I was on a quick visit to Lisbon this past weekend to coordinate things in preparation for our Global Summit. Outside of my hectic agenda, I spent some time exploring Lisbon and the city really showed itself from its best side (15 degrees centigrade one week before christmas holidays is breathtaking for a swede). The sunset above, at Praça do Comércio, was just one of the amazing experiences.

As you can see, getting from the Summit venue, the Museum of Fashion and Design, to the Praça do Comércio, is as quick as eating a piece of bacalhau. Just turn left, pass under the arch and you step right up to the majestic statue of José I.

Bairro Alto is apparently the place to go at night. Locals gather in heaps on the “Pink Street”, a tiny side road that is brightly painted and lined with bars on both sides. Among those the Sol e Pesca, Sun and Fishing, which is a sport fishing shop converted into a bar. It’s easy to get hooked!

Despite the hilly topography, trams are everywhere in Lisbon. It’s a fantastic way to get around, because you see the city at exactly the right pace. On some backstreets, you are swept away by the fresh smell of laundry hanging out to dry in the crisp evening air.

But Sandboxers are not gathering in Lisbon to do the usual tourist stuff. We are bringing members and guests together for an intense weekend of bonding and peer-to-peer acceleration. The place where this happens is our 72 hour lobby, lounge and workshop in the former bank office on the third floor of MUDE. Our design team is working on transforming this raw space into the ultimate urban playground for changemakers. Needless to say, we are extremely excited to unleash the most exceptional people we know in this space. See you in the Lisbox!

Bonus:

While in Lisbon, I ran into Sandboxer Sebastian Lindstrom of What Took You So Long who was in Portugal to check out the vibe and the surf before his winter skiing break. He brought his video camera to MUDE and put together this intense video of the event space. Embrace the chaos!

Every day, we search the web for impactful content, projects and ideas by Sandboxers. Once a week, we choose the most inspiring, funny or brilliant piece and repost it here on our blog.

This week Dmitry Golubnichy presents a map of Riga that he has designed, produced and distributed. Check out the project here and get the latest updates from Dmitry on Facebook.

Dmitry created the map as a gift to the city of Riga on its 810th birthday. But the map is not only a gift to the city, but also to visitors since it is provided for free. In addition, the map also entitles users to reduced prices at some of the major tourist attractions.

It is the first freely distributed ad-free tourist map of Riga, available as a pdf file, Android app or physical print booklet. Dmitry has organized distribution at major tourist information points and hotels. The map is already printed in 50,000 copies. The simple and effective audioguide solution is that each of the 25 sights has a dedicated phone number that you can call to hear the information.

Here are some impressions of the map:

Meet Sandboxer Supriya Sehgal! Supriya describes herself as someone who loves getting lost in faraway travels. A travel writer & photographer, Supriya is a freelancer that worked for Loney Planet and several other publications, she also runs her own travel agency in Bangalore.  Find Supriya on Facebook and Twitter.

1.Tell us the story of your latest project / occupation.

I am part of an alternative travel company called Getoffurass, based out of India. I lead a business called Photography Onthemove, which is SLR workshops in the backdrop of off-beat destinations and festivals. My work allows me to travel and explore parts of my country that many people who not venture into, and writing is a natural extension. I am often published in publications like Lonely Planet, Times of India Group, DNA, Hindustan Times and many other Indian and International journals. As part of my personal project, I am trying my hand at writing scripts and want to undertake something that is close to my heart, alternative travel shows!

2. What are you doing and how did you get there?

A complete misfit at apparel merchandising, I worked 5 years with companies like Gap and Nike till I started wandering as a single female traveler within the country.  I started with travels over the weekend till I realized I needed more time to explore places my way and really get into the skin of destinations I visited.  Over the years, I met people who shared similar sensibilities about travel and then there was no looking back!

3. Tell us about the biggest successes and failures in your life. What worked, what didn’t, and what did you learn?

The biggest success would have to be finding my space in the alternative travel world.  There is a measured inclusion of single female travelers in the country (which is fast changing). Carving out a niche for myself and the business that I handle is definitely a success for me. What I learnt was that I should have shed the inhibitions of doing something like this LONG back. It’s not been a breeze but surely exciting and that is immeasurable in many ways.

I played basketball at the state level from a very young age. Not having to pursue sports after college, due a knee injury, is definitely one of the regrets. I could have worked harder to be back in shape to play competitive sports but did not. This certainly has to be one of the failures in my life! This does not go with my personality and I was disappointed with myself. Since I haven’t gotten back to exercising to heal, I haven’t put any learning into practice.

