Another Tomorrow at Gather Festival

On 14–16th of September 2017, the first Gather Festival was held in Stockholm. People from diverse industries and various parts of the city gathered for an unique event where the call to action was to question, collaborate and think different.

Another Tomorrow was part in the planning of Gather from the beginning as an innovation partner. During the festival, Another Tomorrow took part in facilitating sessions for Skatteverket and Akademiska Hus at the Solution Labs.

Pitch Day at Gather Motivation Labs

Gather Festival 2017 was the result of an urge to create a space for real dialogue, new stories and change. The Gather Labs were set up with the ambition to make festivals like Gather more interactive and collaborative. At the labs, participants were encouraged to share their individual perspectives and collaborate to turn challenges into possibilities for a number of big organisations.

Building a Space for Learning: Prototyping the Future Campus with Akademiska Hus

At the full-day solution lab: Building a Space for Learning, we looked into the campus of the future with property company Akademiska Hus asking the question ‘What role should a campus play as a meeting place for people from different parts of society?’

Another Tomorrow facilitated Gather participants through our Design-Thinking process Sling, in phases of discovery, ideation and rapid prototyping. The result of the day was self-explanatory video prototypes showcasing the solutions from each team.

Gather Participants at Skatteverket Discovery Session

What’s Stopping Skatteverket? Discovery Session with the Swedish Tax Agency

Together with the Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket, we invited Gather participants to the session What’s Stopping Skatteverket? The aim of this session was to identify problems and difficulties in Skatteverket’s customer relationships in order for them to more effectively achieve their mission.

Another Tomorrow led the Lab participants through a discovery session around this challenge. During this 2-hour sprint, we explored ways of improving the customer experience in relation with Skatteverket by identifying the “pains” and “gains” needed to make this happen. The session gave Skatteverket the opportunity to gain crucial insights from its actual customers and turn these findings into actionable directions.

The Gather Experience

Gather was an interesting blend of participatory labs, a speaker conference and a traditional music festival. It was fascinating to experience what can happen in the border-land between these seemingly different concepts.

Interplay of concepts at Gather Festival 2017

Much like us at Another Tomorrow, the people behind Gather believe in the power of diverse perspective and participatory culture.

The participatory element of Gather, along with inclusion of perspectives at the labs was what, in our opinion, made the festival unique. We see an increased need for social settings that encourage collaboration and multiple perspectives in decision-making. To view the public as by-standers and passive consumers is outdated. What we need moving into a complex and uncertain future is to empower people to share their perspectives and participate in problem-solving.