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i-genius Interview

posted on Saturday, February 05, 2011 11:14 PM

i-genius: How did you hear about i-genius, and why did you join the community?

Maria: through a friend who knows I am very passionate about social innovation. Why? sounds a good initiative, am curious and hope to be able to contribute and find synergies with other projects.

i-genius: Tell us about The Thinking Hotel.
Maria: is a vision-led project.

The original vision is to create a chain of the very best places for thinking, and have one in every city around the world. These places are a hybrid of a Hotel (24/7 immersion) with a Museum (curate spaces to stimulate thinking) and an Innovation Hub ( the cross of environments, with services, processes and tools for thinking).

the main aim is to provide experiences, from imagination and collaboration, to strategy and inspiration.

Why? because the quality of our lives depends on decisions and choices, and the quality of choices and decisions, depends on our thinking. Very small number of people have support to think, or even the time and space to do it.



Since I started a Linkedin Group for the project – we discovered The Thinking Hotel is also a process, or several processes.

we design thinking experiences, and these tend to be transformational experiences. We create a platform for interactions, co-creativion, change and curiosity.



So far we have developed 2 processes: the 24hr workshop to prototype a business model, and Change Play Business – a Turnaround business innovation.





-genius: What part do you feel social entrepreneurship will play this year?
Maria: I think social enterprise is the 21st Century response to social challenges – the new version of Charities, and potentially the new format/model of businesses. It has all the reasons to be the vehicle for the Big Society ambition.




i-genius: What challenges have you faced so far, and how were they overcome?
Maria: a few challenges include find a way to invest all my time to develop this project and at the same time make enough income to sustain me and my daughter. another challenge is to generate revenues to pay collaborators. a third challenge is to find and understand the best model to this project, as I would like this to be an open/shared and collaborative enterprise.

sometimes I struggle to explain why this vision is needed and in what way it creates value for society.


i-genius: What is the future of The Thinking Hotel?
Maria: a brand of synergies and partnerships which connect people, places and ideas to create great ‘thinking experiences’ to promote collaboration and imagination, inspiration and transformation.





i-genius: What music do you listen to recently?

Maria: mostly Mozart.

Comments

Terry Budu Abban

Sunday, February 06, 2011 11:16 AM

great maria, i admire your work alot. You such an inspiration. Keep it up maria, blessings.

Maria Ana Neves

Sunday, February 06, 2011 11:10 PM

thanks Terry! the great side of it is that is not \'my project\' anymore, hundreds of people are playing with the ideas and making the project move forward! what are your plans? I saw your profile, and you seem to have captured one version of the story (urgency to change) - what are your ideas?