4. What do you want to achieve in

a) the next week: My 1^st script ready and approved for a short film on Breast Cancer.

b) the next year: Start writing a book!

c) the next 10 years: Start my own socially inclined venture around travel. Haven’t chalked out a plan yet!

5. What was your most inspiring moment during the last two weeks?

Saw a great film with some simple yet innovative and extremely discreet camera work! Subtly to me is hugely inspiring in the creative world and I can soak in any amount of it! This film was a BIG nudge to get going on my future plans with script writing in a similar effective manner.

7. How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support you and why would that be exciting for them.

Connecting to create a more global space for India as an alternative travel destination would be extremely helpful to me.  It already has a vast majority and variety of people travelling, but only to the regular destinations. It would be exciting for others to chip in as this sector knows no boundaries for creative ideas!

7. Supriya’s favorite:

-book: “Falling Off The Map” – Pico Iyer
-movie: “Amelie, Reality Bites” (though it strikes one as pseudo intellectual at times, I thought it was fun and relatable while I was growing up).
-place on earth: One of the highest villages in the world, Langza ( India)
-travel destination during last year: Nagaland (Eastern edge of India)
-food: Unfortunately, I’m not much a foodie. Pork gets me going!
-drink: Has to be the famous Old Monk black rum!
-quote: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

3. Tell us about the biggest successes and failures in your life. What worked, what didn’t, and what did you learn?

Biggest success so far has been the first very important decision to leave Shanghai and come to the UK 9 years ago. I can’t start to imagine what I would have missed out if I didn’t do it. I learned to take some risk in life and learned to be observant, and selectively adaptive. Along the way, of course many things didn’t work out, be it academic, personal, professional experiences, what is important is that things always happened for the best -  what didn’t work always becomes the biggest reason for a change, and changes (in my case) led to much better results.

4. What do you want to achieve in a) the next week, b) the next year, c) the next 10 years?

a)     finalise a SoluxTravel’s client project of a Dubai trip (combining desert, beach and perhaps art fair)

b)     SoluxTravel to have 5 new family (clients) and try enter the Chinese market; speak better French and German.

c)     I cannot plan that far but in 10 years I will have travelled most places in the world and will definitely have a driving licence and hopefully speak 2 more languages!

5. What was your most inspiring moment during the last two weeks?

In my French drama class we did an exercise on people and stereotypes – very interesting to see different people’s view and how prejudice is embedded in our society.

6. How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support you and why would that be exciting for them.

I see support and contribution as an inseparable pair. Two virtuous circles come to mind:

a)     Sandboxers in business looks for opportunities and advices on finance/strategy etc and I try help them with my banking skills, in the process I myself learn about interesting business, make great friends, and make an fun project for all parties involved

b)     After a solid piece of hard work, Sandboxers deservingly look for a truly amazing holiday to be pampered, and this time SoluxTravel will help them, I find it extremely rewarding to present people with unique experiences in the world and create a special piece of memory, and in the meantime I get inspired by their views and comments on how Solux could improve itself.

I believe in both cases both fellow Sandboxers and I will find it equally exciting.

Sophie’s favourites:

-book: Paulo Coelho

-movie: Cinema Paradiso,  all movies with Paris in it, The Shawshank redemption…

-place on earth: Place that I haven’t been yet

-travel destination during last year: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Lech in Austria (Ski), Shanghai, Egypt (Cairo, Cruise on the Nile, Aswan, Luxor), Sardinia, Sylt (German Island), Mustique Island, St Vincent and Grenadines, New York (Jackson Hole) and smaller weekend trips throughout the year: Paris, Barcelona, Belgium, Munich, Berlin, Switzerland, Cannes, Hamburg, Milan

-food: I have a food blog (www.attention-to-details.net) for places I have been to and worth noting. General interest of Michelin starred places. Cuisine-wise I like pan-Asian, Italian and French

-drink: Not a big drinker but do prefer “pure”  type of drinks to cocktail.

Malin Berdette, 28, describes herself as a “global dreamer, traveling the world turning my visions into reality”. She is originally from Sweden but currently traveling the world for 610 days for her project “Win Win World Tour“. Her goal is to raise enough money to spend $100 000 per month to projects empowering millions of people worldwide starting from Dec. 31st 2010. Malin on facebook and twitter.

Tell us the story of your latest project / occupation.

