In November 2011, the UN invited delegates to discuss climate change at the COP17 Conference (17th Conference of Parties) in Durban, South Africa.This time CNN did not just broadcast the climate change conference but brought the world to Durban. CNN wanted to make climate change topical, get people talking about the issues and drive interest to their coverage of the COP17 Conference.CNN launched the Ecosphere Project: a living digital ecosystem growing on the internet from tweets tagged with #COP17.CNN invited people to plant a thought with hashtag #COP17 and brought the project to the COP17 Conference. Here a live digital installation connected delegates with contributions from all over the world – getting more people involved in a climate change conference than ever before.The whole discussion then became CNN content on its multiple platforms.

Plant a thought. Watch it grow.This was the core message of the multi channel campaign that called on people around the world to plant their ideas with a hashtag and follow the evolving global conversation on the microsite.Every #COP17 tweet stimulated growth in one of the numerous plants representing topics like Sustainability or Carbon. The size, colour and growth rate of these plants gave users a fascinating real-time view of how the international conversation was evolving. The message extended through ads, social media, online promos and tv promos and coverage. The microsite gave viewers a 3D view of the evolving global discussion and allowed users to log in via Twitter and plant their idea directly.Finally the project appeared inside the COP 17 Conference with a 3D hologram supported by desktop terminals and videowalls broadcasting incoming tweets.

The Ecosphere Project brought over 120.000 voices to Durban. The project generated 6.7m media impressions in the 1 month of action (non CNN media). 20,000,000 viewers tuned in to follow CNN's coverage.Today the Ecosphere continues to grow, displaying over 226,000 tweets from around the globe (as of 27 march 2012).