(Serbian version is available at: https://bit.ly/clm20rs)
This year's Climathon (held on 28th and 29th of November) was unique for a number of reasons. Even though the global pandemic has cut the ties between the world metropolis, Belgrade was online with 145 cities and 55 countries worldwide, with media coverage of over 300 million people. This pandemic has taught us that people are willing to change their habits and give up certain luxuries for the sake of personal health. From a 100 applicants, over 50 have been selected to find out how much people are willing to do the same to heal our planet as well.
Climathon researched and offered solutions for the issue of field trip littering- going to enjoy the beauty of nature and then destroying that beauty by leaving trash behind. Teams competed to find the solution for this problem in a challenge called: “Field trip littering, technologies for raising eco-awareness”. Such a challenge requires a multi-disciplinary method. This year, Climathon managed to connect over twenty specialists in environmental approach from Serbia and abroad (for example, USA, Great Britain and Australia) with IT experts which provided necessary tools for the execution of the challenges.
Most importantly, Climathon has enabled all environmentalists who want to take action but do not know how to bring their ideas to life. This was achieved through technological and material support, training and advice from specialists in environmental topics, media coverage and work with mentors. All of this guided them toward creation of solutions which, in turn, can be applied by The Secretariat for Environmental protection.
Ideas in which we lay our hope are : "Green patrol" from the team "Team 1" which earned the first place, "Give space to nature, park and recycle" by the team "EcoGuardians" which earned the second place, and the third place was held by the "Eco Friend" application created by the team "Eko Druzina".
The award of the organisational team was given to the team "MikroKlinci", who worked on same challenges and conditions as other competitors despite being only 11 years old.
Climathon has enabled our participants to live in a virtual space for two entire days, which has shown to be greener and filled with more opportunities than the one we live in.
This was made possible by the innovative approach in usage of modern technologies, such as a Serbian IT system called Colabo.Space and the Norwegian Induct, (partner of the event). This enabled, not only online brainstorming and connecting participants for the sake of creative innovations, but creating ideas and work with mentors and the Secretary itself. Participants were encouraged to develop collective innovation and creativity via integration of this event with the educational forum Remaking Tesla. Remaking Tesla has been supported by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications
Climathon is organized by the Association "ChaOS" and supported by the Secretariat for Environmental Protection, Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, State Enterprise for Forest Management "Srbijašume", the Center for the Promotion of Science, Climate Innovation Hub, Induct, The University of Belgrade, School of Electrical Engineering, and many other schools and partners.
Link to the event https://climathon.climate-kic.org/Belgrade
Agenda https://bit.ly/clim20ag
Report from the previous "Climathon + ReMaking Tesla 2019/20" http://bit.ly/climbg-ree