What does it mean to be an “entrepreneur without borders?” Inspired by the world-renown non-profit, Doctors Without Borders, Tribe Theory decided to put on a 1-month video competition encouraging entrepreneurs to record a video answering the same question. As a reward, the winning entry would receive 3 nights free accommodation at any Tribe Theory site of their choosing.

Entrepreneurs without borders are essentially global business travelers who don’t experience borders so much geographically. Crossing mental borders seem to be a lot more “top of mind” for them versus physical.

As we know, online communities are all about content and engagement. The more content there is, the more engagement… so they say. More content and engagement, however, is not always the answer. From Russian bot armies to Cambridge-Analytica, what we put out must be scrutinized more and more as trust and privacy become increasingly important for users.

With video-based competitions, you can at least ensure users who are genuinely behind accounts to participate. Although social engineering can be used to generate millions of fake accounts and/or bots, it’s a lot harder with video.

Everybody shares the same 24 hours. Tribe Theory is a growing, but young team. Since Community Managers are already dealing with so much on the ground, user-generated content is far more desirable than company-driven. The idea behind this campaign was to help drive more user-generated content, fully aware that “viral” content isn’t always easy to spark. Through the campaign, we hope to learn more about our own market and what they prefer in terms of content.

When it comes to marketing, and engaging communities, you want to try things out until you find something that sticks. Every new campaign is a hypothesis, every target market has its kinks. The #EntWithoutBorders campaign is one that can help hit “multiple birds with one stone” — engage people, save time, increase brand awareness, and showcase power users.

Most importantly, the reason we created #EntWithoutBorders was to speak to the Millennial business travelers of the 21st century. Being one myself, having a chain of hostels like Tribe Theory means I always have a place I can call “home” whenever I enter a new city. The biggest challenge for an increasingly mobile population is providing that “sense of belonging” when the concept of “community” is separated from geographical location.

Tribe Theory is poised for the next age we are entering — one where borders, as we know them, may matter less and less. Perhaps new borders may arise, in the form of digital space, but our planet is in need of change to accommodate this new class of citizen. A citizen that does not identify with any one country, race or political affiliation, but may identify with one planet: Earth.