Ask HN: Crowdsourced creative incubator/retreat | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Crowdsourced creative incubator/retreat

3 pointsgoodJobWalrus3 comments

What do you think of a incubator / creative retreat, that works like this:

First, it's opened to creatives of all kinds. The idea is to mix up different folks, who wouldn't be part of the same crowd normally, and who bring truly different perspectives.

Everyone who is applying writes a statement about they are working on, what they are interested in, what their ideas are, what they want to make and what they have already done. You could even make applications anonymous, so that people are evaluated solely on the strength of their statement, not external signals of prestige, looks, whatever.

Everyone who applied votes on top 5 people they would like to work with. People who get most votes are admitted, depending on number of applicants and the number of slots. Number of slots should be small enough for the group to be effective (<150, < than 2 big pizzas feed etc).

What are we achieving here:

You get wider variety of individuals than you would if individuals were accepted / rejected by a committee. Exposing individuals to completely different experiences / way of thinking, which hopefully facilitates diffuse thinking.

Wisdom of the crowds: wide variety of individuals vote independently. It would be interesting to see how it would compare with decision making by a committee.

What are attendees supposed to get out of this:

It's hard to say until you've actually done it, but it could be: - finding partners / co-creators for the project - advice / feedback on your work - new ideas, new ways of doing things - general expanding mind and creative potential

The result of the retreat shouldn't be having a business incorporated and MVP, but figuring things out, and finding a way forward and finding collaborators.

I was just thinking last night about the retreat I would like to attend. I was wondering what other people would make of an idea like this.

Here are some random thoughts:

- You've already identified this, but as an applicant I want to know what exactly I am getting in return for my time. There are so many ways I could spend my time, including making money and progress on my projects, and being put into a room with 100 random people doesn't sound very useful. IMHO you need to define a clear goal that is shared by all participants. For example, finding a co-founder, getting feedback on a pitch, improving your public speaking, etc. However, once you are doing that you basically have a meetup/event that requires an application.

- The design school at Stanford (http://dschool.stanford.edu/) operates under a rather similar model. The school offer classes of varying duration (from days to month), each based on a different theme or project. All classes require students to apply in advance and describe their backgrounds. Participants are then chosen in a way to maximize the diversity of students from different departments/backgrounds. You may be able to steal some ideas by browsing around on the website.

- I believe there is an inverse relationship between the people you hope to attract and the people who want to attend such events. You are trying to be selective in that you are are choosing the "top applicants" (however you define that, probably based on past achievements in their statements). However, the successful people you hope to attract have very little incentive to attend such events because they already are successful, or have better options to spend their time.

Per your third point, in fact, I am interested in reaching people who are not "top applicants". It's easy to know who the people on top of their profession are, and there are plenty of events for them. I am interested in people who are not "top", whether because they are not interested in mainstream success, or because they just haven't succeeded, but are doing things that I would find interesting, or they have valuable experiences to share, but I don't know who they are, or where to find them, because - they aren't well known.

I even thought it would be interesting if all the applications were anonymous, so people are selected only based on the thing they are currently doing / interested in, without knowing their identities, gender, age, etc. to eliminate bias. But I guess that would creep people out a bit.

Not to hijack your thread, may be a pivot of your idea focusing on early-stage founders.

I would like to see a weekend retreat (along the lines of Sun Valley big-wig retreat, may be not such an expensive affair) for startup founders where they can come together and discuss their challenges one-on-one or in a group, get advise from others, share their experiences.

Strictly a low-key informal/casual affairs, no exhibits, service providers, consultants, non-founders, or big speeches. May be organizers bring in one or two successful and failed startup founders willing to share their experiences at the start and end of the retreat.

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