Energy Smart Solutions: A Megacommunity Simulation
See the photos from the Housing Development Fund and Booz Allen Hamilton's groundbreaking Simulation that brought together 80 leaders from government agencies, businesses, and nonprofits to tackle residential energy efficiency in Connecticut:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.349739965069230.80688.134830096560219&type=3
Here's the update!
I had the amazing opportunity of planning this really unique event (March 6-7 in Hartford), which was designed to discover new ways to radically increase the adoption of energy efficiency measures in homes. Simulation participants included Benjamin Barnes (Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management for the State of CT), Daniel Esty (Commissioner of CT's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection), Rod Powell (president of Yankee Gas), and many others.
In this wargame, all these "big shots" in the energy world were put on teams like "State Government", "Energy Suppliers", "Financial Institutions", etc. to design programs with the interest of their team roles in mind and negotiate commitments with other teams. Every team tested their ideas by pitching their plans to the "Residents" team, which played the role of homeowners (the public) and gave feedback on each plan. I was able to sit in on meetings and negotiations (so so fun), and I can say that everyone got really into playing their roles and it definitely got heated at times! (And a little wacky, see the "I CONSERVA" signs above.) Our photographer even said she felt like she was going to get eaten in some of the rooms. :P
The event was a huge success - not only did the participants really immerse themselves in the Simulation, they were actually excited and motivated to take the insights they learned from the two-day event and do something about it in the months to come. A lot of participants said that they had never seen such a broad cross-section of stakeholders come together, and my co-worker John and I (the event planners) kept getting compliments on how smoothly the whole event was run (which I thought was a weird thing for them to say, but I'm thankful!).
So now that the Simulation is finally over, John and I are open for business as event-planners. We'll do weddings........and wargame simulations?
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P.S. This is more than a little embarrassing, but if you're friends with me on Facebook, you can have the privilege of seeing me freestyle rap about the conference during one of our breaks... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150725253749744
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