Day two of SOCAP09 was filled with plenaries, workshops and lots of wonderful, often serendipitous encounters with people doing amazing work in United States and around the world. (I am recovering from a bad cold, and managed to avoid going ‘viral’ on my fellow attendees in San Francisco). Full details about SOCAP09, including video and other links to the many exciting events, are posted regularly here. And there is a lively Twitter feed, as well.
The Bay Area (San Francisco and beyond) is not only ground zero for SOCAP09, but it is also a major new media hub for the US and the world. Much of my day two was spent in a micro-conference on using new media to strengthen our social innovation work.
The energetic Adam Werbach from Saatchi and Saatchi S kicked off a micro-conference within SOCAP09 with the delightful theme “embrace disruption”. He dismissed media manipulation, such as ‘green-washing’, as ineffective and called for global action in a positive way. “Are we just talking to ourselves,” he challenged the crowd, “the moment is calling for something bigger.”
Brent Shulkin outlined Carrotmob’s ‘reverse-boycott’ initiative. They create the conditions where businesses compete to be the most virtuous, and are rewarded on-line. Check out their fun and interesting video.
As a youth, Laren Poole learned about the young children forcibly recruited into the army of Joseph Kony, and created an on-line movement called Invisible Children.
Laura Flanders of GRITtv.org laid down a powerful challenge: “How do we turn the chatter into conversation.”
“The old media has failed us, news was never supposed to be justified by revenue.” Flanders said the new media is a way to support issues and causes. “The new media is about delivering people to each other.”
Kim Spencer of Link TV noted that more than 50% of US media coverage of the critical health care debate is about the horse race (who’s ahead in the polls, etc.) with much less on the issues of substance.
I spent much of the day, and into the early hours of the morning, meeting with housing and homelessness groups in San Francisco, picking up practical tips, becoming increasingly horrified at the extreme injustices in the midst of the richest nation in the world and sharing information about our work in Canada.