The Global Innovation Exchange is a community of over 15,000 innovators, entrepreneurs and investors connecting to address humanity’s greatest challenges. Forum One built the “Exchange” platform for USAID.

Forum One helped ensure the success of the project in a number of ways:

We put innovators first. From branding to features, we made sure the Exchange matched the needs of the innovators. In fact, the Exchange is not branded to look like a USAID site at all. With over 100 partner organizations and development agencies participating in the Exchange, branding it with USAID logos and colors would have been a show stopper. 

We built the site fast. We had the initial site up 100 days after we signed the contract. That is almost unheard of within the government for such a complex site. But we knew that for an innovative site such as this one, the key was to get it up quickly and iterate rapidly.

Agile iteration, testing & improvement. Because the Exchange was a new platform, we didn’t know how users would react. We watched how users interacted, asked them for feedback, and built new features based on their needs.

The Exchange has been a resounding success. Whether USAID will ultimately win the ACT IAC Igniting Innovation Award remains to be seen; however, by all accounts this site is a winner and we are thrilled to have been a part of it!