At Seats2meet, a flexwork place situated all over the world where visitors pay for their work spot with Social Capital - their professional knowledge (Hoff, 2014). Every location is a community where they try to connect the entrepreneurs. Even though, entrepreneurs know networking is a valuable part of their work, it is often scary to start a conversation with somebody you do not know - we can all relate to that. Seats2meet Connect is an online device that helps visitors to meet each other, to share their knowledge and expand their network. But how can we motivate visitors to use the system and create a new and valuable meeting between them? 

 

My graduation project focused on the ice-breaking element. I designed a concept/artefact that represented the Social Capital on every location, acted as an eye-catcher - the first encounter with Seats2meet Connect - and helped visitors to make contact. Only than Seats2Meet Connect will become a valuable device for entrepreneurs to use. 

 

During this project, I implemented generative Co-Design methods, observation, and interviews in all the stages of the project; research and need finding, idea generation and validation concepts and prototypes.

 

Hoff, R. V. (2014). Mastering the global transition on our way to society 3.0. Utrecht: Lindonk & de Bres.