By Dee Wu | Project Leader
The third and the last in-person Lab meeting happened last week, from October 20th to 22th. As usual, the meeting was held in the City of Pedra Branca, just outside of Florianópolis. Approximately 30 finalists were brought together for this intense 3-day session, designed solely for Pitch presentations. Pitch is a 5-min presentation that introduces the goal, the potential and the current progress of the project and also the motivation behind creating such a project.
The first day focused on the final trimming of Labbers’ Pitch presentations. The day started out with Olavo Pereira Oliveira giving a presentation on how to speak in public. Through the illustration of an example, HigherMe, Olavo talked about the importance of making eye contact, proper pause, voice volume and body language. The afternoon was free time. Labbers mostly worked on their Pitch projects individually, but advices and ideas were also exchanged. The bond between them had demonstrated itself. People were not afraid of giving criticism because everyone was fully aware that they were pushing each other to grow. At the end of the day, all the Labbers participated in a game called Musical Chairs, but with slightly modified rules. Every round there were two less chairs; however, different from a normal game, as long as everyone sat down, no one had to leave the circle. You could see people sitting on each other’s laps, forming a human puzzle. Through this interactive way of teaching, everyone learned the importance of collaboration. No one has to lose in order for someone else to win. The Labbers pushed for each other’s success. They made each other’s growth possible.
The second day was the day of actually delivering the Pitches. Many famous people from NGOs and other sectors all gathered in Pedra Branca to be the judges in order to select the top 4 Labbers that will present on the day of the Festival. Having put in a lot of time and energy, all the Labbers were ready to present their ideas and make their voices heard.
The third day started with some reflections. In the morning, led by Carol Andrade, the executive director of Social Good Brazil, all Labbers gathered to share what they had learned and how they felt after the previous two days. What accompanied bursts of laughter and occasional tears were mutual growth and new inspirations. They’ve grown individually and they’ve grown as a family, the Lab family. Even though this meeting marked the end of Lab 2016, the inspiration and the determination to make this world a better place will definitely pass on to the next round of Labbers, who will come here searching for a sense of purpose, a community and a tool to turn their ideas into reality and Labbers of 2016 have for sure found all of them.
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