Palomar5 from the inside - Week #1
This blog post is part 1 of the Sandbox Network ‘Palomar 5′ series: a six week innovation campaign in Berlin from October - November 2009. To follow the progress of the conference, you can view the official Palomar 5 blog. Alternatively, if you are on twitter, follow hashtag #p5 for real-time updates. You can also check out one of our camp member’s daily video blog on Youtube.
We can’t believe 10 days have passed so quickly. Time has been anything but a standstill. Putting 30 inspiring young people from all over the world into one space and interacting with each other around the clock has been an amazing experience for all of us. It’s an incredible group of people and we look forward to introducing many of the members into the Sandbox community.
The Palomar5 experience began with a warm welcome to a chilly Berlin at the Malzfabrik, a former giant brewery that is being transformed into a creative hub. However, we are its first full-time inhabitants. The indoctrination began when we donned identical blue jumpsuits which were worn for the duration of the first weekend while we consolidated our collective consciousness. However, we were able to keep slivers of our individuality by deciding the placement of the logo–which cleverly represents both the 5 and “lo” of “Palomar5″. We then, with the help of the talented artist Ernesto, personalized the doors to our “sleeping boxes” with branding irons, spray paint, masking tape, pens and paintbrushes; a great initiation task that encouraged introductions and fun conversations.
Meanwhile, a secretive clan clung to the fringes of the factory building opposite ours, whom we would soon discover to be the crew of a Rihanna photoshoot. Yes, our building is a magnet for talent, expressed by us through the power of realized ideas but by others through scant, leggy outfits, elaborate eye makeup and fleshy vocal chords. We rejoiced in our (almost) unanimous indifference to the starlights of a starstruck generation.
The first week was chock full of amazing experts who gave us input on our 6 major themes: Collaborative Value Creation, Intellectual Property, Management of Skills and Knowledge, Next Generation of Identity, and Leadership. Our creations will be more down to earth than these abstract themes. But they served as a diving point to address the future of work: how it will look, how it will operate, and how we will drive it.
While the expert sessions were intriguing, our favorite part of the camp has almost unanimously been the iconic hallway conversations and midnight dorm room sleeping box chats. In in our “free time” in between these expert input sessions the playful brainstorming that is so vital for the creative process, took place, often late into the night.
We heard presentations from a mix of artists, designers, strategy consultants and large corporations including Deutsche Telekom (P5’s main sponsor), BMW, Portal 2 Your Dreams, Knowmads, frog Design, Jerzsey Seymour, and Hypios. As we enter week 2, leaving Topic Input behind us we confront the next chapter of our journey: The Prototyping Phase, ready to cake our hands in mud, beginning the messy process of translating our ideas into action.
In our first week we ventured into central Berlin twice. The inaugural Sunday, we were invited for a private tour at one of the city’s avant garde art galleries housed in a restored bunker from the WWII–Bunker Berlin, Boros collection, have also a look at this link. We then caught the sights and sounds of the city on a boat ride down the river Spree, finishing our day with excellent pizza at a famous cult-like restaurant run by punks.
While some soaked up the city on our trip, Max, upon returning home realized his memories of the city were sparse as he spent most of the time in the inner caverns of his mind plotting world domination with his fellow campers. It’s a gift and a curse.
Being a large group, at times we are a public embarrassment - we clap far too often, repeatedly sing happy birthday in public–it being the only song we all know the words to combined with the knowledge that our chances of making someone’s day are fairly high— and we probably present ourselves to locals as a large group of annoying American tourists. *Fade lights. Spotlight on* But after their embarrassment melts we know we’ve left them with a gift: a break in their routine to expose the hidden assumptions that chain these transit-goers to their habits and thus their lives, precisely the same affliction that shields oversized companies from realising the ways of working in the future. Have no fear, their eyes will soon be pried open— and if not, they will awaken from their decadent slumber to find that the next generation holds the reins to the world they once held in the palm of their hand. *Spotlight off*
As a final note, we would like to thank the team at Sandbox Network for introducing us to Palomar 5. Three out of the four authors of this post are here because Sandbox promoted Palomar5. In many ways, this highlights the tremendous opportunities that come from organizing communities of young creative people who aspire to make an impact in the world.
Much more to come from both Palomar5 and the Sandbox Network.
Humbly written by Max, Sagarika, Jyoti, & Eddie
As a testament to our great collaborative abilities, this post was created by all four of us in real time with Etherpad, a next generation collaborative editing tool that allowed us all to seamlessly create this document in harmony. This is actually not an advertisment, we were all just happily surprised by our ability to use a web 2.0 tool to be more productive ;-)
On the 20. October 2009 at 18:35 o'Clock
[...] Sagarika, Jyoti and Eddie wrote a post about our first week at Palomar5. Read the full post here. A few favorite quotes posted [...]
On the 21. October 2009 at 00:45 o'Clock
Intrigued… Looking forward to reading what comes next!
On the 27. October 2009 at 14:39 o'Clock
Portal To Your Dreams and Knowmads than you for the mention, we had a great time with you guys and look forward to coming back for one of the Reality Checks!
Kwela
On the 15. November 2009 at 18:22 o'Clock
[...] This blog post is part 2 of the Sandbox Network ‘Palomar 5′ series: a six week innovation camp in Berlin from 9 October – 24 November 2009. To follow the progress of the conference, you can view the official Palomar 5 blog. Alternatively, if you are on twitter, follow hashtag #p5 for real-time updates. You can also check out one of our camp member’s daily video blog on Youtube. (Part 1 is here) [...]
On the 8. January 2010 at 20:05 o'Clock
[...] big decision. Fortunately I made the right one. I wrote two comprehensive blog posts about the camp here and [...]
On the 11. January 2010 at 10:43 o'Clock
[...] the end of week 1 – http://www.sandbox-network.com/uncategorized/palomar5-from-the-inside-week-1/ At the end of week 4 — [...]