I felt a strong desire to make a difference so I packed a suitcase, gave away all of my belongings and the 1st of May 2009 I got going. Now I’m on a 610 day journey called the Win Win World Tour, with the following goal: “From Dec 31st 2010 I’m giving $100 000 per month to projects empowering millions of people worldwide.” Up until now, Day 290, I’ve visited Sweden, USA, Mexico, Canada, Ireland and Australia. I’ve met hundreds and hundreds of people, been in conversations about change and empowerment, connected people & projects worldwide; I have laughed, cried, succeeded, given up and gotten back on track again.

What are you doing and how did you get there?

I’m starting a foundation called The Conscious Capitalist™ uniting people worldwide with a mission to create financial freedom for empowering projects. The aim of the foundation The Conscious Capitalist™ is to fund, build and educate other self-generating projects and foundations, combining the most efficient and sustainable processes from non-profits and corporations. Basically it comes down to releasing unnecessary friction, by training visionary and brilliant minds around the world into highly efficient change makers, and providing a financial platform allowing them to immediately create the changes that benefit us all. How I got to where I am is well summed up in a quote that I once got from a precious persons mom: “If you wish to know where you’re going, ask the ones you meet”. I engage in dialogues with the people I bump into, no matter if it’s the newly released ex-prisoner, or if it’s the business man who’ve made and lost $55 million over the last years. It’s during those conversations that my vision becomes clearer and I find my next step. I’m also fully following my hunches and inspirations.

Tell us about the biggest successes and failures in your life. What worked, what didn’t, and what did you learn?

My biggest successes are two major team efforts. First I was part of a team of 150 leaders who created more than $80k in cash and $20k in building material and other supplies during 5 hours in San Diego, followed by building 5 houses, 8 latrines, and 14 concrete slabs during another 5 hours in Mexico. Handing over the keys to the new house owners, who used to live in shacks, was truly heartwarming.
Next I was awarded one of the most influential team members and informal leaders when we as a team of 70 leaders set new records by completing 138 of 140 goals in 10 weeks, creating a monetary value of over $4 million, and creating numerous other results. That’s when I truly realized my ability to create energy and build momentum towards a united vision on an international level.
My biggest failures are the situations where I’ve pushed myself too hard on my own. For example I combined studying, working, being active in politics and all with a trying-hard-on-my-own mentality. My body ended up screaming NO, which lead to a year of recovery (that led me to the gift of self-discovery, reflection, insights and a valuable lesson). The key failure here was my trying-hard-on-my-own mentality. I’m achieving much more now, and yet I’m having way more fun.

What didn’t work: trying to achieve better results by working harder, especially hiding away on my own, in combination with trying to live up to my own assumptions regarding others’ unspoken expectations.

What did work: setting a clear intention for myself, sharing mutual expectations with the ones I’m interacting with, following my inner guidance, being in motion, sharing my dreams and visions with those around me, taking one step after the other, asking for feedback, being fluent and open to the present moment.

What I’ve learned: I’ve noticed that everything is as easy as I allow it to be. There’s always a smooth solution. Mostly it’s just a matter of changing perspectives.

Also: Unspoken expectations can only be met by change. Shared expectations are met by choice.

What do you want to achieve in the next week, the next year, the next 10 years?

Within the next week: I’ve chosen the selected few to whom I’ll give unique access to my diaries and notes. Together we’ll go through the raw material, finding the good stuff for a book about what’s going on in the mind of a global dreamer, intending to change the world.

Within the next year: The foundation The Conscious Capitalist™ is alive and kicking, with a base of $10 million, giving $100k per month to projects empowering millions of people worldwide.

Within the next 10 years: I am grateful to be part of the Young Global Leaders Community, selected by World Economic Forum and their Selection Committee. Our powerful team is collectively shaping the future, by taking committed action on multiple levels towards a sustainable world.

What was your most inspiring moment during the last two weeks?

I’ve welcomed onboard John Laine, who mentors me through strategies, organization, business plan etc. I’ve also invited and welcomed Aron Solomon, Think Global School, to my board of directors. Above that I’m happy to be part of the new Higher Life coaching team.

How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support you and why would that be exciting for them?

My goal is to raise $10 million on or before the 31st of October 2010. According to my financial planning a base like that generates $100k per month, during the upcoming 30 years, directly towards the mission: financial freedom for empowering projects. In our world we do have the time, money, energy, knowledge, wisdom and all other resources required to make any changes we wish to do, right here and right now. It’s just a matter of connecting the right people with the right resources, together with implementing and allowing efficient processes, turning visions into reality. That’s where The Conscious Capitalist™ comes into the picture.

Appreciated support
1. connect me with potential members for my board of directors.
2. share your ideas and suggestions regarding setting up a truly sustainable self generating financial model for the foundation.
3. brainstorm possibilities about how to reach the goal.

