NOLA Tech Tap:
Community Ideathon

Bootstrapping Social Innovation: Technology Solutions for Sustained Livelihood

The NOLA Tech Tap: Community Ideathon 2022 brings together young people in the Greater New Orleans Area to develop and pitch a project idea to further sustainable livelihood in their community with the aid of technology. Awaken the SDG innovator in you and sign up by 11 September 2022!

Young people are the current and future inhabitants of this planet. Enabling them to work together on tackling complex social, environmental, and economic challenges is an investment in the future! With the NOLA Tech Tap we do exactly this: connect young people in an enabling environment to further community wellbeing at the local level and beyond.

“A bird’s-eye view of future New Orleans according to the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan. Illustration: Drawing by Palmbout Urban Landscapes” published with the Guardian Article “Reimagining New Orleans” from 20 Aug 2015.

The sustainable livelihoods approach is a way of thinking about the objectives, scope, and priorities for development activities worldwide. While focusing on livelihoods in and around New Orleans, LA (USA), our Tech Tap will seek to uncover solutions that are based on evolving thinking about the importance of forward-looking policies,  institutions, practices, and communities. We aim to produce tech-oriented approaches to inclusive, sustainable development activities at the local level and beyond.

Our efforts are geared toward aligning these development activities with the Sustainable Development Goals and their compelling aspiration to “Leave No-one Behind.” The solution ideas we seek to generate must be people-centric, placing human beings at the focal point of action. For a people-centric approach, the process of innovation should be responsive and participatory, consulting stakeholders and giving every voice its due consideration. This engenders multilevel and dynamic design principles to make space for community-centric innovation. The NOLA Tech Tap promises to address these policy levers and, above all, stay true to the sustainable approach it endorses. 

Innovation Challenge

New Orleans is a hotspot of talent, social capital, and innovation teeming with diversity and provides the ideal ground for the Melton Foundation and Nisum to join hands and bind the Sustainable Development Goals to create the NOLA Tech Tap: Community Ideathon 2022.

This Innovation Marathon draws upon the convergence of youth empowerment, collaboration, and diversity to propel innovation in the field of the SDGs and ignite social innovation and entrepreneurship. It also crucially recognizes the integrating link existing through the 17 SDGs, making them interdependent whilst highlighting balanced development.  

With this virtual innovation marathon with an on-site twist, we seek to create spaces & foster collaboration to let fresh thinking emerge, harness the true spirit of global citizenship and problem-solving abilities, and find meaningful tech-oriented solutions to further sustained livelihoods. With this over-arching theme in mind, we encourage participants to co-develop actionable, inclusive, and achievable project ideas that relate to the  following Innovation Challenges:

• How might we harness technology for social innovation to propel equitable and sustainable livelihood in the region?
• ​​How might we activate local communities to become stakeholders in the use of technology for social, economic, and ecological impact?
• How might we bridge gaps in economic empowerment for those with a limited technology background to further decent work and economic growth opportunities for all?

The NOLA Tech Tap engages participants around real-life challenges and equips them to work together cross-boundary to develop simple, practical, and creative solution ideas using technology as a tool to propel social impact.

Our Motivation : SDGs 8,10, 17

The Tech Tap derives its essence from SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) and SDG 10 (reduced inequality). At this intersection, the event searches for myriad ways to leverage technology and level playing fields. Furthermore, SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals) provides the anchor for the endeavor, broadening its scope to reach beyond the conventional. 

As a leading proponent of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development Goals, the Melton Foundation is active in Global Citizenship hubs around the world, including New Orleans, USA. 

The Melton Foundation’s activities in New Orleans have engaged young people who connect with peers around the world to design comprehensive solutions. Our UN SDG Innovation Challenges push for practices ranging from social entrepreneurship to systems thinking to fortify our ideals of diversity, youth empowerment, and problem-solving. Nisum, a champion of values involving transparency, inclusivity, respect, and excellence, is an organization that utilizes the power of technology to drive tangible change and deliver actionable solutions. Our partnership with Nisum thus finds a solid foundation for it to flourish, creating a convergent space where ideas merge into action. It further gains significance with the Tech Tap, where we deploy technology to advance the motto of sustainable livelihood. 

The United Nations defines SDG 8 as: “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”. With the pandemic vastly slowing down global development engines, disrupting economies and livelihoods, ‘decent work and economic growth remain a mirage for many worldwide. With this contextual background, the NOLA Tech Tap materializes as a 48-hour virtual innovation marathon with an on-site twist that aims to unearth novel approaches to address challenges in a practical and tangible way!

Our community ideathon challenges participants to come together in exploring and designing solution ideas that facilitate the realization of SDGs 8,10, and 17, through multiple paradigms and approaches. We seek to emphasize innovations through the incorporation of technology and the spirit of collaboration!

Why Participate

Ideation and Collaboration: The NOLA Tech Tap calls upon participants to work together in closely-knit cohorts to tackle challenges in pursuance of a collective cause: to further sustainable livelihood in the local community and beyond.

Developing novel project ideas: Brainstorm potentially game-changing approaches and contribute to the growing body of work by global problem-solvers while adding value to your community.

Skills and Professional capacity building: This event requires contestants to flex and sharpen multiple skills, including technical skills, soft skills, and entrepreneurial mettle.

Exciting Incentives: Successful innovation teams will receive recognition and opportunities comprising prize money (figuring a total of 1000 USD for the three winning teams) to activate project ideas; support, mentorship, and guidance from Nisum experts; and a potential chance to join hands with local community partners.

Enhanced visibility: Successful proposals of project initiatives will be showcased on global platforms and pitched to a wider audience, amplifying visibility and allowing the ideas to gain the traction required to scale and develop further.

The NOLA Tech Tap is designed to accommodate different schedules, even time zones. While the event follows a well-paced program, there is ample flexibility for participants to engage in event-related activities at their own pace and per their schedule within the stipulated 48hrs timeframe.

(On average, participants would spend between 10-25 hours to succeed in this innovation marathon.)

What we seek from participants? 

The NOLA Tech Tap 2022 is open to participation for young people aged 18-35 years in and around New Orleans who want to make a difference in their community!

As a participant in this ideation marathon, we hope you can bring:

• A connection to this year’s challenge theme Bootstrapping Social Innovation: Technology Solutions for Sustained Livelihood.
• Passion for and commitment to improving livelihoods in the Greater NOLA area.
• Desire to work together with people from different domains and backgrounds.
• Curiosity about and conviction for sustainable development.
• The motivation to work in an agile hackathon-like environment, engage proactively and ideate extensively throughout the event.
• The commitment to take the idea to completion and remain engaged with the cause post the NOLA Tech Tap 2022!

Participants are encouraged to adopt a holistic paradigm while developing ideational frameworks for a future where opportunities abound for all sections of the population! Candidates may participate individually or within teams based on personal choice.

Guidelines for Applicants

Registration Modalities: To be considered for participation, all candidates must sign up using our online registration form. Anyone interested can register – no teams are required to sign up.
If you want to join as a team, that’s also possible. In that case, every team member must register individually. In the sign-up form, there is a space to indicate whether you are applying individually or in a team.

Registration Time: The sign-up form is comprehensive and takes 15-20 minutes on average to complete. Please do not skip questions and try to give us the best context about your motivation to participate through your answers!

Review and confirmation of participants: Because participation slots are limited, a review committee will evaluate all registrations after the extended registration deadline (Sep 11th, 2022) has passed. Candidates will be selected for the NOLA Tech Tap 2022 based on the information provided and the motivation transmitted with the registration form.

All decisions will be conveyed at least two days before the event.