NEWSCO-WORKING SPACES

Pitch events are great...sorta...Except they're often long, and not always that interesting. And it's generally hard to get the right people in the room. At this year's Dangerously Ambitious, I worked with the Sparkseed team to design a different type of rapid pitch event, based on the assumption that everyone in the room had something they could contribute.

There were a set of design constraints that influenced how the night came together.

First, Almost everyone at DA had some awesome social venture they were working on, and almost all of them wanted other people's help to find the particular resources they needed. That meant the first thing we needed to figure out was how to get 30+ pitches in one evening.

Second, we wanted to unlock resources beyond funding. We had a room full of great people, but the fact was that many of them were not in a position to be pumping cash into new ventures. What we knew they had was big ideas and awesome networks.

Third, the entire mood and tone of DA was fun, energetic community. The point was to push each other to new heights and have a blast doing it (see: group skydiving). The event had to embrace that spirt.

Fourth, as a final bonus, our friends at the Singularity University were celebrating the culmination of their summer program which had brought together some of the most ambitious innovators from around the world, and wanted to throw an aligned event on the same evening.

What we ended up producing was a big, fast, interactive rapid fire pitch session. Each presenter had 60 seconds to do two things: convince the audience why they should care, and let them know with as much specificity as possible what they needed. They had at most three slides with which they could do this. When the presenters started to go overtime, they were greeted with the final question music from Jeopardy.

While the entrepreneurs were pitching, the audience's job was to be tweeting like mad to recommend connections, ideas, and other resources that the ventures could be tapping, or simply to promote what they thought were the coolest companies and ideas. In between presenters, a DJ would keep the energy up with bangin beats.

So how'd it go?

First of all, it was a logistical sh*tshow. The audio was too quiet in the room; the overhead projector didn't work; the Quinceañera downstairs was throbbing the floor all night, and people were hungry. But second, it still rocked anyway. The seat-of-the-pants vibe actually probably set the right tone and it felt like a community hanging out with itself rather than a strange power dynamic between those needing to be helped and the helpers.

The takeaways for us were a few things:

1. Fun=Community. If an event is largely focused on building or amplifying community, it has to have some element of fun. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be serious as well, but simply that people have to come out of it feeling a little more awesome than they did before.
2. Chaotic and loud can feel like energy and life as much as they feel like poor planning. People are often afraid to try new things that they don't know how to control, because they feel like they could get confused, jumbled, or chaotic. Turns out, if you set the tone right, those things feel like the natural energy of life as much as "mistakes," and people are quick to forgive little logistical mistakes.
3. Not trying new things is way more risky than trying new things. If you're trying to get people to connect in new ways, and if you want to create something innovative, it is simply way more costly and way more risky to just do the same old thing everyone else is doing.

For those interest, I'll be posting the slide deck of all the presentations is below:

Photo credit: InVenture Fund at DA2010

I'm at Dangerously Ambitious in Silicon Valley, an event hosted by San Francisco-based venture accelerator Sparkseed. The event is self-consciously trying to provide a different experience from other conferences out there. Here's what that looks like:

1. Small Size: The event registration was capped at about 65 people. The point is to create an intimacy that can extend beyond a small portion of the conference attendees. What tends to happen in bigger events is that people hew pretty closely to those they already know. The Global Engagement Summit we used to run at Northwestern always capped attendance around 80, and it made a huge difference.

2. Primary Emphasis on Social Experiences: There is this ironic thing that happens with most conferences I see, which is that they all recognize that everyone comes for the other people who are there, but then they still spend a huge amount of time and money creating content that ultimately gets in the way of people interacting. DA has taken a different approach, and allocated the majority of the weekend to social experiences that get attendees interacting with each other in formal and informal ways. Last night, for example, the first event of the weekend was a three-hour long live adventure "GoGame" in downtown San Jose.

3. Interactive Content: What "content" there is beyond the social experiences is largely interactive. This morning, for example, the entire group did a three hour workshop at the Stanford d. School that introduced participants to some of the concepts and design processes used by IDEO to help the worlds biggest companies innovate. The experience was all about interacting with other people, rather than passively listening to an expert yammer on.

