If innovation’s got you down and you don’t care to figure out what Twitter is, head to the MN State Fair, where the only thing that changes is which new food item has been engineered to be supplied on a stick. Barns full of animals, award-winning giant pumpkins, mini-donuts, all-you-can-drink milk, seed art- 1.7 million visitors can’t be wrong.
Recently a phenomenon has hit Minneapolis- 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide (that’s 6 minutes and 40 seconds total).
To be fair, Solutions Twin Cities has been doing this since its debut in May of 2007. The presentation format is exactly what it says. You are allowed 20 slides, each of which are shown for 20 seconds only- and you don’t control the slides, so they keep moving whether you’re on pace or not.
Last Friday night’s arrival of Pecha Kucha is the first time Minneapolis has taken part in this international trend. Largely led by the design community in Tokyo, Pecha Kucha provides a great excuse for the creative community to share ideas. Last Friday, people waited outside in a line down the block to hear and see plots for screenplays, University Avenue photographs, and the Parisian bike-share program. You can find Pecha Kuchas all over the globe, like in Denver, LA, Omaha, Oaxaca, Mauritius, Buenos Aires, and Melbourne- and that’s just this week.
And as if that weren’t enough, Ignite comes to Minneapolis April 22nd at Solera. Ignite appears to be a bit broader in definition (although shorter, allowing only 15 seconds per slide), and can include pretty much anything as far as I can tell. I think their tagline “Enlighten us, but make it quick” sums it up well. Their website shows sample Ignite videos “How to be a good news commenter” and “How to buy a car”. If that doesn’t get you curious, perhaps free beer will get you there.
In the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing two great and inspirational speakers. First, I went to the Center for Spirituality & Healing sponsored event at the University of Minnesota featuring Van Jones. Van is known for his crusading to use the new green economy to raise this nation’s poor citizens. However, in the talk he gave last Thursday, he talked less about installing solar panels and more about integration- of green movements and community development efforts and of personal development and societal advancement. He’s an engaging speaker and I highly recommend you go hear him if you get a chance. On a local note, he stated that Minnesota is one of just a handful of states poised to really demonstrate that green jobs can help communities.
A day later I attended the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at St. Olaf College in 
Northfield, MN. While there were many interesting speakers and topics, the crowd favorite was clearly John Francis, also known as the Planetwalker. Inspired by seeing an oil spill in San Francisco, Mr. Francis gave up motorized transportation for 22 years and walked all over this country and many others, playing the banjo as he went. He also gave up speaking during 17 years of that time. Along the way he got a Phd and became an expert on oil spills. His message was very personal, but he stressed that if you are on the right path there are forces out there that will help you along.
Both of these gentlemen have books available if you want to learn more:
For those of you in the Minneapolis area, there is a Minnebar tonight at 7PM at Intermedia Arts. Minnebar is the Minneapolis version of Barcamp, which is an international organization that brings together technology start-ups for demos, support, and networking. It’s free and generally pretty interesting. For more information, check out their Google groups page.
I have also had several requests for a little more info on that $3,000 I received from Innocentive. The challenge I won was posted by Innocentive (normally challenges are posted by companies like Proctor & Gamble and Eli Lilly) for new ideas for their website. It was pretty straightforward, but I did spend a good amount of time organizing my thoughts and creating small mockups of web pages. Apparently they liked it!
Today I walked part of the Hyderabad 10K with my coworkers, mostly just to promote our company. It started with a group warmup and a live band, followed by the start of the race. There were serious runners vying for serious prize money, but most people saw it as something fun to do on a Sunday. Like many participants, we had no intention of completing the race. I think we maybe completed 2K and in that distance I saw participants buying and eating ice cream and stopping for chai. During and afterwards, the band played patriotic songs and the crowd danced and drank water and tried to get noticed by the camera for the big screen. As a white girl with a clearly Indian company, I stood out a little. I w
as interviewed by 2 local news stations (I don’t have a TV so I don’t know if I actually got air time). Hopefully it’s all good press for GreenMango. It was sure fun for those of us who turned out.
Other parts of the race were pretty much the same as what I’ve seen in the US. There is a lot of corporate sponsorship and corporate groups running together. This particular event was the first major public event in Hyderabad since the recent events in Mumbai, so there were moments of silence and words of support for everyone there. I was impressed that the event had a large turnout despite the Mumbai attacks.
Last week I attended the Microfinance India Summit in Delhi. It was nice to focus on microfinance for a few days, since my day-to-day work doesn’t really involve it, but more than anything it was great to catch up with the original leader of Team Awesome (the Microfinance Alliance), Mary Jo. She is working at the Grameen Foundation in D.C. and we met up at the conference. I attended their panel on social performance measurement, which was interesting. I also attended sessions on Technology and Value Chains in Livelihoods. Overall, I came away with the sense that 1) the profit-motive vs. social motive debate continues, 2) there is a need for significant regulatory reform in this realm in India, and 3) there is a lot of interesting work going on.
