Work Hackathon event is an interdisciplinary approach to come up with ideas and to design radical alternatives on current problems considering the way we work and live. Therefore, hacking can be seen as a tool to deal with challenges and solve them by optimizing existing conditions. It has become clear that new concepts can´t provide universal answers for every problem, but rather have to react on a contemporary state, to deconstruct processes, disrupt and transform the status quo. Hacking is no longer just a way to intervene in the digital space, but to redefine collaborative processes, objects, rooms, buildings, software tools and new civic ideas.

The tomorrow’s most successful companies are driven by curiosity and creativity. It´s the turn for everything from how we learn, to how we work where we live by leading to a shift away from efficiency, doing the same thing over and over, only a little bit better. Curiosity is the fuel leading to some of the most innovative and game-changing ideas and products of the time. We are live in a phase where individual talent, creativity and continuous innovation are essential. We should be thinking in terms of ‘return on inspiration and create a new driver for the economy. Disruptive changes to business models will have a profound impact on the workplace landscape over the coming years. The will to innovate requires communicate, experience and transparency in further space patterns. Creative innovation needs agility and performance of both product and space. The blueprint of this spaces are typologies like labs, co-working spaces, speed factories and shared workshops and the digital twin in the virtual world. In fast moving markets established corporations are challenged by dynamic newcomers and startups. They need to change the way they make create, collaborate and make decisions. The goal is to empower the employees more and more, that hey we’ll be able to accelerate the speed at which they do business.”

By 2029 innovation will be the new normal. We will not think about scaling a product, or service, we will just prototype and implement, apply, or sell it. Innovation will be democratized and freed, as Eric von Hippel says, and no longer driven by market shares and competitive advantages. User themselves will hack, adapt and change existing solutions, according their needs, requirements and for the social good. What does that mean for us? Stress, of course, uncertainty, for sure, the risk to fail, absolutely. But it also means opportunity, it means optimism, and freedom to create better futures, and better services. It means empathy for every single project we are going to undertake. Products will vanish to n=1. And we can’t do it alone. We will need other perspectives to tackle complexities and reduce the uncertainties. We will need technology to interact, to communicate, to model, test, iterate and handle the risk. We will act and research in studio environments, lab areas, virtual and augmented spaces to socialize, foster our creativity and transform the stress. Boundaries between disciplines will blur, and disciplines will be arranged around fields of interest. Headquarters will disappear, along with the distinction between university, office or cultural institutions. Our office will be our university will be our stage. By 2029 we will play at work, while all repetitive tasks and commodities will be executed and supplied automatically. Artificial intelligence will do accounting, customization, production and maintenance, and you will be finally deliberated from an industrial mindset of optimization, efficiency and scalability. You will be lost, or not.

You are encouraged to be innovative beyond your area of expertise and create the unexpected by setting up this open minded and public spaces,  far from their existing education building, workplace strategy and work styles. The NEXT ECONOMY space of the 21st century are highly flexible and optimized environments where the entire community of rebels, leaders, makers, hackers and developers thrive, that will adapt and scale quickly, that are orchestrated and designed to spawn the products and services of tomorrow. They invite to discover something new by a breakout of an ordinary workday and promise untold opportunities. The stage is yours: Imagine it, design it, re-define organizations and their purpose.

To be a part of the Work Hackathon event in Karlsruhe, submit why you or your team (max. 5 person) want to attend. Please send a PDF file in English (1x DIN A4 page, max. 10MB) until February 18th 2019 to raphael.gielgen@vitra.com. The PDF file should described your team, mindset and why you want to be part of it. You can add pictures and graphics to illustrate your application.

We take care to ensure completeness, corectness and being up-to-date, we can not guarantee this. Each Hackathon participant is responsible for his or her submitted ideas. This includes also any copyright violations affecting third parties resulting from these ideas.

Vitra International AG
Klünenfeldstrasse 22
4127 Birsfelden, Switzerland
T: +41 61 377 00 00
F: +41 61 377 15 20

For further information contact Raphael Gielgen