The FELDA Global Generation students visited The Impact Hub Westminster, a place for social start-ups to take ideas to action and impact.
This is the continuation of our multi-part report on the FELDA Global Generation students’ activities in Limkokwing University’s Global Classroom initiative. Read the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth part here.
Launched in 2011, Impact Hub Westminster is one of the largest of a global network of locally owned collaborative working spaces and is a place for social start-ups to take ideas to action and impact. Arriving at the Hub, students were briefed on the history and uses of the Hub by staff member Ms. Nketchi Ebite at the Strategy Lab, a slick meeting room with overhead projectors and a wall that serves as a massive interactive whiteboard. Ms. Ebite also led the tour around the entire open-office space, checking out the DIY kitchen area, meeting spaces like the Wiki House and the Greenhouse and chill-out areas with sofas, gym balls and table games.
The students were shown the many successful social start-ups the Impact Hub had produced, one of them being The People’s Supermarket. Students were briefed on the mission of The People’s Supermarket that saw opportunities and potentials from the discarded ugly fruits and veggies that were considered waste by large supermarket chains. The People’s Supermarket acquires this produce at a low price to create delicious food and products, thereby turning wastage into profit. Students also learn about Rubies and Rubble, another award-winning social enterprise that utilises the waste veggies and fruits from Borough Market’s fresh produce stalls to create preserves which they then sell as boutique products at the market.
Students were then allowed to roam freely around the space for a short period so that they could get a feel for the concepts and activities relevant to the space. After this, students met with Ms. Jessica Southall, the main hostess at the Hub Westminster, who told them about the key members at the Hub, as well as their accomplishments and progress throughout the years. Finally, they moved back to the Strategy Lab where Ms. Ebite briefed them on the rules and regulations of the Hub, its revenue streams and its core benefits.
Students were impressed by the unorthodox nature of the space. Ahmad Hazim Bin Ahmad Fuad, studying the Diploma in Creative Multimedia, said, “I am very impressed with The Impact Hub. I hope that I will be able to work in a place like this in the future”. Another students Fatin Syazana Binti Mohammad, doing the Diploma in Creative Multimedia, found it relaxing and comfortable and saw how happy workers can lead to higher productivity. The group thought that one downside of working in a location like this could be the tendency to become overcrowded, thereby reducing privacy. To underline this fact, some students pointed out that even though this is meant to be a collaborative space, most people seem to just bury their heads in their laptops and devices and don’t seem to be communicating or connecting with others at all, as if they’re building a virtual wall around them.
Overall, this proved to be an enriching experience for the FELDA students, which found remarkable how the use of interior design and furniture layout can transform business culture and lead to extraordinary results in a sector that requires Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to meet together in order to create social impact, something that they say can be emulated in our country.
You too could get to experience London like these FELDA students. To know more about Limkokwing University Global Classroom initiative, visit www.limkokwing.net/malaysia/academic/global_classroom.