Participants at an AdaptNY workshop brainstormed how they might help end users understand climate adaptation. – Photo by Eddie Vega

Can New York be made more resilient to the risks of climate change with pipe cleaners, markers and sticky notes? That’s what a diverse group of several dozen journalists, climate specialists, community organizers and product design experts set out to discover at a creative brainstorming workshop organized by AdaptNY.

Using the principles of human-centered design – and some of those imagination-sparking tools – participants worked in teams throughout the day-long gathering to answer a central question: How might we inspire our community to get more involved in climate resilience solutions?

The workshop featured a power panel of top-flight climate experts from the worlds of media, science, government and environmental advocacy, addressing the problems of adapting to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather. Then throughout the day, usability experts and coaches guided participants through a process of understanding what their users need, brainstorming solutions, prototyping projects and then sharing them for feedback from other workshop attendees.

Learn how the teams answered the adaptation challenge, and the unique process by which they developed those ideas, in our special report on the workshop.

• Follow our live coverage of the day, with live blogging, images and video
• Hear from climate experts on the coming risks and need for adaptation. View videos and read a transcript.
• Watch an exclusive interview with the New York City councilman who chairs a new resilience committee
• Learn more about the design thinking process and human-centered design
• Get summaries of a half-dozen solutions to the adaptation problem, with videos and images of team efforts.

AdaptNY partnered with the Online News Association and the Center for Community and Ethnic Media at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism to offer the all-day workshop Feb. 22.