At the end of our lunch break, we caught a team of workers cleaning up an event named Open Office hosted by Golden Triangle DC that was part of a summer program called Farragut Fridays. Hosted at Farragut square, a team brings out tables, chairs, and portable power outlets to charge mobile devices. This environment presents a work space with a warm and welcoming ambiance, that adds a new and refreshing twist to typically boring workspaces. From a business perspective, not only does this promote a healthy social community, but also helps to initiate and promote their corporate ideals, of being a community leader in the heart of the city.
We also spotted a user of D.C.'s new electric vehicle sharing service Bird. Bicycle sharing has grown at a monumental rate over the past couple years in major metropolitan cities all over the globe. Ofo, one of the most successful vehicle sharing companies started in 2014, providing dockless bikes that can be picked up or dropped off anywhere simply by being unlocked through a mobile app. Within 3 years the company has deployed over 10 million bicycles in 250 cities around the globe. As these vehicle sharing services, have grown, even more innovation has spurred from the current infrastructure of ideas. Bird is one of the first major companies to start a similar service except with electric scooters. In metropolitan D.C., efficient use of space is one of the most crucial factors, so it was a powerful and innovative move to use scooters, which meet the demand in such a crowded city. A lot of the time, the difficult part of innovation is not finding solutions, but rather identifying what the problem is.
Insight from a different species
While walking out of Farragut square, a woman we talked to about Open Office got our attention. She wanted to show us something she had found alone and under a tree. It was a small bat who seemed to have a hurt wing. We learned from the bat that uncomfortable situations are everywhere. Bats are nocturnal and this one was hurt; it was totally out of its comfort zone. These situations are inevitable and we learned that seeking help from others in situations where we are most vulnerable can make a huge difference in the end result. If the woman was to leave the bat, it would have died. Instead, she noticed it was in a strange environment for a bat to be and helped it out.