We are pretty excited about something George Kembel, our co-founder, is embarking on in January.
He has been asking the question, “how might we begin to nurture creative potential and unleash innovation at global scale”? To immerse himself in this challenge, George has partnered with a fellow wayward thinker, Daniel Epstein, founder of Unreasonable Institute, and together they are launching a radical experiment. It’s called Unreasonable at Sea.
Imagine a venture accelerator with 11 international tech-startups surrounded by 20 mentors like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the head of new projects at Google, and the founder of WordPress. All of this goes on one of the fastest seagoing passenger ships in the world, a floating university with over 650 students, faculty, and life-long learners. Together they will travel over 25,000 nautical miles to 13 different countries in 100 days.
Everyone is linked together with a d.school-like curriculum that helps entrepreneurs learn how to innovate in new international markets, and students learn about global innovation, not by sitting in a classroom reading cases, but by working with real international start-ups in-country.
It’s an experiment that we believe will push the edges of education, innovation, and leadership. George is taking a 4 month leave (January-April) for this global tour in design thinking. We will miss him and look forward to welcoming George back home to the d.school in May.