Climate Kik – Climathon
Building a global community of innovators and start-ups to help cities achieve net-zero emissions.
We worked with Climate KIC to evolve Climathon from a local, event-led initiative into a more connected, always-on platform. I led the creative direction, helping define that shift and shaping how the experience brings together cities, start-ups and investors over time.
Creative Director – Great State
Digital Brand | Website | Design System | Strategy
Background
Climate-KIC is an EU-funded initiative. It helps eco-innovation start-ups around the world source funding and collaborate. They had been running hackathons (Climathon) for a few years; one-off public events to bring people together and tackle local climate issues.
Whilst gaining popularity, and raising awareness they were less effective in delivering change. Hackathon outputs by their very format were restricted by the event time limits, available skillsets and location.
We were tasked with helping them grow from local events into an efficient, effective global community that could make a real impact all year round.
Approach
We focused on creating a platform that connects the different parts of the ecosystem – from early ideas through to collaboration and investment.
I led the direction across brand and product, defining how the experience works across audiences and shaping a system that could scale globally while still feeling locally relevant.
The aim was to move Climathon from something people attend, to something they stay part of – building continuity between events rather than starting from scratch each time.
Previous Strategy
The previous model relied on growing the number of cities that participate to grow the number of people participating. The website acts as the organisational and registration tool. The majority of activity and community engagement occurs at local levels duting Climathon events, limiting the reach by physical area.
Our revised strategy
By transforming the website into a community hub, participants can share ideas, collaborate and build online groups with anyone in the world, all working together to find solutions. This model exposes far more people to Climathoin activity all year round, not only during local Climathons events.
The results
Climathon has evolved into a more connected global network, supporting collaboration between cities, start-ups and investors beyond the event itself.
By extending the experience beyond a single moment, it’s helped create a more continuous and scalable model for participation.
