Today, our VP of Engineering, Dan Walmsley, is taking off on a flight unlike any other. He's been hijacked along with more than 100 leaders and prominent thinkers who will take part in British Airways inaugural "Innovation Lab in the Sky," or as we like to call it "A Giant Geek Party in the Sky."
These founders, CEOs, venture capitalists, and Silicon Valley game-changers will work on global challenges at 30,000 feet, aboard a flight from San Francisco to London with NO WIFI.
The group has been tasked with addressing the misalignment between where science and technology talent is emerging and where opportunity exists for talent to realize their potential. They will work to design a platform to inspire and connect this talent with civic and commercial opportunities, and to accelerate innovation in communities around the world.
The group has been split up into four teams that will address different aspects of this problem. Dan will be part of Team Altitude which will tackle the challenge of how to foster women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) positions.
We're excited to have Dan's vision and expertise being applied to such an important issue. We just hope that the team is up to the task since it looks like they've only been given a pile of newspapers to use for research!
Upon landing, the ideas and solutions created on the flight will be presented to the United Nations ITU Secretary General at the DNA Summit, in association with the G8 Innovation Conference, in London.
“Our understanding is that the talent crunch is a real issue for companies and organizations in major tech hubs around the world,” said Amir Dossal, Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum, and Special Representative of the Secretary-General of ITU, United Nations. "We need to give people the opportunity to discover and be discovered, to grow skills, provide experience and uncover new ideas globally.”
Good luck to Dan and all of the UnGrounded participants!
[Photo credit: Dan Walmsley and Chris Pirillo, via Twitter]