Global Jams

Connect

Meet new people in your city and connect to a global community of innovators. Come as you are, without an idea in mind.

Explore

Break free from your day-to-day and learn how to work and collaborate through productive play and fun.

Create

DOING not TALKING! Immerse yourself in a creative process and prototype a new product or service to inspire the world.

What a Jam is...

Imagine a Jam session in music. You come together, bringing your instruments, your skills, your open mind.  Someone sets up a theme, and you start to Jam around it. You don't overanalyse it, you don't discuss it to death, you Jam. You bounce your ideas off other people, and play around with what comes back. Together, you build something which none of you could have built alone. And at the same time, you are learning new ideas, discovering more about how you work and whom you best work with, sharpening your skills, and having a great time. And who knows, maybe there are one or two ideas there which might make it to the next album. Or maybe you Jammed so well, you decide to form a band...

The Global Jams work in just the same way. But it's not music you are Jamming - it's insights and ideas. You'll be working with people you might never have met before, bouncing insights and ideas off one another and building on what bounces back. And it's not just talking - you are here to build a functioning prototype and plan of action which you or somebody else might want to develop further. Can you prototype and plan in a way that someone could push the process of exploration further, knowing what resources they would need, what they should do, and who they should talk to?  That's the challenge of the Jam.

What a Jam isn't...

• We love conferences. But a Jam isn't one of those. You are not here to lecture, or to listen, or just talk (though some local Jams might include some theory input). You are here to work together, to prototype and build something which already on the way to becoming real.
• We love networking groups and "design drinks". But a Jam isn't one of those. You're not here to show off your skills, to chat about what's happening in your field (although those things might happen). You'll be making contacts and sharing knowledge in the best possible way - by actually working through ideas, plans and building together.
• We love discussion groups, barcamps and unconferences. But a Jam isn't one of those. Although the Jam might be free form, there is a clear goal for the weekend - functioning prototypes which have the potential to become real, and which will be published to the world at the end of the weekend.
• We love start-up events. But a Jam isn't one of those. A Jam is at the beginning of an innovation cycle, and you will working with strangers. You might not want to start a business with them on Monday morning, your prototype might not even be viable yet - but that's OK! A thriving start-up is a possible outcome of a Jam, but it's certainly not the goal. Put another way, a musician does not go to a Jam to record an album - that's what a studio is for.

What happens in those 48 hours?

• Day 1: Form a team: Meet your local innovators, form teams, and pick a starting point inspired by a secret global theme.
• Day 2: Build prototypes: Go out into the real world to discover insights and use them to start building something new.
• Day 3: Iterate and share: Collaborate with your team to improve your prototype and share it with people in your community and the world.