Underpinning innovation through geography 16062010
How can we improve transport in Britain GeoVation camp summary
1. NSC Insights Generation Service
‘from Problem to Pitch’
A summary of the iScout facilitated support of the GeoVation
Challenge: ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’.
March 2011
2. In this document
• What happened before the GeoVation Camp (pg 3–10)
• What happened at the Camp (pg 11–64)
• What happened after the Camp (pg 65)
• Feedback (pg 66–72)
3. What happened before the GeoVation camp
• We ran a problem ‘Pow Wow’
The goal of a problem Pow Wow is to ‘unpack’ a challenge, such as improving transport in
Britain, and discover within it, a range of valuable problems; those which if met provide value
for all parties. We spent time with people who have perspectives on transport modes,
government policy, sustainability, technology systems and much, much more.
We spent fours hours at the Transport Museum in London, discussing and capturing a whole
range of issues in response to the question ‘What are the barriers to developing transport
solutions that have a positive environmental, social and economic impact?’. At the end of the
session we had 115 ‘raw’ problems. We subsequently clustered these under five broad
themes (Modes of Transport/Human Behaviour/Economics/Infrastructure/Users’ Experience)
and distilled them into 24 new problem statements. These stated what the problem was and
why it mattered. They were used at the Camp to help the innovators really think about how
their ideas connected to issues that mattered.
In the images that follow, a sample of the 24 problems are shown. For the full set please visit:
http://www.geovation.org.uk/geovation-challenge-problem-framing-workshop/
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8. Sample from the ‘Modes of Transport’ theme
What is the problem? Why does it matter?
How do you design a better bike There are too many immediate
friendly ‘eco system’ that barriers to bikes being more
encourages mass adoption of widely used: they make you
cycling? dirty; cycle routes can be unsafe;
weather makes it unpleasant;
you are limited to what can be
carried. In London alone 23 000
bikes were reported stolen in
2010 with unreported thefts
estimated to add another 40 000
to 60 000.
9. Sample from the ‘Human Behaviour’ theme
What is the problem? Why does it matter?
How do you break entrenched It often takes a dramatic event
habits and allow people to have to jolt us out of our daily routine
an experience from which new, and adopt a new behaviour (a
more positive habits will form? strike, an accident, volcanic
ash...) but we soon slip back into
old habits. Scientific research
shows that a habit takes from
around 30–45 days to change.
10. Sample from the ‘Economics’ theme
What is the problem? Why does it matter?
How do you break the desire for Radical solutions enable better
quick returns and enable a much economic, environmental and
longer term approach to social value may take decades
investment that meets the needs and £ billions but those in power
of urban and rural communities? work in much shorter cycles (of
about five years…).
11. What happened at the GeoVation camp
• 155 ideas were submitted to the GeoVation website
• These submissions were written descriptions of the idea
• The judging panel invited a shortlist to develop them further
• 19 teams then took part in the camp itself
12. Objective:
To support a selection of
innovators to develop their ideas
for the opportunity of
investment.
13. What happened at the GeoVation camp
• We structured activities around the components of
innovation
We believe that Innovation is a product of finding the best problem, responding with an
excellent solution and then executing it in order to scale it and make it viable from a business
perspective. Our summary equation for this is I = P x S x E.
As innovators had previously submitted ideas to the GeoVation Challenge website in written
form only, we felt it important to create activities that brought those ideas to life. At the
same time, we wanted to challenge participants to ensure they really had thought about
problems and were given an opportunity to build on their ideas. Where possible, we also
wanted them to prototype aspects of their thinking in order to demonstrate to the judges a
degree of robustness.
Further information about the Challenge can be found on the GeoVation Challenge website
here. Over the following pages, there are selection of images which show in chronological
order how the Camp unfolded from the initial gathering on the Friday night, to the pitches on
Sunday afternoon.
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18. We assembled at Ordnance Survey head office on Friday
25 March 2011
39. After lunch the judges arrived and began their project tour.
While the teams began practicing their petcha kutcha pitches (each
team had six slides, each changing after 20 seconds).
59. After the pitches, Roland Harwood, the Judge Panel Chair,
said closing remarks and made thanks to all who’d come.
He advised that all participants would receive notification
of whether they would be invited to the showcase, along
with feedback from the judges, within 48 hours.
60. This duly happened, and the teams who were invited back
to the GeoVation Showcase on 4 May 2011 (for the chance
to pitch for and be awarded a slice of £150 000) were:
• Crowd-sourced cycling solutions
• @ccessAdvisR
• FixMyTransport – Anywhere!