The exciting part is that the faster this baby gets off the ground, the faster we’ll start setting empowering projects financially free. Maybe your project could benefit from that?

Malins favourites:

Book- “The 4-hour workweek” by Tim Ferris
Drink- Water
Quote- “Slow down to a pace that assures completion.”

A lot of traveling happening in the Sandbox team right now. Antoine just came from Singapore where we hosted an event with the Minister of Entrepreneurship (huge thanks to Sandboxer Andi Brenner for the amazing organization!), and our team will be at Digital, Life, Design Conference in Munich and at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.

Please drop us a line if you’ll be in Munich or Davos, we’ll be hosting a Sandbox dinner in both cities. Sandbox member Suhas Gopinath will be speaking at DLD and is a Young Global Leader of the WEF.  Marc Bernegger,  Co-Founder of Amiando (Europe’s leading event organization platform) was selected as a “Technology Pioneer 2010” by the World Economic Forum as the only company from Germany.

I just arrived back from a mind-blowing week in Berlin at Palomar 5. I have known Mathias and Hans for quite some time now and Sandbox wouldn’t be what it is today without their inputs and contributions on the way.

I wanted to thank everyone at P5 for the amazing days and write down a few thoughts, learnings and ideas from the last 5 days in Berlin. There is much more that would deserve to be told, like stories about mexican-human-mini-golf courses at 4 am, midnight Omelette cooking with Saga or Eddie’s theory of focus vs. broadness on a napkin. Please post your personal stories / ideas / comments below, I would love to hear what you guys thought.

From the presented projects on the overall theme “the future of work”, there were a few things that I had expected: telco-, new technology and large data projects (check this blog post for details). The Data DJ project addresses visualization of data and has huge potential in my opinion! However, there were a few things that inspired me more and that you usually don’t get at conferences: the “human” stuff, the stuff that really matters in my opinion.

“Emotional innovation” is the keyword that stuck with me. Maryanna and Axelle presented a project called Love Lab where they pointed out a true issue: corporate cultures that desperately need innovation and have gigantic potential to improve. While we keep improving the technical solutions and efficiency within corporates it seems to me that many larger companies have grown into de-humanized monsters. Nobody really wants to work there. But they pay well. And it’s just what you’re supposed to do if you want to have a career. However, many people feel that the underlying value system is wrong. Internal politics, hierarchical thinking, fear of change and enormous work hours are just a few aspects of it. In my opinion, this is one of the hottest topics in the next couple of years and will become a true differentiator of companies. The war for talent is on and as soon as the economy picks up it will intensify again. Companies need to create positive, value driven, human environments, where people actually like to work. And it will pay off. People will prefer to work there, they will create better results and customers will be more likely to buy there. That’s at least my opinion. Positive examples for innovative corporate cultures can be found with Zappos (check out blog post about their corporate culture), Holstee (check out their manifesto), and of course Google. Check the website of the Love Lab.

De-Connect: this point is kind of connected to the last point. Life has become more and more complex in the last century, speed has picked up and thanks to technology we have constant access to knowledge, communication, entertainment … and work. Several projects at P5 implicitly talked about de-connecting and “the egg” talked about it specifically; their idea is to build a big Egg in which people can find peace of mind, meditate and just relax. I believe this corresponds to a large need of people to find a positive balance again, a balance between work, life, relationships, communication, technology, nature and personal development.

Random ideas / thoughts that came up regarding “the future of work” during the camp:

1) Sponsor startups / office space for startups: One project called “Startups for Startups” is going to provide tools and mentors to young startups, to help them to become successful. I really like their project and will try to support them with Sandbox. During the dinner I thought: what about if companies would sponsor startups (vs. invest in them), for example by providing office space / internet access / a structured environment / access to experts. In my opinion, the structured environment of a company can be great for a young team that is just about to get started. For me, an office makes a huge difference to structure work at the beginning. It gives you the feeling that you’re really taking it seriously, it allows you to hire intern early on, etc. And the corporate would in turn get a positive young spirit into their offices. I’m aware that there are manly legal and security issues to be overcome, however it can be done. With our startup Holstee we were lucky enough to have Arnold provide us with free office space … at Fifth Avenue in New York City (probably some of the most expensive space possible . We give them feedback and fresh ideas in return.

