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When he was 17 years old, Arne Hillerns moved from his small village in Northern Germany to spend a year in Wausau, Wisconsin. For a brief period of time, he felt like the foreign exchange high school student that he was: “People look at you [and think,] Who’s that kid? he recalls. Just a year prior, Hillerns had discovered skateboarding, and the skate scene in Wisconsin was buzzing. Within three days or so, he had found a community of skateboarders. Skating made me so much more open in my personality and gave me confidence, he says. It was a very easy entry to this new world for me. Fast-forward 25 years, and Hillernss passion for skateboarding has spread across almost every continent. Hillerns is now the founder of an NGO called Make Life Skate Life, which works to make skating accessible to underserved youth all over the world. Over the past decade, his team has designed and built more than a dozen skateparks in countries including Laos, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Brazil, and Morocco. [Photo: courtesy Make Life Skate Life] Earlier this month, they completed the first-ever skate park in Baghdad, Iraq. Five years in the makingthe longest it’s ever taken them to build oneBaghdad Skatepark features a variety of ramps and obstacles tailored to people of all skill levels. One ramp was even designed to look like a magic carpet (which locals are yet to paint) as a nod to the 2019 Disney movie, Aladdin, which is set in a city based on Baghdad. (Even Disney’s 1992 animated Aladdin was initially to take place in Baghdad, but for the First Gulf War, which broke out in 1991.) [Photo: courtesy Make Life Skate Life] We like to have local elements that represent the culture or the country, Hillerns tells me. In Taghazout, a coastal city in the south of Morocco, they incorporated a quintessentially Moroccan arched door. In Inukjuak, an Inuit community in Northern Quebec, they built a structure resembling an igloo. Hillerns founded Make Life Skate Life in 2013, but the seeds for the NGO were sown a year prior. By then, Hillerns had returned to Germany, where he’d spent five years looking up how to mix concrete and ultimately transforming a post-industrial site in Hanover into what became one of Europe’s biggest DIY skateparks. In 2012, he set off for India in an attempt to share his learningsand try to replicate the community he had built. Not everyone has the possibility of skating in front of their house, he says. For me, it comes down to having a space to skate. Bangalore [Photo: courtesy Make Life Skate Life] After crisscrossing the country looking for skateboarders, Hillerns and the two friends he was traveling with finally came across a group in Bangalore who had found a patch of land but didn’t know how to turn it into a skatepark. With Hillerns’s helpand funding from Levi’s SkateboardingIndias first free skatepark was born. (Due to legal issues in the residential area where it was built, the skatepark shuttered a year after it opened, but Holystoked, the local group, has since constructed more than 20 skateparks in the country.) After that first build in Bangalore, Hillerns founded Make Life Skate Life, and projects grew organically in places like La Paz, Bolivia, where the team built the city’s first skatepark and Amman, Jordan. Hillerns says there is no set formula for the way each skatepark evolves, but the action plan is usually the same: find a skating community, find funds, find land. [Photo: courtesy Make Life Skate Life] An eager community is the easiest to find. (Abidjan, in Ivory Coast, for example, has a thriving skate scene and it is where Hillerns hopes to go next.) Funds often come from a combination of crowdfunding, corporate sponsorships, and help from local embassies. In the case of Baghdad, the park was financedwith the help of the German and French Embassies, as well as a local NGO that did a round of fundraising a few years ago. But the original idea for the park never materialized because they couldn’t find land. Which brings us to the land problem. [Photo: courtesy Make Life Skate Life] A typical skatepark is only as big as two-to-four tennis courts, but that much land isn’t always easy to find, especially in parts of the city that are easy to access. Some years ago, the team struggled to find such spot in Laos, but ended up making an arrangement with a private individual who agreed to let them build a skatepark on his own land and open it to the public. They also tried building a skatepark in Kathmandu, Nepal, but the project fell through because, again, they couldn’t find land. In Baghdad, the team’s search could’ve been met with the same fate, but Hillerns says they refused to give up. In 2018, Make Life Skate Life built Iraq’s first skatepark in Sulaymaniyah, 165 miles north of Baghdad. Suli Skatepark was such a success that kids living in Baghdad spent six hours on a bus just to go skate there. This motivated Hillerns and the team them to keep looking. [Photo: courtesy Make Life Skate Life] Hillerns blames expensive land and corruption for delaying the process. Eventually, the team managed to secure a patch of land on the Ministry of Youth and Sports complex near Al-Shaab International Stadium. The city required security guards on site to ensure that nobody misinterpreted the skatepark for something else; but it is well-located, and in a city where so-called third places are virtually nonexistent. It’s a place that Iraqi kids can make their own. Now, Baghdad’s first skatepark has made international headlines, and Hillerns is hopeful it will help change the way Baghdad is portrayed in the media. He dreams of a world where, much like foodies travel to eat, and cyclists travel to bike, skaters would travel to skate. You wouldnt think of Baghdad as a tourist destination, but it’s very easy to get into the country and its a city like every other city, he says. A skating pilgrimage to Baghdad would’ve been unthinkable even a month ago. Now, it’s a distinct possibility.
