From Dream to Reality: Reflections on My Entrepreneurial Journey

🌱 My roots. Before becoming an entrepreneur in Sustainability, I was a Media and Technology Lawyer in London and Head of Arts at the British Council in Singapore. In 2015, I noticed a new trend of big tech companies like Autodesk, Meta (formerly Facebook) and Google starting to invest in artists to improve creativity and drive innovation. My curiosity was piqued, and I began to explore technology's potential when used as a force for good.

🍃 A new leaf. I founded MeshMinds in Singapore in 2017, intending to invest in artists so that they could have access to the tools and skills needed to harness the power of frontier technologies to tell sustainability stories. Back then, I had no partnerships, and I was starting from the ground up – it was a fresh start with a novel idea. I was connected to Honor Harger, who was at the time Executive Director of ArtScience Museum, by Bill Thompson, a technology guru and journalist at the BBC, who I had met whilst I was at the British Council. After hearing my idea for MeshMinds, I was offered a space at ArtScience Museum to host a small, free-of-charge showcase of interactive experiences by Singaporean artists and creative technologists, which I called ‘MeshMinds 1.0’. Shortly after, I was introduced to Olivier Bos through a friend. He became my co-founder and our ‘Chief Inspiration Officer’ in charge of bringing to life and managing my endless penchant for coming up with new ideas to educate, enable and empower creators in the Asia-Pacific region.

🌍 Working with the UN… happened thanks to our first intern, Laura Barrera Vera. On a particularly quiet day in the office, I suggested she attend an Eco-Business Photography Exhibition to meet people passionate about sustainability. It was as simple as that. There, she met Isabelle Louis, who was at the time Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Office Asia Pacific. Serendipitously, one week later, I was planning to attend a technology conference in Bangkok, so I reached out to Isabelle to ask if I could showcase the interactive works from MeshMinds 1.0, including Oceans We Make, which had won the Marina Bay Sands Award for Sustainability during our showcase! I walked out of the meeting with a firm commitment to areas for collaboration. It’s amazing to look back and see how that day was so monumental for MeshMinds – working on projects with UNEP has been a key factor in bringing my vision to life.

🌟 Career Tip: Find ways to be around like-minded people who share your interests and passions. Find them, talk to them, and make meaningful connections – finding your tribe is the first step on your entrepreneurial journey.

🌳 The growth of #ArtxTechforGood. My role as Chief Connecting Officer at MeshMinds entails understanding people – what their goal is, what they need to achieve these goals, and who can help them get there – and connecting them to the right projects, programmes and partnerships. Specifically, I am continuously researching sustainability advocates and the topics that drive them. I also keep on top of tech trends and talk to our technology partners about their new products. When we are ready to start a project, we always "start with the art" by thinking about which creators we could work with to build experiences and tell stories using frontier technologies to protect our culture and the environment in the digital age. With our internal team and community of award-winning XR strategists, digital artists, virtual world-builders and filmmakers, we deliver groundbreaking campaigns, collaborations and conversations that catalyse positive action for people and the planet. My favourite question is, “Who do you know who…?” I truly believe that each connection I enable is its own success story. When we pause to understand each other’s values, skills and interests, we can then rely on each other and grow stronger together.

🍎 Fruits of our labour: When it comes to my proudest moments, three, in particular, stand out. The first was being invited to present our simple augmented reality experience, CleanSeas AR, to a room full of ministers, business leaders, and environmentalists across the Asia Pacific at UNEP’s Headquarters in Bangkok.

The second was being selected by Apple to meet CEO Tim Cook. We have a team of Apple consultants at MeshMinds. They bring creativity to the masses using the latest Apple products to tell global stories from a local perspective focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. While Tim Cook was visiting Singapore, we presented how children can make their digital drawings about ocean pollution come to life using AR on the iPad. I will never forget when he said, “This is exactly what we want to see Apple technology being used for.” It was amazing. Apple has been our great partner in standing behind our “Art and Tech for Good” mission.

The third was being invited by SGInnovate in 2017 to meet the future King of the United Kingdom, the then Prince Charles. They were looking for women in technology who were spearheading tech for good and I was extremely proud to be able to share our upcoming "Art x Tech for Good" show at ArtScience Museum (MeshMinds 1.0). I remember his eyes lighting up when I said that I was using emerging technologies such as AR and VR to educate youth and communities online about protecting our planet.

🎉 Latest milestones: 

In 2021, we spearheaded the 100 Days to #BeatPlasticPollution campaign in partnership with UNEP. The campaign focused on using interactive AR experiences to encourage people in Southeast Asia to form new habits to avoid single-use plastic. It was seen by over 20 million people worldwide and received numerous high-profile features, including the BBC and Asian Development Bank.

In 2022, we partnered with Meta to enable artists to use augmented and virtual reality to bring new audiences to traditional art in Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The programme was highlighted by UNESCO as an innovative example of protecting cultural heritage and building engagement with youth audiences and was seen by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

🚀 Up next: 

In 2023 and beyond, we will be focusing on five key areas:

1. Creative Content: Developing a new Roblox experience focused on vertical farming and the future of food in Asia; and a unique virtual reality floating city experience focused on raising awareness of rising sea levels and the future of human habitats.
2. Conversations: Bringing together luminaries from the art and technology worlds to explore how we can protect our culture and the environment in the digital age 
3. Collaborations: Designing creative technology incubation programmes centred on the ‘MeshMinds Method’, an inspiring, rich repository of resources aimed at taking digital artists from concept to creation of groundbreaking XR experiences.
4. Campaigns: Offering Metaverse experiences via online activations, short films and animations, virtual exhibitions and music performances for brand and education partners using the latest digital production technologies. 
5. Community: Building our curated community of award-winning digital artists, virtual world-builders, filmmakers and sustainability advocates on Discord.