2) We fail to fail: I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time and it became more obvious to me at the camp in various similar discussions I had with different people. In short, I believe that all of the people at the camp represent our very fortunate young generation of the middle / upper class (mainly western world with exceptions) that in my opinion, whatever they will do in their lives, can’t fail and therefore have a responsibility (not just possibility) to do what they’re passionate about and to have positive impact. I honestly believe that with the education, upbringing and tools that we have, it will be hard to completely fail. Very very few of us will ever be in the situation where they can’t afford food, shelter, even a normal lifestyle. In other words, there is no reason for people to take jobs just for monetary reasons. The only way of failing is, as Saga put it, being mediocre. Let me know what you think, I’m aware that there is a huge personal, ethnocentric bias on that

3) Some ideas how we can leverage social media to create positive impact were posted here already.

What might help the Palomarsters to realize all their ideas:

The guys at Palomar had lots and lots of great ideas. But now comes the most interesting part: making them happen. Here a few thoughts that might help them:

• Create feasible milestones and get a source of pain: most projects have milestones how to move forward. However, from personal experience I would recommend to make them as measurable as possible (not “talk to partners” but rather “having talked to 3 partners”) and set them in such a way that they are really realistic to achieve. Furthermore I would recommend to introduce a source of pain. A process that kicks in if you don’t live up to the goals that you set now. Everyone is very very motivated at this point, but as people go back to “their normal lives”, it seems important that the projects stay high up on the priority list. I think it helps to have someone yell at you if you don’t do what you expected yourself to do. Sources of pain could be: advisory board (see below), someone else at P5, a contract that everyone signs and where you commit to pay 50$ every time you miss a deadline, booking plane tickets to meet.
• Make meetings impossible to postpone. I believe a great source of motivation comes from meeting / speaking on a regular basis. As most teams are split across the globe, they will speak regularly to move their projects forward. However, I have experienced that if people start postponing meetings (“I have so much stuff going on at work, can we do it some point tomorrow?”), the regularity disappears and the motivation goes down as many postponed meetings never happen or happen to late etc. I suggest: make meetings impossible to reschedule and put a fine of 50$ when someone does (and put the money into flight tickets to meet in person
• Build an advisory board: these are great ideas by great young people. I’m convinced that you can find very experienced senior people who would love to support it. I believe that every young project can greatly profit from having senior supporters, for more credibility, more pressure, more contacts, more motivation, more everything Let me know if you want intros.
• Use the Sandbox Network At Sandbox we want to help you guys make your ideas reality. Use our network and let us introduce you to extraordinary people across the globe who make stuff happen. Plus Sandbox allows you to stay in an inspiring environment even outside of P5 and hangout with like-minded people who want to make things happen.

Once again, many thanks to all the P5 people, first of all Hans and Mathias, for the amazing days and till soon.

More photos can be found on the Sandbox page on Facebook.

Following the start of our Community Month, we had quite some thoughts in the last days about how value is created for the Sandbox community. We came to the following figure that summarizes the three key areas we identified:

1. Local value
- Meet fellow members in real life at Sandbox Dinners
- Be invited to exciting local events and conferences
- Meet high profile senior people

2. Travel value
- Meet Sanbox Ambassadors in every of our hubs, who will introduce you to the local members
- Find a couch to sleep on when on the road

3. Global value
- Meet people globally
- Get access to a range of services (jobs, speaking engagements, access to investors for your projects)
- Find partners for your projects
- Exchange ideas

What do you think of this way of presenting value-added to members? Can you imagine a better visualization? What did we forget?

On my recent trip to San Francisco I spent time in Stanford (Sandbox paradise?), meeting up with friends and Alvin from BASE and ASES, two impressive entrepreneurs societies.

At one of the evenings we organized in good old Sandbox tradition a dinner with local people from the network. What started out as a spontaneous gathering organized just 2 days before had turned out to be an extremley inspring evening with great people.

Anjan Sundaram told us about the latest developments of this first book which he’s writing about his time as journalist in the Congo. Here are some examples of his writing from the Congo, I can’t wait to see the book in final form.

Susan Su, the blogger behind Ask-Entrepreneur joined us and I’m happy to hear that she has joined the guilde of the entrepreneurs in the meantime as well, GOOD LUCK SUSAN, IT’S THE RIGHT DECISION!

Christian Shelton, founder of the Young Politicians of America told us more about his new startup (still in stealth mode but hopefully we can publish soon more about it here…), James Rohrbach, founder of GulliverGo about the pains of finding good developers and Thianh Lu, cofounder of Holstee about the newest trends in sustainable fashion. Uffffff, what a GREAT EVENING!

There are so many great people in San Francisco, I hope I’ll be back soon. Many thanks to Anjan for picking the delicious Middle Eastern restaurant and to Thianh from Holstee for the wonderful hospitality!