Our First Kids Day: Big future topics for little curiosity seekers

As long presentations can hardly convey what innos is all about, we swapped the PowerPoint presentation for a campus scavenger hunt. At the very first Kids Day, we wanted to make our future topics such as mobility, energy, and sustainability tangible in a playful way. Fourteen children between 6 and 12 took part –curious, a little excited, and full of zest for action.

What was immediately noticeable: although the children didn't know each other yet, the ice was broken with the first handful of LEGO bricks. Fantastic animals with superpowers were quickly created – initially alone, then as a team. A diving bird? A money-spitting dragon? It's fascinating what childlike, unabashed creativity can produce.

It wasn't just about building, but also about tinkering, discussing, and thinking ahead together - just like us "grown-ups" in our day-to-day work. At innos, we often start with an idea, an impulse, sometimes just a vague task, and then develop viable strategies for complex issues with our partners. Good communication and respectful interaction are the be-all and end-all of any team. And even if things get off to a bumpy start, working together gets you to your goal faster.

Rally, set, go...

After the LEGO warm-up, we headed out onto the EUREF Campus, where the future takes shape every Day. This is because companies are working on solutions for the energy transition here, and the campus is full of exciting surprises and contrasts. Here, for example, is a prototype of an innovative lantern that provides an outlet to charge electric cars. A few meters further on are old gas lanterns from the 19th century, about which a question from the tour guide got everyone wondering: How many gas lanterns are left in Berlin – there are around 17,000!

Either way, we prefer to focus on the technologies of tomorrow. At our campus neighbors from Garamantis, the children could immerse themselves in digital worlds. An interactive "multi-touch table," the highlight was not the various information videos but 3D avatars of self-drawn chameleons that flitted across the screen. It is a beautiful digital playground and a good example of how creativity and artificial intelligence work together.

The future from above? With pleasure. The view over the city from the Gasometer's panoramic roof terrace at a height of 66 meters was spectacular and became a personal discovery tour for many children: Where is the Berlin TV tower? Where do I live? Where does the train go? The bright blue sky presented a perfect view that even long-time innosians were able to experience for the first time – the conversion of the Gasometer was only completed last year.

Learning from others

Back in the office, there was a kamishibai paper theater from Japan to relax and process the impressions better: an illustrated fairy tale about a boy who always and everywhere drew cats in all their facets, performed by Claas Bracklo, Chairman of CharIN e.V., a long-standing partner of innos. Many thanks at this point!

It was great to see how children who were initially strangers became a functioning team that developed an energetic momentum of its own – possibly to the detriment of employees trying to concentrate on their work, and how they were introduced to new topics through play, creativity, and cooperation – just as we work at innos: together, at eye level, with enthusiasm, openness and the courage to try out new things.

Kids Day was worthwhile if every child took away just one new insight from the Day. And if the answer to what they want to be when they grow up is "work at innos", then it will be worth it anyway. The next generation of innosians is undoubtedly on the right track.

A big thank you to everyone who made our first Kids Day possible!