lab to the Arcade so it's good to see the space. In the end though we did largely end up sitting round a table talking (and eating).

I’m always open to suggestions for meetups/places/formats if anybody has ideas of how we make it as inclusive as possible.

We mainly talked about materials for the project. I showed a sample of the aluminium laminate offcuts which James picked up from the sign makers. We all agreed they could be useful for the project (which is good as we have a fair amount of it).

The project has now essentially split into two stages, the first being to fit out the container and the second is to produce the projects that will form the laboratory. We have to remember the Lab is not a big space and I'm conscious that we have to have the infrastructure for the project - the power, communication etc. to embed in the container.

We discussed making the interior space of the container as flexible as possible, perhaps with movable partitions for example, perhaps on rails or by creating slots that they can be swapped in and out of.

Collaboration rather than Competition

We talked about having a competition for school projects to be included in the Earth Lab (similar to the Science fair).

I really want this project to be about collaboration rather than competition though and I had been thinking about the startup weekends that were held in Nelson a few years back. On a Friday you would pitch a project idea and try to form a group around that idea. Quite often though you might abandon your own idea to support another project that you think is worthwhile. Over two very intensive days with the help of various mentors you would try to develop the idea and turn it into a potential new company. While each group was competing for potential funding, the format very much produced a collaborative environment where the focus was on learning new skills and forming connections with each other.

I think this could be a really good format to develop projects for the Earth Lab. We would hold an event where people could pitch ideas and then all attendees would be encouraged to form groups around which projects they liked the best or which would have the best environmental/social impact. With the help of various experts those projects would be developed and then become part of the Earth Lab.

It could be one event or we could hold a separate event for schools and another for everybody else.

If we develop this idea then we need to start thinking about where and when this event (or these events) would be, who would be the mentors etc.