Higher gauge theories play a prominent role in the construction of 4d topological invariants and have been long ago proposed as a tool for 4d quantum gravity. In this talk I will introduce a topological version of higher gauge theory and show that it opens up exciting opportunities for the construction of new representations of quantum geometries. Note that the construction will be based on geometrical insights as opposed to using the machinery of 2-category theory. Motivated by this framework, I will present a new spin foam model, which is much simpler than previous versions. This model is guaranteed to show the correct dynamics for large scales and, as the previous spin foam models, has discrete area labels.