LINE KOLLING

Last week, I participated in the Global Solutions Program, Danske IDéer 2017, which was facilitated by SingularityU Denmark and sponsored by the Danish Industry Foundation. A big shout out to the fantastic organizing team behind that made it all happen! I am grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in such an amazing mind-blowing program.
At the program, there was a focus on creating a positive impact through the use of exponential technologies. The world faces several grand challenges and this workshop focused on climate change. Up until now, the earth lost 52% of its species due to climate change. 64 innovators were gathered to look for opportunities and massive inefficiencies. How can we help as many people as possible? We, as humans, are built to think in a linear way. This is not sustainable as we live in an exponential world. In order for us to understand the challenges we are currently facing, a five days’ program were packed with amazing speakers and mind-boggling discussions. I still cannot wrap my head around all the amazing things that are currently going on. We had several workshops on robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and biotechnology (transhumanism, CRISPR). Some of the things that amazed me were:

1. Scientists are bringing back the mammoths!
2. You can now record your dreams. This is currently being tested on rats, where scientists discovered that your dreams appear to be 6x faster than reality. Being a vivid lucid dreamer, I am super stoked to hear about this.
3. Biolab on a chip that can diagnose diseases from a single drop of blood in a few minutes. I had a similar idea, andI wanted to use the technology behind to tailor-made meals/vitamins supplements based on the blood sample.

Apart from learning about the new technologies, I also met a fantastic crowd of human beings. All of these wonderful people wanted to contribute to saving the world. I have always been a firm believer of Maersk McKineys quote: “Den der har evnen, har ansvaret” (= The one who has the ability, has the responsibility). It was wonderful to meet like-minded people who felt the same way. I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing program.

To add a cherry on the top, I got one of the five finalist spots. I was chosen by my peers, and it is such a great honor! Next step is a pitch March 31st. Unfortunately, I cannot be there in person, as I am pitching an idea at the MIT bootcamp the same day. Luckily, the time difference works to my advance. With the use of technology, I can even beam myself in! I praise that we live in a world with technology that is at such an advanced stage, where you can communicate in real time with persons on the other side of the earth. I am curious to see what the future brings, and I do hope that I will be able to teleport myself from one place to another… or maybe we should just start with the hologram.

The last two weeks were intense, as I had lots of materials I wanted to read prior to the two bootcamps. Danske IDéer 2017 kicks off on Tuesday, and I am now reading up on exponential technologies, and how they might affect our society moving forward. Once I dive into a topic, I can easily sit in front of my laptop screen for 13 hours straight – time just fly by. It is, therefore, important to me that I get out of the apartment and work from different places, so I won’t take root in my office chair at home. This week I went to four different places:

SingularityU Copenhagen: This is a new space that just opened up this week! It is going to be a new innovation hub, and it seems to be very promising. I visited my friend, Jesper, at Ideanote, and got a small tour around the place. It is a vast space with more than 5000m^2. The place is committed to making a positive difference by creating initiatives for entrepreneurs and students for impact activities. Awesome! I have the feeling this is not the last time, I will enter this building.

SOHO: Wednesday, I had a presentation at 10 AM for the Bestseller Foundation on the strategy moving forward with the African company Ogojiii. I really like SOHO (Small Office Home Office) due to the diversity of people and companies. I found a spot on the first floor and began to read about the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

The Black Diamond: I love working from here. I often used to go here to study for my exams. The vibe is great, and their reading rooms allow me to sit down and focus. There are two reading rooms in the building: East with 142 seats and Noth with 99 study desks. The only downside is the opening hours, as they close at 8 PM. My stomach does appreciate it, though, so I will head back home to raid the fridge.

CIID: Today, I am working from Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, where I am visiting my two friends David and Asger at M-Payg. It is great to be able to catch up with friends and work at same time.

Wish you all a lovely weekend!

I am slowly beginning to prepare myself for the upcoming MIT Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. Today, I bought a flight ticket from Copenhagen to the Gold Coast for just $350 USD. “How is that even possible?” you may ask.

My trip is booked via two different vendors. First, I found a ticket from Copenhagen to Bangkok for $156 USD, and thereafter I found flights from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and then the Gold Coast for $206 USD. By using my approach, I managed to save $170 USD. In this blog post I want to share some of my travel advice on airline tickets, and how you can save some $$$.

There are various sources that claim that you should buy your ticket on Mondays or Tuesday. Let’s just dispel that myth right away. There are no days that are better than others. However, a good rule of thumb is to buy your tickets between 30-90 days prior to departure. On the other hand, the cheapest days to fly out are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, whereas the most expensive days are Fridays and Sundays.

There are several great search engines, and it all comes down to how flexible you are with your dates and where you travel to.

• If you are flexible, Skyscanner is your best shot. This is my preferred search engine, and you can choose the “Flexible” option which allows you to search for all destinations in the world. Furthermore, you can also compare prices for all dates of the year. Pretty awesome.
• If you are going for 6+ hours destinations, I would recommend you to have a look at TripCombi. Hands down, this is the best flight search engine I have come across. It compares up to 700+ sites, and it is easy to use. Last year I booked a flight from Nepal to London for $140 USD one week before departure!

Where are you going next?