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Connecting Like-Minded Allies – Unusual Conversations

what we do
Forge Unusual Connections

Unusual Conversations

Challenge

It has been a difficult period for the city and all of us who love Hong Kong. The widening social divide and escalating unrest make it harder than ever for us to make conversations. As an organisation that takes pride in fostering social innovation through cross-sector collaboration, we feel compelled to leverage our expertise to bridge differences and gather momentum to create social impact with our friends. But how? What’s next for Hong Kong?

 

Our Approach

In light of this, we curated a public event “Unusual Conversations: Good Lab OpenHouse” to create an opportunity to bring together connections from different walks of life for meaningful discussions on how social innovation can help address Hong Kong’s challenges on multiple fronts. 

 

The event served as a platform for people who do not usually meet and talk otherwise, namely representatives from the government, non-profits, businesses, academia as well as members of the public, to get together and converse. We facilitated these discussions to pave way for cross-sector collaboration in the future and ignite new possibilities in the realm of social innovation. 

 

Social Innovation Open Panels

We hosted three rounds of Open Panels. To kickstart, we had guests who were passionate about social innovation to share their thoughts on Hong Kong’s current situation. As active members of the civic society, they believed to cultivate the mentality to agree to disagree is the way out to solve social divide. The afternoon session we had sharings from the public and private sectors, exchanging opinions on impact investments and cross-sector collaborations. Last but not least, in the evening session, a few social innovators who are good friends of Good Lab came and shared their ups and downs along their innovation journey. We looked back on Good Lab’s past seven years of hard work and shared our keen aspirations for what lies ahead of us.

 

 Unusual Conversations

Good Lab hosted its very first unconference conversations to bridge the understanding between cross-sectors, reflecting on several topics: 

  • How to rebuild the trust between the younger generation and the government?
  • How to promote collaboration between decision-makers and citizens?
  • How to educate the younger generations to take upon the role of change-makers? 

  

Design Thinking Sharing & Workshop

Design Thinking is one of Good Lab’s most important tools to facilitate mindset change. During the workshop, we introduced the five steps of Design Thinking to participants. One of the key messages was we hoped to help participants build more empathy for others and enable participants use Design Thinking to promote more positive social change.

 

Social Innovation Workshops & Markets

More than fifteen local social innovation organisations participated in the market, sharing stories about their social impact journey. We were delighted to have the chance to reunite with our partners and friends, their participation added colors to the event. We would also like to especially thank the organisations who helped hosting various interesting talks and workshops, sharing insights on creative volunteering services, alternative eco-planting and gender education.

 

Impact to Date

  • Cultivate a more open and sincere dialogue is what it is most needed in all communities, so as to encourage more collaborations and promote positive social change.
  • Offer unique networking opportunities for social innovators to build alliances and meet key players in the field.

 

Click here for more event details:

https://www.facebook.com/events/387970591861795/