The panellists provided great insights into how they would expand upon and alter the methodologies I have so far employed in my interventions. This was very interesting to witness alternative points of view, many of which were very insightful and can be adapted in looking to future iterations of my events. However, some feedback was possibly less suitable for the niches of my project, with some such as designing full rooms, all be it small rooms, possibly out of the scope for what can be achieved under the timescale of the masters.
Some panellists also felt stronger towards the concept of nature and technology being combined than others. Some panellists felt that nature is the inspiration for parts of technology (not wrong look at ‘I’m saving this to the cloud’ in the tech terminology). Also views that if you are to utilise technology in this way that it may need to be hidden or disguised from the consumer, were raised. However, I felt in parts that this mindset might close you off from future possibilities of how tech can aid the future of human’s relationships and differing experiences of nature. Almost adding another link to the chain with it starting:
nature inspiring tech – tech mimicking aspects of nature – nature and tech together to create new ways to experience nature
Only a couple of panellists felt they were positioned more of the viewpoint towards nature needing to be recognised as the superior as it were, and feeling that to create natural connections perhaps technology needs to take a back seat. However, even this group were not 100% against the idea. But, the other panellists did provide positive ideas and contributions around how technology can be utilised in this way, which is something I definitely want to explore further. Especially after seeing the ideas and support this way of thinking can have amongst experts.
The key interesting points discussed are as follows:
- Utilising special natural papers for items such a menus
- eg: flower paper or paper made from herbs
- these papers could also have their natural scent and will have differing textures, providing greater connections to nature in very small and simple ways
- Nature inspired hospital rooms
- They utilise heart rate monitoring to assess impact of biophilic space – proved 60% reduction in stress and anxiety
- Spent 15/30 mins in the room
- Also utilsie measuring blood pressure
- Future events
- Focus on ensuirng there is a loop or very clear before and after measure Could assess which sense has been stimulated the most?
- Reduce randomness – exploit opportunity as student to conduct academic mini experiment to create strong imperical eveidence to presnet to hospitality businesess
- More functionalty – eg: maybe blood pressure measuring
- Looking at different spaces within hospiality venues
- Create a destress room? – maybe out the scope of the masters
- Utilsiing unusual spaces – storage closet bar event in New York – repurposing of the space once the venue has cosed for its usual businesses
- Storage spaces or unutilsied rooms
- Utilsing platforms to share the information around biophilia
- Instead of facebook now the focus is on instagram but can push it further
- Look also at pintrest – position with biophilia and hospitality but also look at other industires that you can tie into it eg: florists and floral installs in hospitality spaces
- Look at LinkedIn – creating a company page, helps to reach professionals in the industries and great for sharing roles
- Look at Clubhouse – stream audio and people listen to it
- Look at what platforms large assocaitions are utilsing to share their messages eg: international facility management
- Idea of utilsie what spaces alreayd have and seeing what can be done with that to link in biophilia
- Idea – if something on the menu is unknown and you are ordering through QR code, why can’t the items be hyperlinked to explain extra info of what it is and where it is from – linking to sustainability
- Idea – getting rewarded for choosing to not take disposabel cutlery when ordering takeout eg: flower added to their virtual projection wall or phsyical natural artwork piece. Helps to build relationship with customers as they can come back and see their imapct and contribution to the space
- Or, utilise the small money saved from cutlery to plant a seed
- Could also reward for other sustainable decsions eg: ordering veggie or vegan? – have to be careful that the resturnat would want this however as they may be making more money off meat dishes or the meat being more locally sourced, and so they may want to encourage customers to order meat instead.
- Ideas in current spaces:
- Living light – concept that utilises photosynthesis to create light – when you touch the leaves lights go on
- Digital vegetables – art glass house in Tokyo, similar principle to living light – touch and differnet coloured lights and sounds fill the greenhouse
- Hotel group – kids spaces to make kids connect with nature – kids plant seeds and with a QR code they can watch that seed grow even when they are no longer staying at the hotel – could apply to butterfiles as they could grow and be able in a 7 day stay in the hotel
- Emotional attachment and caring for sometging gives a greater sense of connection
- Idea – full ecosystem spaces – similar to the book/ film DUNE
- Idea – hopsitality spaces with historical significance – utilise tech to provide info on this/ its environment or different garden sections etc.
- Idea – restaurants with local supplies and herb gardens – organise events to see how they grow the herbs and how the utilsie local producers
- Block chain – this tech can allow us to track where food is from – play on this to demonstrate sustainability
- Consider the plate that the food is on – what is it made of? – plates made of egg shells or bamboo straws etc – just small actions
Recording:
Unfortunately, there were a few technical problems in saving the video of the panel recording to the Nature.In YouTube channel. However, I did manage to record the audio of the majority of the conversation (minus the first 5 minutes) which I have uploaded to the YouTube channel with a still image of the panellists so that the conversation can be referred back to at a later stage.
The prompt slides utilised in the discussion can be viewed below:
Reflection
The panel was incredibly useful to gain feedback from a key group of stakeholders. Their feedback was honest and insightful into the positives to take from my work and perhaps the shortfalls of parts of my interventions so far and how to push them further now. The panellists also provided information on projects they have currently been working on such as kids rooms in hotels offering plants to plant and they can watch it grown over their stay and even come back to see it in the future. I feel that the audience members enjoyed these insights into other ways nature is being utilised in the hospitality industry. However, unfortunately, the live audience didn’t ask any questions.
A vital angle that was discussed was around the utilisation of different online platforms to educate around biophilia, especially the power of LinkedIn, Pinterest and clubhouse. Subsequently, I will look to utilise these platforms in the future to create real change and reach a lot of people with my work.
The key point brought up to make my research process more robust was that I should consider developing a control experiment where I don’t rely on the chance of passersby and their arent so many random variables in my events. Although, for the purpose of my Herb Event, I did wish to utilise passersby as I wanted it to replicate normal customers coming into a hospitality space who had no prior knowledge of me or my work so that I could gather fair and reliable data on whether there is an audience for such events in the wider public. However, now I have conducted that event and gained that assurance in my data, I think it could be interesting to try and develop a form of controlled intervention whereby a fully imperial measuring tool is employed such as measuring blood pressure, as was suggested in the panel. This could then provide undeniable hard data to present to other hospitality businesses that adding these types of natural events and experiences into their spaces positively impacts their customers and that people would be keen to come to their space if they offered it. Something like this could be set up in a smaller context of perhaps a small pop up bar in a space that might have otherwise been closed eg: a cafe that only sells lunch and gathering a sample of 10 or more people to take part and visit the event. Their blood pressure would be taken upon arrival and as they left to measure the change.
At present these are all just in the ideas phase but I feel there are strong ways that these ideas can be applied to hospitality settings, as now that I have a site such as Chelsea where I can get experimenting, I feel there is a very interesting future ahead for this project.