“What is the Impact Studio?” Info Sessions
Are you an entrepreneur or nonprofit executive looking to have a greater social impact in Vermont and New Hampshire? Have you seen our marketing of the Impact Studio workshop series, but aren’t quite sure what it is? If you are intrigued, you’re probably exactly who we’re looking for! Join us for a free 1-hour webinar to learn what the Impact Studio workshop series is and how it can help you have a greater impact as a social entrepreneur. By the end of our 1-hour introduction, not only will all of your questions about our 2-day studio be answered, you will also walk away with new ideas for your social impact venture.
Daniel offering two 1-hour intro sessions. The info session content will be identical and available only on Zoom. Please register for the info session that works best for your schedule:
Instructor: Daniel Hewett is the founder of cumuluslab.org, a strategic design studio in Providence, RI. As an architect, design strategist, and professor, he has co-founded the Center for Complexity at the Rhode Island School of Design and developed strategic design studios to expand the creative decision-making capacity of government, commercial, and institutional partners, including LEGO, Nike, Cessna, USAid, The World Economic Forum, Samsung, Johnson & Johnson, and Goldman Sachs’ 10K Small Businesses.
Transforming the Social Entrepreneur’s Innovation Toolkit
- Capacity: 20 Students
- Location: The Space On Main, 174 Main Street, Bradford, VT
- Beneficiaries: Founders, innovation leads, design leads, students, program directors, design/business faculty, etc.
- Sectors: Social Impact Entrepreneurs, Government, Institutions, and NGO’s
- Format: 2-Part Project-based Studio
- Dates: Studio Sessions 9:00am-4:00pm, 3/25/23 & 4/22/23
- Themes: Cognitive Humility, The Myth of Invention, Systems Literacy, Seeing What Others Don’t, Value Creation in Complex Ecologies
- Questions: Monique Priestley, Executive Director, The Space On Main thespaceonmain@gmail.com
Social-impact entrepreneurs use the levers of a market economy to transform complex societal challenges. To keep pace with evolving markets and cultures, they must also continually respond with relevant new products, services, and approaches. Too often, the brushfires of the moment leave little time for developing community-sourced creative insight and innovation that nourish resilience, relevance, and impact.
This intensive program is a hands-on introduction to the process of Creative Contextual Innovation that accesses the vast reservoir of untapped systemic insight hidden in complex cultures, communities, and environments. Organized as a two-part studio, it is designed for those already working as founders, leaders, and innovators in Vermont and New Hampshire social-impact organizations. No previous design experience is required.
Day 1 Studio (3/25) The studio starts with a day-long introduction to principles and practices of Contextual Discovery. In an engaging format, participants move through a series of immersive design exercises that transform their relationship to problems, solutions, and the usual sources of innovation. The day culminates with the design of individual projects focused on redefining the problems and opportunities driving our business’s current business innovation process.
4-Week Project Period Participants will have approximately one month to work on these projects, during which individual 1:1 Zoom meetings will be available to those seeking support for their work.
Day 2 Studio (4/22) The cohort will review, enrich, and convert the portfolio of contextual insight into actionable design propositions for new products, services, and processes.
cumuluslab has generously discounted the fee for the studio to support the region’s social-impact community. Participants are asked to contribute $150, with all proceeds to support Maker Lab programming at The Space on Main. If you need assistance with program cost, please select, “I need assistance” and we’ll figure it out with you. We do not want cost to be a barrier for folks.
Studio Lead: Daniel Hewett is the founder of cumuluslab.org, a strategic design studio in Providence, RI. As an architect, design strategist, and professor, he has co-founded the Center for Complexity at the Rhode Island School of Design and developed strategic design studios to expand the creative decision-making capacity of government, commercial, and institutional partners, including LEGO, Nike, Cessna, USAid, The World Economic Forum, Samsung, Johnson & Johnson, and Goldman Sachs’ 10K Small Businesses.