💬 “The human spirit is so resilient and if we can provide some of the vulnerable people around the world with the tools they need, they will often be able to use them to great advantage.” Kristin Gutekunst

This is a conversation with Kristin Gutekunst

🎙️ Kristin is an expert in new media, brand, and partnerships with over 10 years of progressive experience working at the United Nations in campaigning for development, particularly through the combination of high-level advocacy strategies, grassroots mobilization, youth engagement, and innovative communications such as immersive media and experiential marketing. Many of the projects she has developed and launched have been streamlined, becoming standard for new media and communications at the UN as it has embraced the opportunity of the Sustainable Development Goals.

🎧 In this episode, Kristin talks about how Virtual Reality technologies are allowing stories to be told in new and novel ways, and are part of the new narrative in charitable giving to focus on the resilience, hope and ingenuity of individuals around the world. Individuals that when given better tools, can use these to better themselves and those around them.

Kristin charts a brief history of how we got to this new narrative, one that focuses on the quality and impact of the giving. Impact is a keyword for Kristin, she works with brilliant storytellers and technologists so that she can focus on how to amplify the message and use it to create lasting and significant change. Examples she gives, are by linking the impacts of climate change to the changes in your local community, things that people can see and have bearing on their day to day lives. There’s sometimes a feeling of disconnect, insignificance or overwhelm that causes inaction at the individual level and Kristin is working on successful strategies to overcome all of these with technologies, data and the power of storytelling.

Finally, she talks about the importance of being able to visualise data, something that until now has only been possible in 2D, is now both immersive and in 3D. She says this difference makes a big difference.

This is the Infinite Leaders series on the Boundless Podcast, we are exploring how Digital Transformation, Data and Artificial Intelligence can promote, provide engagement and deliver environmental sustainability.