Feast On Good: An Interview with Jerri Chou

Tis the season for great conferences. Next week, SoCap will launch into it's second year, bringing together an incredible array of people increasing the flow of capital to good. In a month, another equally exciting and different event will bring social entrepreneurs and creative professionals together for a hefty dose of inspiration and action. Put on by All Day Buffet, The Feast is quickly becoming a must attend event. Below, Feast founder Jerri Chou gives the backstory.

NLW: So, give me the quick schpiel. What's the Feast and what's All Day Buffet?

Jerri: The Feast is a cross-disciplinary series of programs addressing social innovation and new ways to make the world a better place. Each year we host a conference that gathers the world's greatest innovators from across industries and society to empower, inspire and engage each other in creating world-shaking change.

This year we'll be hosting it at the Times Center in New York with some amazing speakers sharing insights on everything from Matthew Bishop on economics to Gladwelian insights on decision making by professional poker player Annie Duke and innovations in both non-profit models and on the ground long term water development in Africa by Charity: Water. We'll be hosting a quick pitch for entrepreneurs on the second day and workshops as well

Really, the goal is to bring together as cross-disciplinary and diverse a group as possible to share, connect and learn about new ways to make the world a better place. We're making this a focal point for those who want less talk and more action-- New York is certainly the perfect place for that

NLW: And so how did this all come about? My understanding is that it was the product of friends who felt sort of uncomfortably stuck between a world of creative professionals and the nonprofit sector, not feeling fully a part of either? Is that accurate?

Jerri: Exactly. All Day Buffet was basically started by a group of creatives who wanted to do good but found nothing that resonated with them. The only options were traditional nonprofit volunteerism and maybe pro-bono work.

So we basically created a brand and ways of giving back to spoke to us in a way that made sense and that made getting involved fun and engaging.

We struck a nerve. People started contacting us from all over the US and then abroad. That's when we knew we were onto something, so we kept pushing, creating and evolving.

We've come a long way since our first Cause for Drinks events. the people, projects and ideas that kept bubbling up through our network kept falling into this overlap between creativity and creative thinking, social issues and often entrepreneurship for sustainability.

Social Innovation still has many interpretations, but this is what it meant for us: finding new ways of operating, solving problems and creating things of inherent value that don't cause problems to begin with.

Creative skills are hugley powerful and the social good world hasn't nearly made enough use of them -- design and systems thinking, communication, business.. all of these things can do a huge amount of good. They're tools and there are remarkable individuals who are masters at them who wanted to give back. So why not use them to make the world a better place?

NLW: That's great. So one of the threads I've noticed in a lot of what you do is a strong sense of the analog; you care about communities that emerge from people with similar passions finding one another, and it seems like you have a real strong affinity for the local. Is that true? How has that come out in your projects in NYC and NOLA?

Jerri: I think communities are hugely important and powerful. I think the digital age is in part what has made this whole movement possible. But people are still people and there are still genuine human needs and wants desire for connection is one of those especially face to face. It's a powerful thing and one that engender true collaboration. I think that's part of why we focus on the local.

Also because locations have such undeniable cultures, ways of and reasons for working. The creative people who went down to New Orleans have a very unique bond that's lead to extraordinary developments for that city and community.

New York has an extremely rich and diverse creative and business community / bootstrap get it done mentality that's ripe for re-engineering for social good. The interesting parallel between the two has been disaster and opportunity.

We're interested in fostering learning between places for sure, but no one will be as committed to their communities as the people who live there and nothing can replace the local. We're just trying to strength the bonds.

I also think community is super important. Because we're being "crazy". We're trying to save the world. But to know that there are other people trying to save the world makes you think "hey.. you know what? maybe we can do this."

Resource sharing etc. is also key. The powerful thing about all of this is that most people in this movement are out to help each other. Which has been an amazing and beautiful thing. "Kind capital" maybe?

