Our Portal at COP27 in the Blue Zone connected world leaders directly to frontline communities with the United Nations Museum and Ikea Foundation.

Portals enable live DJ battles at major music festivals including Lollapalooza and Reeperbahn. With live audiences outside the Portal, hundreds or thousands can participate.

Shared Studios collaborated with Johns Hopkins University to bring together students in Baltimore, Beirut, and Gaza through virtual-exchange “hackathons.” Students form teams through the portal and work as one unit to solve a problem related to public health. The hackathon teaches participants transferable design skills as they tackle challenges facing refugee communities in Beirut and Gaza, emphasizing cultural literacy, teamwork, and design thinking.

Shared Studios participated in “The Senses: Design Beyond Vision,” an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt. We were among dozens of talented designers and artists examining how multisensory design amplifies everyone’s ability to receive information, explore the world, satisfy essential needs and experience joy and wonder.

The Biden Cancer Initiative used Portals to globalize their event, hosting dialogues between participants at the Biden Cancer Summit and people affected by cancer on five different continents. The event brought the world together in conversation about cancer research, care, and survivorship, and ensured accessibility to groups separated by geography. Thanks to the Portal, an international array of patients, caregivers, and researchers could participate in the event, share stories, and connect with a global community.

The Portal at Aspen Ideas Festival connected the themes of the conference to participants across the globe. The Aspen Ideas Festival is the nation's premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our The Portal at the Aspen Ideas Festival opened up this gathering to remote participants in Milwaukee, USA; Kigali, Rwanda; and Isfahan, Iran. Shared\_Studios founder Amar C. Bakshi also presented on Portals alongside NPR host Michelle Norris and journalist Jose Antonio Vargas.

The Portal at SXSW connected festival attendees to counterparts across the globe.

We gained new perspectives on space and exploration with a Portal during Kids Week at The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. The Intrepid\_Portal connected young explorers of all ages with NASA researchers, environmental adventurers and spacecraft designers. Intrepid Portalers connected with Nic Scott, a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center, for an out-of-this-world discussion on exoplanets and the Solar System. We then connected with Tim Jarvis, acclaimed explorer and environmental activist, who spoke about recreating Shackleton’s journey and his record-setting trek – on foot – to the South Pole. Then, we connected with scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Los Angeles, where two researchers spoke about space and the atmosphere. We rounded out our planetary week by beaming into the Orion mock-up at Johnson Space Center, where rocket engineers described the process of building a crew module which will eventually carry astronauts to the moon and to Mars. They even shared their favorite types of space food (pro-tip: stock up on the mac and cheese)!

We work with Doha Debates to connect people around the world in healthy dialogue around what matters.

Working with the United Nations Museum, we partnered with Cortico, a non-profit that works alongside MIT CCC (Center for Constructive Communication) to bring a unique combination of deep human listening, natural language processing, and machine learning to amplify the perspectives encapsulated by the programme.  There is a wealth of global climate experiences to collect, understand, and share. Until the end of February 2023, we will record and analyse hundreds of conversations across 15+ locations.  By detecting patterns between shared questions and the corresponding themes and emotions, we will be able to reveal some of the deeper currents of the climate conversation that flows across the planet.  “With so many global climate experiences to collect, understand, and share, we’re bringing deep human listening and artificial intelligence to document and elevate Global We conversations. Our work elevates these conversations, giving them a better chance of being heard and sparking real climate action,” says Deb Roy, CEO of Cortico and Director of MIT CCC.

A Portal outside the European Parliament connected elected officials to refugee and migrant communities to highlight Europe’s refugee crisis. Portals provided a direct feedback mechanism for MPs who were able to speak with those on-the-ground to better understand the impact of the policy decisions and legislation currently under review.

Cornell University’s Olin Library hosted a Portal for a series of events, seminars, classes, and performances for undergraduate and graduate students. Connection topics ranged from discussions on migration with San Pedro Sula, Honduras to black speculative thought with Kigali, Rwanda. The Portal also hosted jam sessions between American folk musicians in Ithaca and traditional Afghan musicians at the Afghan National Institute of Music in Kabul. Participation was widespread and actively drove diverse community engagement; we are now working on building a permanent Portal at Cornell. Cornell Library staff also promoted the Portal as a primary source, and worked with faculty and students across projects and divisions to develop research projects around Portals and community engagement, and position the Portal as a source for existing academic research and collaboration.

Our Portal at the BBC connected voices around the globe.

Portals come annually to Wellington College to connect their students to the world and build empathy. Read more about our work together in the [Research](http://www.sharedstudios.com/research) section of our site.

The Portal at Marin Academy connected to the world.

The Skoll World Forum used Portals curate presentations from global social entrepreneurs, showcasing humanity’s indomitable will to innovate and thrive.