BEIRUT SERVICE JAM

We are happy to be back in our 4th edition with a special event dedicated to the Syrian community in Lebanon in partnership with Sawa for Development & Aid on the 27th and 28th of February!

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What I have learned Jamming with the Syrian refugee kids who called Lebanon home.

This post has been in draft mode for almost a month now, fearing my words could never give the Beirut Service Jam experi…

Haya, one of our amazing volunteers this year, wrote this beautiful reflective piece on jamming in Bar Elias!

Thank you!

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RECAP : Beirut Service Jam goes to Bar Elias

So in case you weren’t aware, this year we held a very special edition of the Beirut Service Jam in Bar Elias on February 27th and 28th. Our two day interactive workshop was held at the community center managed by our partners Sawa for Development & Aid and our attendees were 33 Syrian kids aged between 10 and 15. 

As a quick reminder, the Beirut Service Jam is the Lebanese edition of the Global Service Jam, a yearly event to learn by doing about the practice of Service Design. Over a 100 cities participated this year all prototyping -around the same secret theme- some innovative ideas to change the world in under 48h!

Our special edition was meant to bring some change-making capacities to communities that don’t easily have access to that type of information while empowering them to tackle their daily problems.

Our very enthusiastic crowd was guided through a customized Design Thinking methodology throughout the two days. 

The participants were divided into teams to emphasize the importance of teamwork and collaboration. After revealing the secret theme the kids were asked to interpret it and then draw individually a scene that connected the theme to a problem they encounter daily. Many ecological and health concerns seemed to be on top of their list, such as water pollution and garbage. 

Once each team had voted on their preferred problem (in a democratic way), they had to think of all the stakeholders involved in this problem space and try to represent that specific character -as a simple way of understanding personas. This exercise was followed by a group stakeholder mapping to highlight the connections and interactions between the different characters. 

Once the connections were established each team was asked to transform their characters into super heroes that could come and save the day!

The first day was concluded by a short role playing exercise where each of the teams presented their problem space to the others by acting it out. This allowed the kids to voice out their ideas and as one of our participants mentioned “find the courage to go on stage!”.

The second day was dedicated to the solution space. Each team delved back into the initial situation by drawing a storyboard. We introduced a simple framework with three sections: problem, solution and resolution; thus inviting the kids to think of an intervention that could affect the problem. 

Once the improved scenarios were ready, each team started building a small model using arts and crafts materials. The point of the exercise being to bring the intangible problem into a sort of physicality. 

The model served as the setting for a short movie where each team explained the problem their identified and the solution they brought to the table. The videos were uploaded online and can be viewed along with additional information on our page on the global platform (link).

Since jamming is all about being part of a global event, we had asked jammers from around the world to participate in a letter-sharing project. Our goal was to have our participants reflect on some of their learning from the workshop while sharing it with another jammer. So each kid drew a name from a hat and pinned the final destination of his letter to a world map. The drawings and letters of the kids revealed many interesting insight, but we’ll talk about that in a separate post.

Our final shared moment was viewing the videos each team had created together as a means to reflect again on their work and feel the pride of having accomplished something.

In many ways, we -the organizers and volunteers of BSJ- found this experience heart-warming and eye opening. We truly hope it benefited the kids equally! 

This event could not haven been possible without the trust and collaboration of Sawa for development and aid and their amazing team and teachers. A special shout-out also goes to our amazing BSJ volunteers this year, namely (in alphabetic order): Adam (the nomadic helper), Fawzi (the patient carer), Haya (the warm-hearted), Nicolas (the positive energy) and Sandra (the leap taker).

Adam, Fawzi and Nicolas did not make it into the picture :(   

  Thank you all!

Together we jam,

Diala 

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SPOT US ON THE MAP! It’s official! We are on the map, along with 101 other jams!

This is still exciting year after year!

#BeirutSJam #GSJam #102ndJam

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We are back!

We are happy to announce our 2016 Jam!

For our 4th edition, Beirut Service Jam will be joining the Global Service Jam community, but with a twist. We will be hosting a special event in partnership with Sawa for Development and Aid for the Syrian community in Bar Elias.

Our event will take place on Saturday the 27th and Sunday the 28th of February in the community center managed by our partner in Bar Elias. Jamming with us will be a group of 30-40 young Syrian students from the local school.

This is a small initiative that the Beirut Service Jam team wants to dedicate to the Syrian community in Lebanon, in the hopes that this experience would equip our participants with new tools that could trigger positive impact on their daily lives.

The event is as usual open to everyone who would like to come and participate in any shape or form. A jam is above all a chance to learn and experience first hand Service Design. So if this is an item on your to do list then by all means shoot us an email/message/tweet/pigeon!

All our platforms are up and running, follow us closely: - Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BeirutServiceJam - Twitter : https://twitter.com/beirutsjam And here on our blog!

Together we jam!

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Beirut Service Jam; a 3rd edition in review !

For the 3rd consecutive year, the Beirut Creative Cluster hosted the Beirut Service Jam at the Beirut Digital District. 

The Jam kicked off with 37 participants (our biggest jam to date) ready to take us up on the 48h global challenge. We all gathered to collaborate learn and create together. 

The Beirut Service Jam is a not-for-profit initiative meant to bring together a community of like-minded people to give them a chance to create a service prototype in a short period of time, collaborate with other disciplines; and learn about Service Design through a hands-on experience. 

