On Thursday 5th March 2020, the first CBiS ‘Hackathon’ was hosted by the Sustainable Production and Consumption cluster in collaboration with Lean Analytics Association.
The word hackathon implies two terms: hack and marathon; the word hack refers to the creative problem-solving of the given challenge, while the word marathon indicates the length and intensity of the event.
During this fun and learning-packed one-day event, the participants developed creative concepts that will help organisations and businesses design, launch and adopt Circular Economy (CE) agenda.
The participants, consisting of a mix of entrepreneurs, industrialists, professionals, academics and students who share a common interest in the topic, were immersed in a Design Thinking cycle, conducting research, engaging in discussions and creative brainstorming, and prototyping to develop new ideas.
Professor Benny Tjahjono opened the event by outlining the CE and its opportunities for adoption across the supply chain. In teams, participants were then guided through four stages of empathising, defining, ideating and prototyping to develop, design and pitch a CE roadmap.
The process was thoroughly engaging and lead to some innovative and strategic thinking of how businesses can overcome barriers to implement the CE thinking. The event will hopefully be the first of many hackathon format events.
Further details are available from Prof Benny Tjahjono: benny.tjahjono@coventry.ac.uk