4. Horizontal Learning: Most "education" is structured vertically, in which at any given moment, there is a difference between teacher and student. This weekend is much more about horizontal learning, in which the community presumes all other members are equals, and people move effortlessly and regularly in and out of the role of teacher and the role of student. The leaders of the few workshops there are at the event are spending the entire weekend with the rest of the attendees.

Photo credit: Nathaniel Whittemore

Europe's answer to technology accelerator programs like Y Combinator and TechStars is Seedcamp, and for the first time, they're formally extending their reach to Africa. This is one more indication of why the growing technology scene on the continent is worth watching.

Seedcamp shares a lot of things in common with its American accelerator cousins. The programs tend to exchange a small piece of equity (in the 5%-10% range) for a few months worth of operating cash and, more  importantly, access to mentors and downstream funders.

Seedcamp, however, has the goal not only of accelerating the progress of great companies but of growing the startup scene in Europe as a whole. They use an interesting model of "Mini-Seedcamps" around Europe (and even, this year, in Tel Aviv) where local companies pitch for a chance to attend Seedcamp Week in London.

It is true to say that if you stick around in the social entrepreneurship world for any length of time, you will go to your fair share of conferences and events. Like me, therefore, you may find the words “final plenary” strikes fear into your heart; that you find yourself lost amidst a maze of exhibition stands; that you start giving other people someone else’s business card; that your eyes glaze at the 256th powerpoint slide; and that you wonder quite why you spent a day, and hard-earned cash, on getting away from the ever-growing to-do list back at work.

Three years ago, four organisations (Ashoka UK, The Hub, School for Social Entrepreneurs, UnLtd) that support social entrepreneurs in the UK sat down with similar thoughts, and agreed that conferences weren’t working for the people we were trying to help. Generally, they were too expensive, not practical or relevant, not at all interactive and, well, pretty boring.

The Shine Unconference was born, aiming to address all of those concerns: we cut the price, cut the powerpoints, cut the big plenary panels, allowed attendees to suggest and run sessions, scheduled lots of 1:1 sessions on relevant topics (investment, legal, marketing, impact measurement etc), and built networking into everything. And all based around the principle that ‘the talent and wisdom is in the room’. Other events like the excellent Oxford Jam (aka “the Skoll World Forum fringe”) have recently been run along similar lines.

Last weekend was the 3rd Shine and the most successful yet. 300+ social entrepreneurs at all stages of growth; 1:1 sessions with experts in marketing, investors, consultants, pitching, measurement and more; social investment speed dating; flip chart business plans; free videos made on the spot; workshops on everything from ‘how to clone myself’ to ‘diversifying income streams’. All in an amazing venue with a huge variety of spaces and places to work, chat and connect; the type of place where you walk round a corner to find six people sitting on cushions discussing what the election means for social entrepreneurs, then into a room where 30 people are filling out a storyboard of how their project makes change (see photos on Flickr or search the hashtag #shine_2010 to check out the tweets)

The highlight was undoubtedly ‘Fink Club’, though. In a boxing ring, in the middle of the venue, four social entrepreneurs defended a different point of view (their corner) about the movement. It was Fight Club meets poetry slam, with boxing gloves (kindly loaned by the great social enterprise Fight For Peace) and people from the crowd entering the ring to get involved…in the debate that is. There was the punch and counter-punch of ideas, traditional nicknames (Rod “The Brooklyn Bruiser” Schwartz sticks in the memory), a whole lot of laughs, and, as you can see in the picture, a worthy winner in Bradford’s own Saeeda Ahmed.

So what are the take-aways? Social entrepreneurs learn best from each other, and in relation to their actual work. Accessibility builds diversity and critical mass (and richer networks). Events can be entrepreneurial too: take risks and responsibility. Fun, like profit, is not a dirty word. Mixing formats and venues keeps it fresh. And the talent and wisdom really is in the room.

Oh, and no-one misses the powerpoints.

