By Michael Somerby EBS STAFF
BIG SKY – HATCH founder Yarrow Kraner had a “seminal” moment standing in the audience at the first Peak to Sky concert in July 2019.
“I looked around to
see who was co-creating and sharing that moment with me, sharing that joy,”
Kraner said. “I realized there were people from all over, not just Montana, who
had flown in from cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and
Chicago. I recognized a real opportunity to harvest the collective brainpower
assembled to create tangible impact locally and globally.”
Even after the
second and final night came to a close, a notion stuck with Kraner—the event
could be given a purpose larger than providing two days of music-based
entertainment.
So he approached
Outlaw Partners, the Big Sky media, marketing, and events company—and publisher
of this newspaper—that produced Peak to Sky, with a pitch: At the summer 2020
iteration of the groundbreaking concert event, HATCH would facilitate
sustainability and zero-waste community-building initiatives via their “HATCH
Lab Design Sprints” model known for summoning actionable change in rapid
fashion.
“I was excited to
have HATCH approach us and think it’s a really strong match,” said Eric Ladd,
founder, CEO of Outlaw Partners. “We’re inspired to try to curate some
big-picture thinking with even bigger results.”
Annual HATCH
summits are networking events specializing in curated and hyper-focused cohorts
that bring seemingly unrelated minds from diverse industries and talents to
collaborate meaningfully on some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
The HATCH Lab
“Design Sprints” model will be applied to the second annual Peak to Sky concert
event, with set dates of Aug. 7 and 8, where the sheer influence of Big Sky,
rendered through it’s often famous and powerful residents, will be tapped to
tackle what some say is the ultimate issue: remedying the rapidly accelerating
effects of climate change via those sustainability and zero-waste community
focal points.
The notion is a
significant continuation of last year’s Peak to Sky sustainability efforts, in
which more than 1,000 pounds of material were compiled for recycling—with only
nine pounds of plastic bottles collected in total—thanks to mostly compostable
and aluminum serving materials and collection services provided by 406
Recycling.
“Some specific
talking points that have already been discussed for sprints are eliminating
single-use plastic use on a community-wide basis, examining more sustainable ways
to handle food waste and moving Big Sky to a completely green, clean energy
source,” Ladd said.
HATCH has deep experience in spearheading such out-of-summit success, partnering in 2019 with Soul Buffalo Expeditions’ Ocean Plastics Leadership Summit to lead HATCH Lab Design Sprints with 160 executives from corporate and NGO organizations, totaling more than $250 billion in aggregate revenue participation from Dow, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola, Clorox, Unilever, GE, HP, Kimberly-Clark and SAP along with international non-profits such as 5 Gyres, Greenpeace, National Geographic, Ocean Conservancy, PYXERA Global and the World Wildlife Fund, among others.
In theory, a
handpicked network of minds in attendance in August, particularly those of
community and industry leaders, will meld their spheres of influence for
greater goods.
Kraner noted
additional “ingredients” made the setting primed for such a seminal moment.
“I’ve been around
this area for a long time and have been involved in many large productions, but
that was next level, totally pro, and the talent on stage was unlike anything
I’d ever seen here,” Kraner said. “Top 10-list musicians on stage, and you
could tell they were having so much fun after time spent enjoying outdoor time
in Montana before performing … It impacted the energy.”
It’s no small
observation coming from Kraner who’s been ranked among the top 100 creative
people in the U.S.
“We’re thinking
about the archetypes we want present to be able to implement lasting solutions,
the different players,” Kraner said. “You definitely need the CFOs, CMOs, CIOs,
and CEOs in the room… the decision-makers that can implement and navigate the
massive ripple effects in the supply chain and businesses. We’ll also have
local students a part of this. They’re not bound by norms and biases that are
learned over the years that what’s not possible when approaching
problem-solving.These experiences also tap the insights of future leaders, and
expand their horizons on what’s possible.”
Due to Big Sky’s
relative infancy, at least as far as Big Sky’s chapter of global renown is
concerned, Kraner cites a unique opportunity to weave these concepts into the
very fabric of the community and its culture, versus “retro-engineering” change
in response to crisis.
Tapping the energy
of Peak to Sky, the people present—including the world-class musicians—and
HATCH’s global network of experts in this area, there’s a real platform for
HATCH to propel the energy of those sprints into an executable game plan for
one of the best up-and-coming resort towns in the nation.
And the buck
doesn’t stop there.
“If we’re
successful in harnessing best practices to move toward becoming a model
sustainable community,[We can] create an actionable map for communities
everywhere,” Kraner said, capping on the potential turnkey scalability of the
sustainable models conceived in the Peak to Sky Design Sprints.
Of course, Peak to
Sky with PURPOSE begins with the music, but HATCH could feasibly set the
high-water mark for musical events everywhere.
“This isn’t just a
concert catering to several thousand people that just want to have fun,” Kraner
said. “[We will] shine light onto problems in ways that have never been done
before.”
Interested in learning more about HATCH or being considered for a Peak to Sky with PURPOSE sprint cohort? Email Yarrow Kraner at yarrow@hatchexperience.org
Tickets for Peak to Sky go on sale on March 18. Get yours at peaktosky.com