Category:
E-Commerce
There are certain social media rules we can all agree on: Ghosting a conversation is impolite, and replying k to a text is the equivalent of a backhand slap (violent, wrong, and rude). But what about the rest of the rules? When can we really remind someone of our old Venmo request? What happens when someone tries to flirt with you on LinkedIn? Fortunately, terminally online writers Delia Cai and Steffi Cao are here to answer all your digital quandaries, big or small. For Fast Companys final installment of our advice column, Posting Playbook, Steffi Cao and Delia Cai tackle your biggest questions about online careerism and Venmo etiquette. I feel like I should be posting more on social media to further my career as an artist. Am I going to fall behind if I don’t? Steffi: I see it as a kind of add-on situation: Posting on social media can be a great tool to promote your work and get different eyeballs on your art, but its not crucial to your development as an artist. What matters the most is honing your skill and actually making stuff, after allonce you start caring more about your Instagram posts than your product, then its time to sit back and reevaluate your life. But its silly to say that you can totally eschew social media to further any public-facing career now. Everyone, regardless of their industry, has some kind of pressure to advertise their lives, and romanticize their high-powered careers through the bells and whistles of mirror selfies, party photos, a medley of vague, brooding slice-of-life shots featuring glasses of white wine and overlays of books. But you cant believe everything you see on social media. Thats always the rule. This includes the smoke-and-mirrors of glamorous industry parties where everyone seems to be dressed well and rubbing shoulders with the right circles of people, who seem to be getting further in their artistic endeavors because theyre drinking champagne with the right people. Connections are deeply important to any creative industry, this is always true, but its not worth it to stress about if youre falling behind because you saw someone post their Getty Images from last nights downtown indie soiree. That way lies madness. I say, put aside time to post on the platform that feels least annoying to you, then youre free to ignore it for the rest of the week. Nothing about it should be super high-investment, since this is free content, but just throw a bone out there to say, who want me? Then you can spend the rest of your precious time actually making something that feels good to you. This shouldnt be your number-one priority anyway, and it really shouldnt take up the most valuable real estate in your brain. Delia: Not necessarily. Social media is certainly useful both as a de facto business card and a method of updating people about your work. But the real secret to using it to advance ones career, I think, is that it humanizes you to prospective clients, collaborators, etc. and essentially helps people feel like they already know you. And of course, everyone prefers working with people they know. Thats a bit of a cynical read on the state of parasocialism, but perhaps it might be helpful for you to consider the strategy of your posting in that way, outside of simply having to post more. Still, if the idea of tending to your social media as an artist just totally deadens your heart, theres no rule that says you post, or be left behind. I do think that if you choose to opt out of posting, I would still take the time to set up your page with a few highlights and basic info (like how to get in touch or where to see your work), and then you can leave it be. Otherwise, youre likely will miss out on opportunities any time someone decides to look you up on social media first. If youre worried about falling behindor at least, being less top-of-mind than your more post-happy peersyou may have to commit a little more energy into IRL networking and promoting your work. Whether its giving yourself a goal of going on a couple of coffee meetings per month or looking into other forms of online self-promotion (newsletters, a traditional website), go with the method that feels most in alignment with you. What’s the correct Venmo request/reminder/payment etiquette? Delia: As a personal rule, I try to never put the lender (the person who is owed the money on Venmo) in a position where they have to raise the topic with me first. If a friend offers to cover drinks at the bar, Ill make a point of asking them to Venmo request me, though I think its classier to simply take a look at the bill at the end of the night and proactively send the money through immediately. On the other end, of course, its trickier. I tend to always use emojis in the description of a Venmo request to soften the feeling of like, itemizing my relationships, and I will never use the actual Venmo remind button, because that seems passive-aggressive. If more than a week goes by and the request hasnt been paid, Ill shoot a text to that person and feign a bit of relatable urgency: Hi! So sorry, but do you mind Venmoing me for last weeks movie? Have to pay my landlord today! That subtly shifts the issue to be a matter of payment