NLW: And so speaking of "crazy," what's your story? How did you get into this? What's your background and what's your future?

Jerri: I've always been obsessed with the power of communication and persuasion to do good. It's something advertising has mastered. To make people think coka cola will make them "happy". That's incredible. I studied communication in school with the intention of leveraging it to convince people that doing what's good and right by them is actually what will make them happy (funny that you have to convince people of that no?) The Feast and All Day Buffet are all about helping people realize their own potential and inspiring them through the insights and actions of others who have been able to do just that for the benefit of the world.

As for the future, I think I'll be focusing on the Feast and continuing to turn "social entrepreneurship" into business as usual. Moving forward, we'll be focusing on New York a lot more. There's so much amazing work being done here but until now, these communities have remained within their own industries: "green, design, etc."

The Feast brings all of these communities together to learn from and build upon each other. It's a powerful thing, and one we're looking to leverage as a focal point for all of this activity - to say to the world that New York is a place where on-the-ground innovation and companies are emerging, getting things done and changing the way we do good. In 5 years, we envision this as the SXSW for social innovation.

NLW: That's awesome. In terms of the event coming up, tell me a little bit more about the Kitchen. I know it's part of your commitment to getting good ideas out into the public - can you speak a little bit more about that?

Jerri: Sure. The Kitchen is an all-star event for the social entrepreneurship world. We're flipping over every rock and offering the best social entrepreneurs out there the chance to pitch their best shot before a panel of judges and room full of socially minded VC, Venture philanthropists and media. It's the pinnacle exhibition of the best for-good-for profit ventures out there right now.

For a town that's all about investment, this event just makes sense. We're basically offering a place to showcase the most brilliant and cutting edge people, companies and models that prove how you can make money AND do good ... what investor wouldn't want to hear about that?

NLW: Are you still accepting applications for companies to pitch?

Jerri: Absolutely! If anyone's interested, they can apply at. http://feastongood.com/conference/kitchen/

NLW: Is it open to non-profits as well?

Jerri: Not unless you're a hybrid :)

NLW: Cool - so one last question - is there any one presenter or aspect of the event you're most looking forward to?

Jerri: Hmm.. that's a tough one

Without giving away any surprises, I'd say I'm really looking forward the meetings between the microsponsors and those they've sponsored. As you may know, we created a model where regular priced tickets go to offset the cost of attendance for some amazing on-the-ground changemakers -the people who are eating ramen and writing business plans to make the world a better place and even those receiving social services. Some amazing people have applied like Daniela Papi who started a charity tourism program in Thailand PEPY, Jeff Palladino from The Bronx Guild, and Michael Mossoba, founder of Goodness500.org. These young up-and-comers are going to blow some minds away. We modeled the conference this way to make it as inclusionary as possible because everyone needs to be a part of this dialogue if we're going to get anywhere. So I'm excited to see that happen and to see the traditional conference model of schmoozing broken for more action oriented dialogues.

Close second is seeing a city full of good. As you might know, we've opened up a calendar where anyone can host their own meetup or event related to social good around New York at that time. All you have to do is submit your idea for approval at http://feastongood.com/apply/meetup and we'll put it up and promote it on the official Feast schedule http://feast09.sched.org/ We're looking forward to everything from Green Drinks, to Strategy sessions on social good to documentary screenings and even concerts for a cause. With so many social innovators in town, it should be a great time to celebrate change.

NLW: That's awesome. I know I'm planning on hosting a meetup or two! Well Jerri, thanks so much for the interview - this is seriously great stuff. Any last words?

Jerri: Many thanks for the chance to share our story. Really, this is just an amazing historical time and opportunity that's not to be missed. Something has shifted and it's our chance to become architects of circumstance. We're looking forward to bringing together the best and brightest to make the world a better place and we hope everyone will join us! For those who'd like to attend, you can visit http://feastongood.com/ or follow us @alldaybuffet Thanks again and hope to see you October 1st!