On Friday evening, the global secret theme was released, kicking off our group brainstorming activity which allowed the participants to divide into 5 different teams according to their interests. 

The 2015 secret theme of the global service jam.

This year’s group was very diverse, from programmers to designers, going through filmmakers and engineers; each jammer had a specific input to bring to the table. 

Saturday was an intense day for the jammers, as they had to have their first prototype by noon to take it down on the street and get feedback from potential users. And to help push their projects forward, we had 4 different sessionists introduce different skills that could complement their work: the Business model canvas, the Service Blueprint, an Urban Design Thinking session using Urbacraft and an introduction to Stopmotion. 

As well as different sessions spent with mentors that gave feedback to each project. So thank you Lilian Abou Zeki, Ayssar Arida, Joumana Ibrahim, Nicolas Maalouf and Doreen Toutikian.

Ayssar during his session during BSJ’15.

We also had a great time interacting with other jammers from around the world, be it in the global challenge to dance over the “Shake it off” song, or through a skype call with the Dundee Service Jam or even by tweeting at each other.

The Jam wouldn’t have been possible without the Jammers great energy and their unbreakable willingness to stand in a big circle!

We also need to thank all our partners and sponsors who were instrumental to our event. So, a HUGE thanks to the Beirut Creative Cluster, Beirut Digital District, Byblos Bank, Dunkin’ Donuts, Lebtivity, Urbacraft, MENAversity and Tomatomatic. And to our Jamming partners: Beirut Design Week, GAIA Heritage, Ihjoz, MENA Design Research Center and Urbatecture, 

Another expression of gratitude is due to our great team of volunteers; Adib, Firas, Haya, Jad, Lilian, Nicolas; you rocked also, always #kassereldeneh !

The 5 teams each came up with different projects that were miraculously uploaded on the global platform on time on Sunday afternoon. (check out the projects here!) 

We concluded the jam around drinks and the traditional pineapple! We also have lots very cool pictures from the event that you will find here. 

We can’t wait to see you next year!

Lots of jammin’love

D*

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Every year during the Jam we invite sessionist to introduce new concepts and methods to the jammers and help push their work forward.

From the 3rd edition of the Beirut Service Jam : Urban Design Thinking, presented by Ayssar Arida using Urbacraft.

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Every year during the Jam we invite sessionist to introduce new concepts and methods to the jammers and help push their work forward.

From the 3rd edition of the Beirut Service Jam : The Service Blueprint, presented by Diala Lteif.

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The New York Service Jam challenged us to make our own "Shake it Off" video! Take a look at our true Lebanese shake interpretation!

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Some pictures from the 3rd Beirut Service Jam!

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ONE WEEK TO GO!

One week left before we kick off the 3rd Beirut Service Jam! If you haven't registered yet, this would be a good time to do so..

Head to our ihjoz page : http://bit.ly/BSJ-15

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We have a great team working to make the Jam happen! Thank you best team ever! We start jamming in one week!

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Get ready.. cause we are planning the 3rd edition of the Beirut Service Jam!

Mark your calendar and get your creative tools ready :)

We will be posting updates regularly, so keep checking in!

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Beirut Service Jam highlights are out! Thanks to Menaversity for capturing our happy moments and editing the videos! See you next year!

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Last but not least, Costa's talk about POP on Menaversity! Must definitely watch and try! 

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Doreen Toutikian's talk on empathy maps on Menaversity! Enjoy!

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The hardworking Menaversity team release videos by jam mentors! Enjoy and don't forget to visit their platform for more inspiration and knowledge!

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BSJ Review: Doing not Talking!

For a second year in a row, 25 enthusiastic curious learners gathered together at Berytech Digihive, ready to immerse themselves in a 48hour challenge, prototyping new service solutions, and exchanging insights with other jammers worldwide.

Responding to the theme: an image of a box template, jammers brainstormed and clustered their ideas that were then populated with personas, representing potential users affected by the topic. We really loved the way our ideas transformed into a virtual road map for growth!

These areas of interest were the focus point of our journey, as 4 groups emerged, each keen on developing one area to the max. Many of our jammers had never met before, and it was amazing to see how each person put their talent, expertise and insights at the disposal of their team members!

And it's this exchange that makes the Jam so special, and we encourage it even more by bringing in amazing mentors to fuel our jammers imagination and skills, and to help them be inspired by different tools and processes. A special Gracias goes out to Doreen, Pierre, Ryme, Joumana, Costa, Dima and Marc for the amazing energy and prep they put into their sessions!

Another highlight of our jam was the interaction with other jams, via twitter, Skype, and Youtube! We skyped with jammers from Dundee and showed them our prototypes, despite the bad connection. We also filmed a video of our jammers getting their groove on to Pharell's Happy song, as part of a promise to the NY service jam, and we were retweeted by the Global Service Jam HQ :D

And, we still managed to finish on time, and upload 4 prototypes to the Global Service Jam platform, and joining us for the final presentation was the Dutch ambassador, Mrs. Hester Somsen, who was delighted at the proactive attitude and positive spirit reflected in the prototypes.

This couldn't have been possible without the help of our partner, the Beirut Creative Cluster and all our sponsors: Berytech Digihive, Dunkin Donuts, Crepaway, City Stationary, Cloud 961, Menaversity, the Dutch Embassy and Nabbesh.

Gracias jammers, for showing up, for giving it your all, for stretching your comfort zone and for doing not talking! As organizers and hosts, Mirada Madrid couldn't have asked for more! See you next year! Diala + Joumana