timing, and not my (real) annoyance about not getting paid back. If that text gets ignored (or lost in the shuffle), I might bring it up with this person the next time I see them in person, but otherwise, I might cut my losses and begin reevaluating the friendship itself. Because then its just rude! Steffi: For everyones peace of mind, its incredibly important to have a common understanding with your loved ones about how you prefer to Venmo each other. A lack of communication around money has been the impetus for many ends of friendships, relationships, marriages and moreso when youre out with your friends, its always important to ask if youd prefer to split the bill evenly or put it on one card and Venmo request. Also, like Delia said, be proactive about paying people back when they cover for you. As for those bigger days out where multiple cards are getting put down on the table (long nights out, weeklong trips, bachelorette parties), I think its very important to set an expectation with people before the bill gets paid about how these Venmo requests are about to work. It doesnt need to be a long conversation, but its important to get on the same page about it. Whether its one card operating as a tab that charges everyone back or splitting evenly each time, as long as youre all comfortable with it ahead of time, thats all that matters. To be honest, my best friends and I Venmo request each other line-by-line, even if weve all effectively paid the same amount, because we all do not play about our budget spreadsheets. Perhaps it might be considered overkill, but Ive never worried about covering for them as a result, because weve had a quiet agreement on how we respect each others money for a decade. Ive never used the remind button as a result. Frankly, I think people need to be more annoyingly candid about money. Look around us! Eggs are ten dollars, tariffs are sending prices to the moon, the cost of living is outpacing income by a mile. Get real and stop putting your card down for people you dont know just because youre worried about being impolite. Venmo request everyone immediately if they havent already paid you back. It all boils down to the time-worn adagetreat people how you would want to be treated. Wouldnt that also apply to your own hard-earned money?
Category:
E-Commerce
Youve signed up to attend a conference or industry event, and when the day finally arrives, you probably experience some regret. Thoughts run through your head, such as Why do I have to go? I have too much work to do. I wont know anyone. I can make connections online. Sound familiar? Entering a room full of strangers or, worse yet, people in your field that you admire can make you feel like youre a kid again, walking into your first day of kindergarten. Its intimidating, but worth it because nothing replaces live connections, says Rebecca Grinnals, cofounder of the luxury wedding and event business conference Engage! Summits. You can’t put a price on the value of connecting with people meaningfully in personwe certainly saw that over the last five years, she says. Its a cliché, but your net worth is your network. In-person networking is more vital than it’s ever been in this age of AI and social media. While online connections are important and a good first step, theyre also limiting, says Kathryn Arce, Engage! Summits cofounder. You can miss out on the benefit of being connected to people, finding your group, and being inspired, she says. Everyone needs to be a part of something a little bit bigger. In-person events get you away from your office and computer. Theyre like fresh air for your soul. Your success will depend on attitude and planning. Here are five networking tips that will help put your nerves aside and open the door for meaningful connections with others: 1. Set An Intention Before the day arrives, decide what you want to get out of the event. In other words, dont come without a plan, says Grinnals. Some conferences will provide you with a list of attendees. Other times, there will be a Facebook page set up for the conference and you may be able to see the names of people in the group. If the event hasnt provided access to attendees, you can still review the speakers, workshop facilitators, and organizers. Then, identify three to five people you would like to meet and have a good conversation with over the course of the event. 2. Find a Warm Connection Once you have a list of people you hope to meet, research them on LinkedIn, social media, and news sites to see if you have anything in common that could serve as a way to connect. Maybe you both attended the same school. Or perhaps you share a friend or colleague. If you dont find a commonality, you can still use what you learn as a conversation starter. For example, if theyre from Philadelphia, you can ask how they felt about the Super Bowl. It helps to be more personal and genuine before you go into any type of business conversation, says Arce. 3. Be Genuine Theres a fine line between introducing yourself and promoting yourself and leading with an elevator pitch can be off-putting, says Grinnals. People often go to networking events with their chest puffed out, like a peacock, she