Outside of the conference, I didn’t get a chance for much touring. I booked a bed & breakfast online with no down-payment, so I showed up in Delhi ready for it to be awful or not reserved for me. It turns out Vandana’s B&B is just lovely. I stayed in one of the 3 guest rooms in her home in the park-filled Safdarjung Enclave. She even got worried and called one night when I hadn’t been home all day and it was rather late- very sweet. On the downside, everything you read about Delhi scams seems to be true. For instance, I never succeeded in getting to the Dilli Haat shopping area because the rikshaw drivers all wanted to take me to some place they know of, which is actually an overpriced tourist trap where they get a commission for bringing you. But that’s really the only lame thing I endured.
This year’s blog action day topic is POVERTY. Since I am living in a developing country, I thought I’d participate. Here are some facts comparing the US (where I’m from) and India (where I am currently). All figures are 2007 Worldbank unless otherwise noted.
| Parameter | US | India |
| Population | 302 million | 1,123 million |
| Gross National Income per capita (adjusted for purchasing power) | $45,850 | $2,740 |
| Time required to start a business | 6 days | 33 days (in 2005 it was 71 days) |
| Internet users per 100 people | 72.9 | 17.8 |
| Phones per 100 people (fixed and mobile) | 139 | 24 |
| HIV/ AIDS prevalance (% of population ages 15-49) | 0.6% | 0.3% |
| high tech exports (% of manufactured exports) | 30% (2006 figure) | 5% (2005 figure) |
| Worker’s remittances | $3 billion | $27 billion |
While I find these figures interesting, I also find it interesting how accustomed I’ve become to poor conditions. I’ve spent only a few days in different “slums” and seen the backside of many communities from a train. I don’t really notice the trash on the streets or the pollution/ dirt on buildings like I did when I first arrived. I was in a “slum area” today (it was really like a lower class neighborhood), and I found myself saying how nice the houses were. I don’t think they had running water or anything, but they looked new and well-kept. I am wondering, am I becoming blind to poverty because I’ve been exposed to it quite a bit lately? Or am I learning to look past the blemishes and see the good parts of these lives? I’m just not sure.
Last night I attended a Solutions Twin Cities event held at the Walker Art Center in conjunction with their Design for the Other 90% exhibit. Because of this connection, this particular volume of Solutions was focused on design. Presenters from the University of Minnesota College of Design, including the Dean Thomas Fisher, provided a framework and showcased student projects. Emily Pilloton from Project H in San Francisco gave us several examples of great design that considers social impact. Gabriel Cheifietz from 612
Authentic gave us a quick lesson on the different between telling a story, like we see on the news every night, and showing a story through short documentary (there are some great short films available on their website). Marc Swackhamer of HouMinn talked about the process of discovery and innovation involved in developing alternative building materials. Of course my favorite was Peter Rich, representing the Microfinance Alliance (full disclosure: I am the outgoing president), who gave a great overview of how financing fits into addressing the problems of the developing world. Hats off as usual to Colin and Troy over at Solutions Twin Cities.
I recently attended the 2008 PUSH Conference here in Minneapolis. It was a great conference and lived up to its difficult-to-describe reputation. My favorites were Eboo Patel, who talked about reframing the ‘faith line’ from
X-religion vs. Y-religion to pluralists vs. totalitarianism. I also like Beth Kolko‘s talk about the use of technology in Central Asia. Thanks to Dan Berger for the invite and for the PUSH organizers for a great conference.
In early November, I attended the Net Impact National Conference in Nashville, TN. Nashville is pretty great, with nice weather and lovely local bars, but I’m afraid I was not able to sample their famous local music scene.
The conference was fantastic. I attended a lot of Base of the Pyramid (BOP) sessions on how to better meet the needs of the poorest 4 billion people on earth. I found that there are a lot of great organizations out there, including Envirofit, Endeavor, and Design That Matters meeting genuine needs in developing areas. These groups are going beyond microfinance to create products and provide consulting. 
I also saw a student presentation about filling the gap between solar panel need and available financing. Apparently there are plenty of BOP folks who would love some electricity, but coming up with the initial investment to buy the solar equipment ($300 – $400, sometimes a year’s salary) is prohibitive (the picture is from an article in New Scientist about one solution). Many people are looking at microfinance or other models to solve this problem. I’m keeping in touch with these students to see if I can’t work with them once I graduate (May!).
Speaking of when I graduate, I also used the conference to come up with some new “career” ideas. I am currently looking at internships offered by Endeavor, Ashoka, and FINCA, but am also looking into informal projects being developed through my network as Presdient of the Microfinance Alliance. Although I’ve realized that I probably need to learn some Spanish to move forward with my year in the developing world (also known as my “debt maximization plan”), I’ve also realized that there are plenty of opportunities out there and I just need to choose one.
