The Port of the Future is Human
Savannah is the economic backbone of Georgia's logistics trade. We partnered with SHIP (Savannah Harbor Innovation Partnership) to build a "Corporate Innovation Lab" that turned the city into a startup incubator for 48 hours.
The "Box Mover" Trap
Savannah, Georgia, is home to the single largest and fastest-growing container terminal in America. It is a logistics superpower. But historically, the region faced a "Value Gap."
While billions of dollars of cargo moved through the city, the high-value technology and innovation managing that cargo was being built in Silicon Valley or Atlanta.
The Challenge: SHIP (Savannah Harbor Innovation Partnership) wanted to change this narrative. They didn't just want to be a "Box Mover"; they wanted to be a "Brain Hub." They needed to bridge the gap between the massive Logistics Giants (who had the problems) and the local Entrepreneurs/Students (who had the fresh ideas).
But these two worlds spoke different languages. The Corporations had silos; the Startups had no access.
Innovation is a Team Sport
Most economic development programs are "Talk Fests"—panels, speeches, and networking drinks. We knew that wouldn't work.
To spark a real ecosystem, we needed to move from "Networking" to "Co-Creation." The Insight: You don't build a startup community by giving lectures. You build it by giving them a fight. We needed to put real, high-stakes corporate problems in the center of the room and dare the local talent to solve them.
The Corporate Innovation Lab
We designed and facilitated a high-intensity 2-Day Design Thinking Sprint that acted as a collision collider for the city's talent.
1. The "Wicked Problem" Briefs We didn't use hypothetical case studies. We brought in major logistics and freight players to present actual operational bottlenecks they were facing—from "Last Mile Efficiency" to "Sustainable Packaging."
2. The "Unlikely Teams" We smashed the silos. We formed teams that mixed 22-year-old coding students with 50-year-old supply chain veterans. This friction was intentional. It forced the "Old Guard" to listen to "New Tech" and the "New Tech" to respect "Old Constraints."
3. The Rapid Prototype In just 48 hours, teams moved from "Idea" to "Investable Prototype." We used our Go-To-Human framework to ensure every solution wasn't just technically feasible, but culturally adoptable by the dockworkers and drivers who would use them.
48 Hours. Direction to Designing A New Economy.
The workshop didn't just generate ideas; it validated Savannah as a legitimate Tech Hub.
Startups
Born in a Weekend Teams pitched viable solutions for Freight Forwarding optimization that are now entering the local incubator pipeline.
Culture
Silo-Busting Corporate executives reported a shift in mindset: "We stopped looking for vendors and started looking for partners."
Video
The Evidence "This wasn't just a workshop; it was a movement." The program was featured in local news. See it here.
