The Hatchery at AARP

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    AARP was built on innovation and has a long history of developing solutions that create opportunity and solve problems for people 50-plus. It’s part of our DNA. The Hatchery is a 10,000 square foot innovation lab, where we work with start-ups and the innovation community to discover big ideas and bring them to scale, to change how people live as they age.

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    Our space gives our team the freedom to be creative, take risks and function at their highest potential. We are committed to a beautiful work environment. That’s why our workspace has lots of natural light. As a group of innovators, we understand the importance of a visually beautiful workspace that fosters innovation and collaboration.

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    The Hatchery is designed for creation and risk taking. With break-out rooms that have dry erase walls, to small nooks for deep focus, to our large space where we host innovation centric events & workshops, each space has it own unique use. Risk taking is encouraged here. Dancing is required.

We live and breathe innovation!

At AARP, if you’re passionate about innovation, we’ll offer you training in best practices in innovative thinking. If you want to learn more, we’ll train you to become an innovation champion so you can lead, support and teach new innovative ways of working across AARP.

We believe that innovation can be applied to any job and at any level. We encourage creative thinking and risk taking every day. We challenge staff to develop big, audacious ideas that will change AARP and pay off on our mission.

To date, nearly 200 employees have become innovation champions, who then work to aide external startups in creating transformational products and services that change the world.

We operate a Design Thinking practice that provides the space and expertise to focus on human centered design and outcomes that foster real change and real solutions, both internally, in service of all of our national state offices and in support of our collaborations with startups.

Events at the Hatchery

AARP Innovation Labs is committed to bringing together some of DC’s best, most innovative entrepreneurs for insight sharing, fellowship and idea generation. We host a variety of events, workshops and design sprints to engage the DC innovation community, with exciting topics, key leaders, trends and innovation advocates.

We host an Innovation Event Series centered around exciting topics of innovation by bringing in the brightest innovators, entrepreneurs and dreamers to talk about their journey, key lessons, bright ideas/insights and how their work is affecting us and our communities as we age. This is a unique opportunity for us to showcase how aging and innovation are the underpinning of all aspects of our lives.

We host the DC Virtual Reality Meetup (DCVR), which meets monthly to explore emerging technologies in the virtual and augmented reality fields. Prior events have explored subjects such as women in the VR industry, architecture and VR, and the future of augmented reality. We also host the DC Aspiring Entrepreneurs Meetup with the goal of bringing innovators together to ignite passion and hope, to inspire, and support members who are creating and sharing their dreams.

AARP Innovation Labs sponsored Techweek DC, which brought together thousands of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, technology professionals and supporters of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We hosted a fireside chat and start-up exhibition in the Hatchery and exposed hundreds of participants to augmented reality and virtual reality. We also hosted a brain health challenge in a mobile innovation lab.