 |
| Cornelius & Jaime |
“Today, we must expect to be
living this turbulence for a long time, in a double world where to realities
live together in conflict: the old ‘limitless’ world that does not acknowledge
the planet’s limits, and another that recognizes these limits and experiment
with ways of transforming them into opportunities” (Manzini, Design, When
Everybody Design, MIT Press, 2015).
During April and May, at
Tobby Vision Computers, students and institution staff participated in an
intense workshop focused on Creative Thinking applied to Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Beyond
global buzzwords and tasteless business design implementations, the core of the
program to learn how to observe local issues, analyse them by evaluating and/or
validating community assumptions, and work on them as a leading innovator, in
pursue of value–added solutions and finally facing the challenge to become
entrepreneurs by triggering new business model ideas for new or existing
socio–economical sectors.
Beyond teaching, my goal in
Cameroon as a Product Designer and a Creative Mentor was to absorb and be
inspired by the local culture and the richness of its people, share global
views through personal experiences and inspire others to act on detected pain
points, issues that affect the community, and opportunities to improve life in
all aspects.
I believe in a positive
transformation for the community, for the city, for the country. I believe
opportunities do not appear if people don’t search for t hem, I believe growth
starts from having a common vision and working together towards that end. And
for all these, I am completely sure all the fellows I have had the chance to
meet and exchange ideas with during these days, they are more than ready to
lead the way.
Action Lab is the first step
of this transformation. Action Lab is an initiative started by Tobby Vision
Computers and Jaime Garcia in order to provide tools, training, support, and
further follow–up and development of local innovators and new entrepreneurial
business ideas.
Everyone, absolutely
everyone at this moment has been an innovator, despite skillsets, education,
experience, creativity, status. What we look for with the Action Lab is to make
everyone aware of these innovations, making them become a conscious creative
act.
Jaime Garcia is an
experienced Product Designer based in Tokyo, Bogota and New York, partner of
MEANWHILE ASSOCIATES. Jaime earned his Master in Business Design in Milan,
Italy, and is currently a PhD candidate at Keio University. His research
focuses on the emotive value of design for mobile societies based on
implementations of future scenarios and the materialization of new
technologies. Jaime Garcia engages in creative mentoring and is an integral
part of multidisciplinary projects across the globe. His past clients include
major brands such as British American Tobacco, Hewlett Packard, and Sony.
