The Circle17 Impacthon is a 3-day Hackathon organized by AustrianStartups and respACT. Purpose is to bring together Innovators and Startups with established corporates and organizations. They strive to solve pressing challenges in the area of circular economy to achieve the SDG. This year Circonnact accompanied the Hackathon with tools and personal engagement. 8 Challenges had been defined, and the teams were formed on Friday to think about different solutions.
To identify solutions for new business models which are based on systemic thinking and circularity, the teams used the Value Chain Canvas and Circular Canvas tools from Circulab. We provided the setup on the online collaboration platform for all teams to capture their ideas. In a workshop on Saturday morning we opened the room for innovation by explaining the various opportunites. It was important for us to explain the mindset for regenerative and circular solutions.
In the mentoring sessions we discussed the ideas with the teams, provided the perspective of circularity. The purpose is to open the space and giving ideas rather than telling the teams what to do – and this works very well. Openness, a critical perspective if the models are truly circular and reflection on how to apply it to a defined ecosystem are key success factors to come up with good solutions.
On Sunday, as a member of the Jury, Andreas was impressed how far the ideas had been thought through. The open atmosphere helped to bring up some questions on how to go the next steps to implementation. Apart from choosing the 4 most promising and circular ideas we look forward to further support implementation with the partners.