A participant at the Kansas City Service Jam 2013 sketches on a whiteboard.
A competition focused on the emerging field of service design kicks off in Kansas City on Friday. The Kansas City Service Jam, the local iteration of the Global Service Jam, begins Friday at Red Nova Labs before moving to the Google Fiber Space on Saturday and Sunday.
The event starts with the unveiling of an abstract theme – teams worldwide are given the same theme – and then teams are set loose to think up a product or service and customer experience that fits the theme. Teams work throughout the weekend in an attempt to finish their project by 3 p.m. Sunday, at which time the teams’ work is shared with the event’s global audience.
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Last year’s Serivce Jam, which took place at The KC Commons, presented the theme “hidden treasures.” Attendees came up with a personal development service to help unemployed people discover an interest they could develop into new careers, Kansas City Service Jam co-organizer Joe Jancsics said in a phone call today.
Unlike a Startup Weekend or a hackathon, this event isn’t focused on a building a product or app but rather the customer experience around that product. Jancsics said most of the creating happens on paper, but sometimes prototypes are built.
The event, which is free and open to the public, has appealed to designers and design school students in past years, but this year Jancsics hopes to see more programmers and engineers attend.
“These events give everyone a chance to roll up their sleeves and make something extraordinary in a short amount of time,” Jansics said in a press release. “It lets people take on a role beyond their typical responsibilities, and there’s something exciting about that level of creative freedom.”
To learn more or register for the event, visit kcsj13.eventbrite.com.
Credits: Photo from Kansas City Service Jam on Facebook.