• Carbon Voyage: Sustainable Mobility Platform
• Mission:Explore Nature using the National Cycle Network
• OurMeetingPoint
• London Cycle Map Campaign
• Personalised Travel Plans for Business (myPTP)
• My Parcel Centre (Abbey Couriers)
• Route en Route
For more information on the finalists and what happened at the
Showcase, please visit http://bit.ly/ijvzr5
62. What happened after the GeoVation camp
• Feedback sought to improve future camps
In addition the very positive informal feedback given by participants at the end of the
weekend we also followed up with a short online survey. Feedback was extremely good with
some small suggestions for improvement made. A sample is included in the appendices.
• Lessons learned for next challenges
In addition to gathering feedback from participants, the GeoVation team also reflected on
the weekend. For example this experience of both the Camp, and the Pow Wow that
preceded it, had a bearing on how we manage communications with participants in future
Challenges.
• Camp activity refinement
This was the second Camp run according the I = P x S x E formula but run at much bigger
scale (22 teams as opposed to 5 previously). To accommodate four times as many teams in
the same overall time, we changed elements of the Sunday. Judges had parallel sessions with
teams ahead of their pitches in order to keep the pitching session to schedule. Overall this
was felt to work well but we are aware that the larger number of teams brought a greater
breath of how well formed or otherwise ideas were. We want to find ways to keep this
diversity (from fledgling idea to business development) without disadvantaging anyone.
63. NSC Insights Generation Service
Online camp survey
In the two weeks following the camp, an online survey was
distributed to all participants (idea developers, idea supporters
and judges).
The following slides show some of the feedback taken from
their responses regarding various aspects.
64. NSC Insights Generation Service
On the design of the camp and the support received
‘Everyone involved in running the weekend was very helpful and
supportive. iScout were excellent facilitators.’
‘It felt like the organisers had done a great job of pulling
together all of the right ingredients (people) for the innovation
to flow.’
‘I was very grateful for the extra support from everyone, they
were great, however, asking idea developers what support they
may need could have highlighted some needs that may not
have been available.’
65. NSC Insights Generation Service
On the venue
‘Lovely place but far too far away from most people. A more central
venue would have made travelling easier and less expensive.’
‘The venue worked well, however some of the rooms were a little
uninspiring. But there was enough space and it was very
comfortable.’
‘The venue was pretty good, however, the first part (problem
exploration) could be done in a big room where all the teams could
cooperate with each other… help them to put aside their ideas for a
moment and deeply/broad understand the central problem they
were dealing with.’
66. NSC Insights Generation Service
On what was the ‘Aha!’ moment from the weekend
‘Helping the teams understand the user perspective.’
‘My Aha moment perhaps came later when I thought a low tech
version of my idea might be more successful.’
‘Saturday afternoon getting support from all of the various
expert advisers who made me realise that more of the concept
was technically feasible than I had initially realised.’
67. NSC Insights Generation Service
On how to make it better
‘It was fine - don't think much needs to be changed.’
‘To have had a room of experts to could visit, like a surgery.’
‘Make it clear exactly what the judges/competition will be
looking for… if the competition is looking to provide the some
funding for a only business venture, and it not interested in
supporting and collaborating on an academic research project,
then this should be clear.’
‘Shorten it to one day and combine with the final.’
‘Make the camp slightly longer – perhaps a third day.’
68. NSC Insights Generation Service
On advice you’d offer future participants
‘Keep your idea simple and focus on presenting a minimal viable
product, with a twist.’
‘To be absolutely clear in very simple terms what your idea
actually does. As a judge it was not always possible to
understand this from the Pecha Kucha presentations.’
‘Be open minded and go with the flow.’
‘Bank plenty of sleep before you come, bring plenty of people to
engage in the creative process, bring a stack of business cards:
you will want to contact many of the people you meet.’
69. NSC Insights Generation Service
On why you’d recommend the Camp to others
‘We found the other competitors to be very open and genuinely
helpful; there was absolutely no sense of people trying to “get one
over on each other2”, just a very collaborative and simulating
environment.’
‘It was a brilliant time, and gave me new insight into innovations
and innovators as well as improving my own skillset.’
‘I learned a lot – it was very interesting to be outside my comfort
zone and interact with such a wide range of people.’
‘I think it is of benefit for many personal development reasons
beyond just developing the idea.’
70. Thank you
For more information on any of the information contained in this document, please contact:
David Townson: david@innovationscout.co.uk 07974 741315
For more information on the GeoVation Challenge in general and this camp in particular, please go
to: http://bit.ly/mrfQBG or contact: champions@geovation.org.uk
The GeoVation Challenge is funded by:
The GeoVation transport challenge was supported by:
