Meet the Public Relations Team at XPRIZE

XPRIZE designs and manages public competitions to encourage the development of technologies that benefit humanity. “Seat 14C” is one of its more inventive competitions. Science fiction was the basis for the contest, based on the premise of a flight that travels 20 years in the future. Using a seating map, visitors to the contest site could click on seats occupied by prominent writers like Bruce Sterling and Margaret Atwood and read their stories answering the question, “How will technology and culture interact in the year 2037?” Visitors were seated in seat 14C, from which they contributed their own works of fiction, with the winner earning $10,000 and a trip to Tokyo. The PR team solicited the stories from 22 established science fiction writers, oversaw submissions and got the word out about the innovative campaign, which earned coverage in WIRED, Scientific American, Discover Magazine and a host of other relevant news outlets.