says. They want to tell everybody, I’m a big deal in my market, or You should know me. That’s the wrong way to go about it. Nobody wants to feel sold to. Instead, be authentic and vulnerable. It’s better to come in and say, How’s business been? I’ve had a couple of challenges this year and don’t know if you’ve experienced it as well, says Grinnals. That immediately takes people a little off their guard and allows for a much more meaningful conversation and connection. You can also ask for advice. Instead of being another person trying to pitch their business, its refreshing and unexpected when someone says, I’m a big fan of your work. This is something I’m struggling with and wondered if you’ve got any advice? adds Grinnals. Everyone loves to be asked for advice. They don’t love to be asked for their business right off the bat. Offering help can also be a powerful way to connect. Sometimes people feel like, I’ve made an investment, and so I am just here to receive, says Grinnals. An easy icebreaker is, Is there anything I can help you with? Is there anybody I could introduce you to? The more you help other people achieve their goals, the more you’re going to feel good and have your goals achieved as well. 4. Be Open Its common to go into a conference focusing on what your return on investment needs to be, but this opens the door to leaving disappointed. Have a plan and a target list of connections but stay open to the organic meetings that can happen, too. People too often focus on the power players or the movers and shakers in an industry, hoping they will crack open a new opportunity or change you and your business forever, but thats not always true, says Grinnals. More often than not, it is the people that you least expect that you may be sitting next to on a shuttle ride or being seated next to in a session that actually turn out to be the most valuable people. Strike up conversations without expectation of what anyone can do for you, says Arce. There needs to be a nice balance of being open and letting things happen in the moment, she says. 5. Follow Up Its easy to leave a conference and move on with your life. However, intentional and thoughtful follow-up is the key to building your network. After the event, carve out time to reach out to interesting connections but be mindful of not spamming people. Take careful notes each day about who you met, says Grinnals. If you want to connect with the speaker, for example, you could send a follow up email specifically calling out something they said that was meaningful to you. If its someone you spoke with, recall a part of the conversation you remembered. Be specific, personal, and thoughtful, as opposed to just saying, It was great meeting you. Dont expect to go to one event and walk away with a lot of connections, answers, or business. Thats not the purpose, says Grinnals. The purpose is to start conversations with people and make initial connections, she says. Like anything in life, consistency is key. Plant the seeds and water them. Networking is a long game.
Category:
E-Commerce
Just a couple of years ago, pundits were warning of streamings demise. From Netflix to Spotify, these companies were burning through cash. How could they keep operating? Now, almost all of the streamers have made it to positive profits. Netflix is the envy of the entertainment industry, while its underlings like Disney+ and Max have also turned around their losses. Last Tuesday, Spotify shares jumped 13% after the company announced its first full year of profitability. There are still stragglers, but on the whole, streaming has formed itself into a successful business model. Theres a lesson here: For emerging tech, theres value in patience. It took streaming over a decade to get it right, to effectively combine user growth and ad sales in a way that manifested profits. We should expect the same from all of our tech innovators. How streaming became profitable In the late 2010s, things werent looking positive for Netflix. Sure, they were making positive profits, but their debt was staggering. The company had amassed $15 billion in long-term debt by the end of 2020; compared to quarterly profits of just around $1 billion, Netflix seemed ready to capsize. CNNs headline at the time: Netflix is burning through cash. This cant last forever. Now, everyone wants to be Netflix. Their profit margin is now 22%, earning $8.71 billion last year in profits (from some $39 billion in revenue). Remarkably, the business is expanding. They added a record-breaking 19 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024, mostly thanks to the live fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. And their ad tier, which used to be a tiny subsidiary of their business, is now scaling rapidly. Its good to be in the business of Netflix. The smaller streamers, once the butt of Wall Streets jokes, are now reaching profitability. Max eked out its first positive profit of $103 million in 2023. Compare that to 2020, where WarnerMedia blamed their $1.2 billion in losses on investments in the streamer. Disneys streaming division, which compromises both Disney+ and Hulu, just reached their second straight quarter of