Photo credit: KWDesigns

I don't use the word "hate" very often, but I hate mediocrity. I hate when things that are important are done just well enough; I hate it when people settle for "okay" when they could be achieving "great."

The field of gatherings and conferences for social change agents today is resoundingly mediocre. At a time when the importance of offline gatherings is steadily increasing, most of our conferences inspire us only to grumble about their banality.

This state of affairs is untenable. While even just a few years ago, the field of social innovation was small and fragmented enough that anything was better than nothing, our sector's rapid growth means more actors, more events, and more competition for people's time, money, and attention.

I believe that we're quickly reaching a point where bad conferences will cease to command high price tags and community devotion. This change can be seen in terms of five 'horsemen' of the coming reckoning.

1. A dynamic network of offline gatherings, rather than just one must-attend event. More and more people are entering the social innovation space. Offline network hubs are growing quickly. Communities and networks are the locus of power for a new generation of social entrepreneurs. All of this has supercharged the way we assemble offline. Mixers, pitch contests, brown bag lunches, regional or topical gatherings -- these are all part of the ecosystem of offline gatherings. At the same time, there are at least a half dozen major international conferences trying to be the single must-attend event. I think a couple of them will persist but mostly they will become top heavy and implode under the weight of their expectations.

While the Skoll World Forum is the big show in the world of social entrepreneurship this week, storied Oxford is playing host to another event as well. The OxfordJam is a three-day mirror unconference that's meant to add a new, dynamic, participant-driven feel to the week, and which may be a leading indicator of a whole new world of event ecosystems.

If there's one view that I use this blog as a bully pulpit to promote, it is my contempt for the format of most conferences -- particularly their continued embrace of the panel discussion. To recap, I think that panel discussions suck the life out of a room with their awkward pacing and unfollowed-through threads of conversation. By the time you get through introductions of panelists, there tends to be time for no more than Tweet-sized nuggets of wisdom. And I'm not the only one who thinks this.

What's more, the decision to rely on panels tends to have more to do with a conference's need to have open speaking slots to entice great people to come than it does to do with a strategic decision about the most interesting content. Unfortunately, the reliance on panels can also indicate a general adherence to the time-honored but totally boring tradition of dividing a conference into those deemed worthy to speak and those deemed worthy to listen.

If I sound angry about this, it is because I think that in the digital world, offline gatherings are not diminishing but growing in importance. The way many field-leading events do it these days, however, people go because "they have to, because everyone is there," but grumble all the way through about all of the missed opportunities for something really creative and connecting. Simply put, we can and should be doing a lot better.

Today the first ever Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSEC) of Canada conference, re:Vision 2010, kicks off in Toronto, Ontario. With students, innovation centers, coworking spaces and an increasingly vibrant startup scene, Toronto is a place to watch.

Like so many groups, YSEC started as a regular conversation, held around couches and drinks by a group of friends who were increasingly excited about the emergence of the social enterprise field as a place to channel passion and energy for good. Last fall, they formalized the organization and have begun to undertake a series of programs including Monthly Meetups, Pitch Competitions, and now a conference -- all designed to create context for young changemakers to get together and begin building.

The conference is meant to be a chance for the community to come together. I'll be speaking later, as will "How To Change The World," author David Bornstein. But by and large, the community attending and facilitating are deeply invested in this particular innovation community.

The third in the triumvirate of speakers with David and I tonight is Tonya Surman, the founding director of the Centre for Social Innovation. The Centre started in 2004 as a response to the regular complaints from local nonprofits and social enterprises about resource constraints and a lack of good spaces where groups could begin to talk and collaborate more regularly and deeply.

The conference is being held at another important emerging innovation hub in Tornto, the MaRS Discovery District. MaRS combines advisory services -- where they partner organizations with leaders in their field to help build their capacity -- with lab space, events hosting, and other facility offerings.

Even if the ecosystem is young, it's clear that there is a ton of energy here. This is an innovation ecosystem to watch.

