IDDS Tairawhiti 2024
Applications due September 2, 2024
Theme and goals
The theme of this hands-on summit is Resilient Indigenous Communities. Participants will work with Indigenous Maori communities along with a mix of other Indigenous innovators or supporters of Indigenous innovation work from across the world.
The goals of this summit are to:
- upskill and connect local Maori community members and/or innovators with other Indigenous change-makers, innovators, designers, sector specialists, faculty, and students of Indigenous innovation
- tap into Indigenous knowledge systems and skills to use the IDDS philosophy of co-creating with others to develop solutions that improve the lives and livelihoods of people in the Tairawhiti region
- produce a total of 6 working prototypes, their supporting mini-business plans, and continuity plans (2 projects in each of the 3 communities of Tolaga Bay, Ruatoria, and Wairoa)
Organizers will apply collaborative design processes and basic business thinking approaches to create prototypes, enterprises, connections, and networks that can help the local participants build their confidence, pro-activity, hands-on skills, co-creation capacity, and resilience as local community leaders and/or innovators.
Location
The summit will be held in the small rural towns of Tolaga Bay, Wairoa and Ruatoria, on the East Coast (Tairawhiti) region of New Zealand.
The summit will predominantly be hosted in the Gisborne District known as Tairawhiti, which means "the coast upon which the sun shines across the water". Gisborne is the first city in the world to greet the sun each morning. Tolaga Bay is the first place in the world to see the rising sun each morning.
The participants and organizers will stay at the historic and 94 year old Tolaga Bay Inn in the heart of Tolaga Bay. The instructional sessions and hands-on activities will be at the Uawa Rugby Club in Tolaga Bay. The Rugby Club is central in the Tolaga Bay community and is a 5-minute walk from the Tolaga Bay Inn.
Tolaga Bay will be the central location and is a 30-minute drive from Gisborne where there are large grocery stores and hardware stores where supplies can be purchased if they are not available in the small shops in Tolaga Bay. Gisborne has the Gisborne Regional Airport which is a 10-minute drive from the city center and has connecting flights to and from the Auckland International Airport. There is a community clinic in Tolaga Bay and a hospital in Gisborne to accommodate any health needs that arise during the summit.
Participants and organizers
The organizers will select 24 participants (12 local participants with 4 from each of the 3 communities), and 12 international participants (from outside the Tairawhiti area) for the summit. There will be a total of 15 organizers (10 local organizers and 5 international organizers).
Lead organizers:
- Thabiso Mashaba - Lead Organizer, Instructor and Design Facilitator. Thabiso is an Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF) International Fellow from Botswana based in Tolaga Bay, New Zealand. He is the Co-Founder, CEO and Lead Instructor of These Hands GSSE which is a global grassroots innovation ecosystem builder based in Botswana and New Zealand. These Hands is on a mission to identify, recruit, train, profile, empower, support, build and coordinate a network of at least 1 billion grassroots innovators in developed and developing countries by 2063 to own their development pathways and address their own community livelihood challenges with appropriate technology or product solutions and sustainable community businesses.
- Amy Smith - Lead Instructor, Organizer and Lead Design Facilitator. Amy Smith is the Founding Director of MIT D-Lab, an innovative university-based program in international development and a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also the founder of the International Development Design Summit, co-founder of the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge, co-founder of Rethink Relief conference, and originator of the Creative Capacity Building Methodology.
- Lily Stender - Lead Community Host. Lily is an Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF) Local Maori Fellow and manager of the Tolaga Bay Inn, Tolaga Bay Inn Charitable Trust, Tolaga Bay Innovation and Tolaga.Org Evergreen Fund with over 15 years experience with these organizations. In this role, she supports grassroots businesses in her community, Tairawhiti Region, and other communities in New Zealand. Lily also leads the Tolaga Bay Heritage Charitable Trust (TBHCT) which is on a mission to restore and renovate the 94-year-old and iconic Tolaga Bay Inn before its centenary birthday in 2030 to preserve its heritage for future generations.
- Bridget French-Hall (EIT ACE Program)- Sponsor. Bridget is the Program Coordinator of the Eastern Institute of Technology's (EIT) Adult Community Education Program for the Tairawhiti and Hawkes Bay Region of New Zealand which is a program designed and developed to upskill and retool grassroots community members with skills and empower them to start or secure employment opportunities using those skills.
- Liz Hunt - Participant Experience Coordinator and Design Facilitator. Liz is a former Google and NASA employee and a founding partner of 8-Bit Spark, an innovation catalyst based in Canada that helps organizations bring their ideas to life through co-creation and fractional leadership. Their approach — combining human experience, technology + science, and change leadership — benefits product-based companies trying to find the next big thing as well as service-focused companies wanting to improve their operations.
Key dates (all 2024)
- Applications due: September 2
- Applicant notification: September 20
- Summit: October 29 to November 9
- Participant travel: Participants should plan to arrive on October 26 and stay until November 12
- Organizer travel: Organizers will be expected to be there from October 23 to November 14
- Final community showcase and exhibition: November 9, 2024, on Treble Court in Gisborne at 12 pm
- Cultural and Talent Night at Tolaga Bay Inn: November 10 at 5 pm
More information and how to apply to attend
Learn more about participating and apply as a participant by September 2, 2024:
Note: The participant application is only open to people who have previously not participated in IDDS. If you have attended IDDS before
and are interested in being involved, consider applying as an organizer.
Learn more about organizing and apply as an organizer by August 30, 2024:
If you have any questions or technical difficulties with the application, please email the lead organizers.