profitability. In 2022, the division was losing the company over $3 billion. Now, Spotify has joined the club. For years, Spotify failed to put up positive profits. Their losses reached a peak in the second quarter of 2023, when Spotify lost about $256 million. The Wired headline from that year: Spotify is Screwed. Now, theyve reached a full year of positive profits. The virtue of patience with emerging tech The sheer scale of money lost made streamers an easy target. In 2020, when Netflix was saddled with some $15 billion in long-term debt, the company also had a marketcap of $238.89 billion. How could we so blindly trust a company that was burning through money? But these are long-term bets, and the bets eventually paid off. The same could be true for dozens of emerging tech fields of today. Look at AI. OpenAI, the golden child of the industry, lost $5 billion in 2024. And they keep taking on more money, most recently $6.6 billion in new investments and a $4 billion line of credit. How can we justify this? But AI companies (OpenAI chief among them) are betting on the future. AI might not be profitable now, but it will be. Its hard to trust OpenAI CEO Sam Altman when he makes these grand claims. But, if streaming is any indication, he could be right. The tech market demands patience; not just months of it, but years.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its no surprise that artificial intelligence is transforming the way we learn, but it also has the potential to add a sprinkling of magic to on-the-job training. Turning the ordinary into the extraordinary is especially beneficial in the skilled trades. Were already seeing social media inspire the next generation of tradespeople, and AI-based learning programs can help attract, develop, and retain young talent. In the U.S., hiring for skilled roles, including electricians, industrial machinery workers, plumbers, and HVAC technicians, could be more than 20 times the projected annual increase in new jobs from 2022 to 2032. The current pipeline of skilled trades training cant keep up with the demand for workers, and a significant percentage of high school students interested in training programs find themselves on a waiting list. Employer investments in training and upskilling programs are critical in closing the labor gap. AI training requires a foundational knowledge We have already seen that AI is effective for advanced learning. It synthesizes information, translates it, and creates more personalized learning experiences. However, leveraging AIs power hinges on one critical ingredienta strong digital foundation. This is where many employers will fall short. They have traditionally relied on job shadowing, the occasional in-person classroom training, or limited online compliance training. Further, there is a common misconception that skilled workers will be able to learn in the field with an AI-enabled device as their primary means of information. These devices are useful for troubleshooting or serving as a quick reference tool, but they should only be used in conjunction with substantive foundational knowledge. The cognitive load while working makes it incredibly challenging to learn efficiently and effectively. Imagine being in a setting with safety risks, noise, and multiple distractions competing for your attention. At the same time, youre supposed to be taking in new information, acting on it, and retaining it. But, if that AI-supported in-the-field training was combined with a robust AI-driven digital foundational program, thats where the magic starts to happen. The most effective training takes place when employees have time to internalize the material, reflect on it, and review it. The need to pair AI with people A digital foundation that combines strategic assessments, core course material, bite-size learning, and digital simulations with real-world scenarios can provide the hands-on learning that is essential in the skilled trades. Whats more, all of this can be done in a safe, controlled environment. AI can communicate big ideas and take on the role of mentor, highlighting what is important, assessing skills, offering support, and providing insights into strengths and weaknesses. AI can serve as a personal learning guide, but it can’t provide emotional support and won’t replace people. Instead, great teachers will use AI along with digital learning to make their emotional interaction more useful. AI is advancing at a rapid pace, and many CEOs are asking themselves what their organization should be doing with AI and when to jump in. The answer is to jump in now. The consequences of not adopting digital learning will only get more severe the longer they wait. Learning is essential for every role and at every age, from the Gen Zers who are increasingly skipping college to existing employees requesting upskilling tailored to their specific needs. A digital foundation is the magicor missing ingredientthat lays the groundwork for CEOs to address labor shortages, reduce risk, and increase operational efficiency within their workforce. Doug Donovan is founder and CEO of Interplay Learning.
Category:
E-Commerce
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