Why is it  called a Jam?

Imagine a Jam session in music. You come together, bringing your instruments, your skills, your open mind.  Someone sets up a theme, and you start to Jam around it. You don’t overanalyse it, you don’t discuss it to death, you Jam. You bounce your ideas off other people, and play around with what comes back. Together, you build something which none of you could have built alone. And at the same time, you are learning new ideas, discovering more about how you work and whom you best work with, sharpening your skills, and having a great time. And who knows, maybe there are one or two ideas there which might make it to the next album. Or maybe you Jammed so well, you decide to form a band…

The Global Design Jams work in just the same way. But it’s not music you are Jamming – it’s ideas. You’ll be working with people you might never have met before, bouncing ideas off one another and building on what bounces back. And it’s not just talking- you are here to turn your ideas into a concrete design, prototype and plan of action which you or somebody else might want to make real. Can you prototype and plan it in a way that someone could go out and make it real, knowing what resources they would need, what they should do, and who they should talk to?  That’s the challenge of the Jam.

What do you mean by “DOING, NOT TALKING”?

You’ll hear us saying this a lot. “Doing, not talking” is one of the mottos of Global GovJam. It simply means we’ll always bias doing over talking. Instead of telling you how to use service design to ideate and innovate, you’ll learn the process by trying it out. Instead of your group sitting around batting ideas back and forth for hours, we’ll push you to “think by making”. We’ll push you to create prototypesto think through your ideas. We’ll push you to do field research and talk to citizens and stakeholders. We’ll push you to validate your ideas through testing with real people.

Why Jam?:

• You will learn more about a design-based approach to problems. 
• You will go back to work with new perspectives, new ideas, and new connections
• You will share best practices and the most innovative/creative ideas at a time when cross-collaboration is especially needed
• Ideas often serve as a catalyst to make real change outside of the jam
• You will certainly have a blast.

Feedback from previous global attendees:

“The Jam has changed our working habits: we are using the kind of open method to work in developing projects.” Mexico City, Mexico.

“Being able to see and hear the other Jams around the world gave a real sense of camaraderie and being part of a global endeavour.” Hamilton, NZ.

“AMAZING! We left the place re-energized, happy, full of new connections and friends and with a sense that we can change the world if we want.” Sao Paulo, Brazil