Community Management for NASA Partnership
LAUNCH is a joint partnership between NASA, USAID, Department of State, and NIKE. LAUNCH identifies, showcases and supports innovative approaches to global challenges. LAUNCH is listed by Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance as one of the “Top 25 Innovations in Government” in 2013. I serve as the community manager for LAUNCH.
Every year LAUNCH holds a competition to discover 10 game-changing innovations. Previous LAUNCH challenges have been themed around health, energy, water, and waste. This video helps to describe the LAUNCH partnership.
When I was brought on to support the partnership nearly two years ago, LAUNCH had a nascent digital footprint. As the LAUNCH Community Manager I have developed content to engage the LAUNCH community. The primary focus of my efforts has been to create a dialog with potential applicants, engage journalists that cover sustainability news, and promote LAUNCH alumni.
LAUNCH online platforms include UStream, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Vimeo. To feed those networks, I have taken photographs, written blogs posts, and supported video livestreaming efforts through livechats and livetweeting at event locations. I work with the partners to coordinate consistent messaging and engagement. Our strategies have led to coverage on technology websites like PopSci.com and Mashable as well as sustainability websites.
One particularly satisfying experiencing was my recent time spent at Nike World Headquarters attending ideation sessions on a gamification component for the LAUNCH2020 summit. The final result was the development of a tablet-based game used during the LAUNCH2020 Summit which announced the latest fabrics challenge to the world.
