Innovation Greenhouse - Carita Marsili

In just 3 weeks, I designed, curated, produced and installed an interactive exhibition at the WFP Innovation Accelerator Offices for the WFP Innovation Forum. The audience was high-level guests and the intention was to showcase innovation across WFP and into the field, highlighting key projects in a unique and engaging way.

I began with a whiteboard and a marker, mapping out the physicality of the space and what content could be placed within it. An emphasis was put on assets that could be made quickly, modular, so they could be taken to trade-shows and other forums, sustainable, using products we already had and long-lasting, avoiding URLs that could break, and data that got dated too fast (as innovation moves so quickly!)

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Oh, and it had to be fun and innovative.

Where do we first start? The concept. The theme of the Innovation Forum this exhibit was complimenting, was Seeds to Scale-ups. And I was also in charge of designing and executing the branding of the whole event and all it's assets. So what better way to showcase seeds of change, than a greenhouse of innovation?
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And a title is great, but an overall experience is better. Too many exhibits are walls of text that users stare at. How could I innovate this exhibition to be interactive, to be fun, to be insightful?

‍Game-ify it.

Users entered the greenhouse and flipped their already existing badges over to access 'Seeds to Scaleup' cards, made entirely from plantable paper. These cards guided them to unique individual stations that highlighted innovation at the World Food Programme, to keep the flow non-linear to accomodate for a large influx of guests moving in and out of the space. Each station had an activity, and a custom stamp you could acquire if you completed each activity or challenge.

The experience began with a pre-existing installation I had designed: "Innovation Grows Here", a visual timeline showcasing the Accelerator’s milestones. It was originally designed by me, for our office opening in 2024, in just two weeks. Here, users engaged with trivia (like identifying our upcoming 10-year anniversary) and received a custom rocket stamp before moving on.

For Farm to Market Alliance, I met with the team there to understand just how their network worked. We learnt that they had informal training centers they called 'Farmer Service Centres' that trained members to become Climate Smart Agriculture Champions. So, what better to do than have each attendee of the event become an unofficial CSA themselves. After a mini quiz and some training, they could stamp their badge and obtain a sticker.

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For Nilus, we worked with the team in Latin America to acquire a demo of their app. Attendees were tasks to build a nutritious school meal within the budget constraints.

And finally, the star of the show, SCOUT.

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Working with the wonderful Jose Sheata, we built a card game, "Race Against Hunger."

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It is a quick and engaging card game where a player acts as supply chain planner tasked with delivering food to a disaster-stricken area. The player must navigate complex challenges such as limited budgets and tight deadlines. Using transport and supplier options, they must make fast decisions to balance cost, speed, and efficiency. The game highlights the overwhelming complexity of planning without digital tools like SCOUT, emphasizing the importance of optimized solutions, such as SCOUT.

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The trick here? Users usually 'fail' the game pretty easily, to highlight the importance of innovation in disaster planning.

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Ultimately, the exhibit not only showcased innovation across WFP but also reflected it—blending creativity, strategy, and storytelling into a memorable, scalable format.

Innovation Greenhouse