Photo credit: Ian Muttoo

Renowned global thought and action network PopTech has just released the theme of their annual October gathering in Camden, Maine: Brilliant Accidents, Necessary Failures and Improbable Breakthroughs. It's an important set of topics, and a great chance to remind ourselves why failure is vital.

A few nights ago, I was sitting at a dinner where I was sharing my college experience and post-graduate entrepreneurial pursuits with a group of current Stanford undergrads. The conversation was a lot less about the mechanics of starting things and more about the feelings associated with them.

One of the most interesting points in the conversation was when one of the students asked, "If everything goes belly up, do you have a plan B?" My immediate and unqualified answer was: "Nope."

The interesting thing is that -- as much as that answer reflects a particular personality style (and it does) -- it is also a reality enabled by the particular attitude of the web tech industry. I told the student that if I failed this go-around, it would honestly probably increase my ability to get funding again the next time, because instead of seeing a green web entrepreneur, venture investors would see someone who had been in the pit and learned what makes and breaks a new company. While not every industry can or should tolerate failure to the degree that the startup world does, there are certainly many -- education, for example --  that should embrace the connection between failure, learning and future success.

Tomorrow I'll be at the inaugural Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise conference in Miami, Florida. The three-day event will bring together 600 folks from across the social enterprise space, and it's a great example of how coalescing regional communities are increasingly helping to shape how the social enterprise field is developed.

SVC/SE was originally imagined as having a particular focus on developing the social economic ecosystem of Latin America, the Caribbean and Florida. While the diversity of participants and speakers extends beyond that region, the event has clearly retained an interest in cultivating that particular community, as evidenced by panels such as "Social Enterprise As An Engine For Growing Mexico's Economy," and "Social Enterprise and 21st Century Socialism in Latin America."

What's more, in the aftermath of the devastating January earthquake in Haiti, the conference announced a "conference within a conference" called "Sustainable Haiti," The conference is focused on discussions of how to not only accelerate the rebuilding process, but how to do so in a way that recognizes a history of deep structural failure that the country's citizens have to move past.

The two sessions I'll be a part of are "20-Somethings Changing The World," and "Building Ecosystems And Forming Community Hubs." The "20-somethings changing the world" conversation should provide an good opportunity to bring up something I've been feeling more and more lately -- that is, the quickening disinterest among my peers about the debates and constraints of the field. We're inherently skeptical of closed networks, so to the extent that social entrepreneurship becomes about defining who does and doesn't count, we're going to quickly lose interest.

Everyone has wisdom. No one has time. So Ignite -- a global series of rapid-fire talks -- is trying to make wisdom shareable in a new and engaging way.

Basically, the way an Ignite presentation works is that each Ignite speaker has 20 slides, each of which is set to auto-advance after 15 seconds, for a total of five minutes. This keeps every presentation fast, simple and to the point.

The first Ignite was held in December 2006 as a chance to share geeky wisdom over beer within the tech community. When word got out that it was a totally fun format, the originators handed the reins over to O'Reilly Media. Since then, over 200 events have been held around the world.

This week is Global Ignite Week, and in 68 countries, over 10,000 people from all walks of life and across all types of careers will be enjoying the excitement, ideas and rapid fire wisdom shared by their peers.

For me, this is just one more example -- along with things like the proliferation of TED talks online, the growth among unconferences and BarCamps, and the explosion of interest in Pecha Kucha -- of the importance of how to remix smart in a hyper-connected world.

Really, this phenomena lies at the intersection of two trends. First is the growing need people feel for offline connection. Perhaps unexpectedly, as more of our lives go online, I think we're seeing significantly more creativity in how people meet offline. Secondly, in our complex world, there's a growing need for knowledge, wisdom and ideas -- not to mention a heightened appreciation for the diversity of sources from which that wisdom can stem. As we're assailed on all sides by stories of global problems, hearing the best insights that others have to offer is not only a strategy that can lead us toward better action -- it's also a way to retain sanity.

Check out this video from an Ignite event in Portland, OR about "How To Be A Refugee" to see the format in action:

Photo credit: Randy Stewart