What is Loopkin? Think of Loopkin's platform as an Airbnb for kids' activities. You can find a kids event specialist or become one yourself and use their platform to find clients. Watch their introduction video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D92_2KikVXwIntroduction to Design ThinkingAt the workshop, Loopkin explains an approach to operating and managing events called Design Thinking. This method can be applied not only to interactions and events with children but has been applied to operations within large corporations (think Google, Apple, etc). This method is used to foster collaboration between individuals and complete projects focusing on the design process and not necessarily the end result. When applied to kids events, this method is used to encourage interaction with each other and creative thinking, rather than taking direction from an authority figure like a teacher or parent.Ice Breaking Activity: Post-It Note DrawingsIn order to meet and introduce ourselves to other workshop participants, we did a short activity with Post-It notes. We first drew pictures of three things that we were good at doing. I chose to draw skiing, playing guitar, and cooking. We were then instructed to get out of our chairs and meet someone who was not at our table, after speaking with someone about your pictures and learning about theirs they were to sign their name. In the time given I was able to speak with two people. After taking our seats again, some folks were chosen at random to talk about who they met. Note that we weren't instructed to take notes about the other people we spoke with; I suppose it was a test to see if we really were listening and learning about another person and not just concerned with our own drawings.Design Thinking Activity: WalletThe main design activity we did was to design the ideal wallet for a partner at our table. At first we could not speak with them and simply had to sketch an idea from our general impression of them. Next we did a short interview of our partner to learn more about them, we were able to further explore what we found out about them in another interview session. Next we captured their needs regarding their ideal wallet and also insights about our partner to add to the design. Finally we created a problem statement to be solved by the ideal wallet.Unfortunately we were unable to completely finish the ideal wallet design activity but it did give us a preview into the whole design thinking process and how it could be applied. It was interesting how much we learned about our partner in such a short period of time.You can view a short clip of the workshop here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUkEQERfD58If you are interested in how an event with children would be operated, there is a short video of a kids Play workshop here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ00F1bjw9QHow is Loopkin beneficial to you?After receiving the training that Loopkin provides, you are able to use their platform to host events and earn income. You can apply the Design Thinking framework to whatever your talents may be. For example, maybe you enjoy writing and storytelling. You could host an event for children that focuses on their creative thinking while teaching them about telling a story or the writing process. The benefit to parents and other caretakers of children is that the kids are able to socialize with one another while thinking outside the box. It also lets their parents or caretakers have a few hours without their children in order to run errands or take care of other business.If you are already a working professional and would like to learn a new approach to completing projects or working in teams, these workshops are helpful! In just a few hours I really learned a lot about the other people that attended the workshop and, especially about my partner for the wallet design activity. It can help get your team to work together and value each other's inputs.Visit their website for more information: https://iloopkin.com/
