Socially Responsible Schwag

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Ann Wizer, XSProject Founder

What's a conference without schwag?  You know those bags tattooed with the sponsors' logos and filled with stickers, t-shirts, coupons, samples, and other goodies.  I typically donate my schwag to a good cause or if there is a schwag recycling room, I participate.   But Socap 09 has taken the concept of socially conscious schwag to new heights.

Ann Wizer is an artist who uses design and education to protect the environment and reduce poverty.   The conference bag is one of of her "out-of-studio experiments" to involve poor communities in the development of simple solutions to problems of un-managed consumer waste. She buys non-recyclable waste from trash pickers and creates small scale products like the above bag.

In a brief interview with Ann, she shared some of her philosophy and passion.  "I want to design well made recycled bags.  We are at such a point with consumer waste and poverty - that we need to do something.   The shoppers won't go to the landfill, so I needed to get the designers there."

Socap 09 Conference brings together a mix of the world's top social innovators, investors, donors, entrepreneurs, and thought-leaders, today's leading catalysts of change from across the globe. As Kevin Jones, Socap's co-founder, said in his welcome address:

I was fortunate to have a press pass - so while it didn't entitle me to one of those bags, I got a front row seat in close proximity to an electrical outlet for the keynote address by Sonal Shah, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and panel discussion with Andrew Wolk, Root Cause; Vanessa Kirsch, New Profit; and Carla Javits, REDF, moderated by Jeff Bradach, Bridgespan Group.

Sonal Shah gave an overview of the goals and strategies for the Office of Social Innovation.  This was followed by a panel discussion and questions from the audience. 

I live tweeted the key points.  The main themes:

• Don't Get Distracted: Sonal Shah warned, "Don't think about us as the 'office that does cool
  stuff.'  She was warning against shiny object syndrome and used a
  different "s" word.
• Government and feedback loops - how can they take the field's learnings and incorporate in theirs?
• Measurement is the major theme as the sector grows up. There
  was an emphasis on finding consistent or standardized quantitative
  benchmarks.
• However, there was also a plea not to make evaluation
  painful, collecting huges amount of data and not using it to improve a
  program.
• A different spin on the concept of mistakes and failure: "Mistakes should be considered failures if they fail to correct the problem. And if the correction creates new problems."
• The need for
  some experimentation before a program or project rolls out or scales. 
  There is something beneath the language of "what works" that can kill
  innovation.
• That it is about effectiveness and quality, not growth

I learned a new term "Hockey Stick Returns" that colleague, Nedra defined for me.  The context is that many projects don't offer this.

I
attended a panel called "The Future of Social Innovation on the Web"
This all-guy panel was facilitated by Dennis Whittle, Global Giving and
featured Premal Shah, Kiva.org; Jonathan Greenblatt, Our Good Works; Steve Newcomb, Virgance; and Ben Rattray, Change.org.  I tweeted some of the key points.

After
the session,  after waiting an hour for Premal Shah to be available for
a quick interview, he graciously shared his thoughts on what Web 3.0
looks like as did Dennis Whittle.  I also interviewed Shara Karasic who
was in the audience.  Premal talked about the need for creating magic
for the users and building in workflow software that was facilitated
relationship building through the ladder of engagement.

He asked each of the panelists to describe where they think the field is now.   Ben Rattray mentioned: