I was lucky enough to spend last Friday morning at a café in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. Recently I’ve made a habit of spending Fridays there. I don’t live in San Francisco but I tend to have meetings in SF, which means the Ferry Building often becomes a bit of a home base for me. There’s plenty to eat and drink, and it’s light, bright, bustling with energy and just a bit chaotic – all good things in a vibrant city space!

As much as I love the frenzy and noise of the Ferry Building, it can also feel lonely here at times. Just like in any big city, being surrounded by strangers can lead to an awesome and liberating feeling of anonymity. On the other hand, sitting in a room watching everyone else laugh, eat and connect with their friends and family can leave a person feeling alone and cut off.

A few weeks ago, I had an experience that left me feeling particularly isolated and alone, one that I thought I’d share in the hope that it offers some interesting learning and questions.

I was rushing like always to get out of the house and catch my train to San Francisco. I had a lunch meeting scheduled at (surprise, surprise) the Ferry Building, and I didn’t want to be late. To get there, I planned to walk to the train station (10 minutes), ride the train (40 minutes), take another train (10 minutes), and then walk a bit more. I sprinted to the station and hopped on just in time.

As I went to grab my monthly train pass, my heart sank: I had forgotten my wallet. Oh my god, I thought, I got on the train without a ticket! I don’t tend to make mistakes like this often, so I immediately got a bit angry with myself.

Then, a few moments later the bigger reality hit: I don’t have any money. At first I didn’t think this was a huge deal – I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t get booted from the train for not having a ticket, and amazingly luck was on my side and I managed to make it all the way to SF.

But here’s where it got complicated. To get to the Ferry Building in time for my meeting, I had planned to board a city train. But without money, I couldn’t buy a ticket and I knew I wouldn’t make it on a second time for free. So I started walking, and walking, and walking. Finally, a mile and a half later I made it to the Ferry Building – out of breath and 30 minutes late! I apologized profusely as I met my lunch date and we headed toward the entrance.

But of course, then I remembered: we were supposed to have lunch, and I had no money. My companion was very understanding and even offered to pay for my meal, but after all that walking and the stress and embarrassment of the morning, I wasn’t hungry so I passed on his offer. So we chatted while he ate, and about an hour later, we parted ways.

As we said goodbye, though, I had an instant moment of clarity and realized what was happening. It was late afternoon, and I was hot, exhausted and all of a sudden excruciatingly hungry. And I had no money. I was supposed to meet my husband a few hours later, and on the surface, waiting a bit before we met up didn’t seem unbearable.

But then I got to thinking – which was unfortunately becoming increasingly hard to do on an empty stomach:

Where do I go? Where can I wait?

Where’s the nearest bathroom?

Where’s the nearest water fountain?

All of a sudden, I felt alone and hopeless. I was hungry, thirsty, tired and completely by myself. As I wandered around and looked for a place to rest, I couldn’t help but think to myself: this must be what it feels like to be homeless.

Now ok, in hindsight I will admit that was a sweeping generalization. In the grand scheme of things, I barely brushed the surface of understanding the challenges of being homeless. And rest assured that I did end up reuniting with my husband, over a delicious meal no less. Still, my afternoon without cash left a real imprint on me.

The truth is I’ve been thinking a lot about empathy these days. At IDEO, empathy is an integral component of what we call human-centered design. By putting ourselves in the shoes of others, we learn about people’s concerns, hopes, fears and perhaps most importantly, needs. And their needs are what we design for.

Take the current OpenIDEO challenge in partnership with Amnesty International as an example. Human rights, and unlawful detention specifically, is something that not everyone can relate to – so we’re using empathy to delve deeper into the experience a detainee or his/her family might go through. Empathy, in many ways, is the golden ticket that helps us design solutions successfully and with compassion and authenticity.

Last week David Brooks wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about the limits of empathy. His central argument is that while empathy can be a tool for understanding, it can also lead to misguided efforts. Empathy, for example, can make us feel more compassion for cuter, more approachable causes – like puppies, sick babies, or polar bears.  And empathy, he argues, doesn’t actually translate to action. Just because you empathize with a homeless person on the street doesn’t mean you’ll actually act to improve his circumstance.

I agree with Mr. Brooks that empathy doesn’t guarantee action. Since reading his article, I’ll admit that my brush with empathy hasn’t exactly changed my behavior or inspired me to act differently.

I do however believe that empathy guarantees awareness.Without sounding overly dramatic, in the span of just a few hours that day, I was transformed. As I walked around, staying close to the restrooms and considering where I might find free snacks, I realized that I no longer felt like Ashley. Instead, I felt invisible, embarrassed, and to be honest even a little emotional.

Now, thanks to that experience a few weeks ago, I have at the ready some very tangible touch points for how it feels to be someone else. To be in a different place, in a different body and live under very different but very real constraints. Has my heightened empathy motivated me to reach into my pocket and give money to someone on the street? No, not yet. But have I approached my interactions, my work, and my personal life differently thanks to this renewed awareness? Absolutely. And I think that’s a great place to start.

Back in December, when my family was handing out holiday gifts, my mom gave me and my husband Dan an incredible present.

About ten years ago, my mom bought this etching of a couple, rowing their boat in fast waters.

The Adventure Begins, Etching by Daniel Krakauer

At the time, she wasn’t quite sure why the painting spoke to her, but she saw it and just knew she had to have it.

The painting’s purpose, she was certain, would become known to her at some point.

This Christmas, to my thrill and surprise, my mom gave me and Dan this painting. As she presented it to us, she said the painting’s purpose had recently become clear to her.

The couple? “They,” she said, “are the two of you.” And the title? “Clearly, it’s time for your adventure to begin.”

I’ve always believed that putting out good energy into the universe means you’ll get good things in return.

So, for the next few weeks I concentrated on the exciting thought that our adventure was just beginning. And you know what? As cliché as it sounds, it worked!

Literally within days of receiving this painting, Dan and I saw clues pointing us towards our new adventure – a new and improved apartment to live in, a better work schedule for Dan, even my own growing excitement for a big birthday just weeks away.

But perhaps nothing kicked off our new adventure quite like the news I received in mid-January: a job offer from IDEO.

Back in August 2010, IDEO launched OpenIDEO, a new online social innovation community whose goal is to bring diverse people together to design solutions to some of our world’s toughest challenges. I first checked out the site last fall and was immediately hooked. Amazingly, in November a position opened up to join OpenIDEO as a community manager, and of course I jumped at the chance to apply.

As I write this I’ve just finished my first week as part of the OpenIDEO team, and all I can say is I’m thrilled. Thrilled to be part of such a dynamic and innovative company, for sure. But more than that, I’m thrilled to be part of a project that so deeply speaks to some of my biggest passions: doing good in our world, connecting people online and offline, and creating community.

Of course, there’s a long road ahead for me as I learn my new job, figure out how things work, and actually roll up my sleeves and get started.

But for now I’m also trying to enjoy the start of this brand new adventure.

As I get more and more involved in building and growing OpenIDEO, I’d love to see some familiar faces on the site. I truly believe in the potential role that this global community – already 156 countries strong – can play in changing our world for the better.

I thought I’d share a great video that talks about OpenIDEO’s purpose and vision so that you can learn a little more about what I’m working on. I hope you’ll each consider signing up and joining in – the more the merrier.

Here’s to a new adventure in 2011!

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I really never have been.

Mainly I don’t like the idea of waking up one day and declaring things like, “I will now exercise more”. While I do believe a New Year offers the chance for a new start, I think more often than not, New Year’s Resolutions are shallow and low-impact.

What I do love, though, are what I call Birthday Resolutions.

While everyone else is busy resolving to do things come January 1^st, I sit tight for a little while. My birthday is in February, so after New Years I’ve got about 6 weeks of thinking to do.

In my opinion, making Birthday Resolutions means there’s less pressure to say things like, “I want to eat healthier” – perhaps because it’s easier to tune out the background noise on my birthday and really think through what I want the year ahead to look like.

In fact, my overarching objective when setting Birthday Resolutions each year isn’t just about changing my behavior or attitude. It’s about asking myself:

What do I want my life to look like this time next year?

Now, don’t get me wrong – setting and then keeping a Birthday Resolution can be just as tough as a New Year’s Resolution. After all, any kind of resolution entails challenging yourself to change, and change is hard.

Still, I do find that Birthday Resolutions help me start my next year feeling present, thoughtful and focused about the year ahead. And for me, that’s the whole point.

This year I have two Birthday Resolutions, which I’m pleased to share with you.

First, I resolve to give.

By this I really mean to give of myself more freely – my time, my interest, my intellect, and even my personal resources (like money, my network etc).

In my family we use a concept borrowed from Stephen Covey called “The Emotional Bank Account”. The premise here is that relationships are like bank accounts, with deposits and withdrawals. Each person in a relationship makes transactions of both kinds, but overall both people must focus on making deposits – otherwise the account balance goes empty.

For me, the last two and a half years have been all about withdrawals. Succeeding in business school required that I focus almost exclusively on myself and my own journey. Because I had built up enough of an “account balance” with my family and friends, I was able to lean on the people around me for support, help, and guidance. But, with my own bandwidth limited, I didn’t do the best job of making deposits.

Now that I’m out of school with a healthy dose of perspective and clarity, I’ve decided that I want this year to be about making deposits. I’m so thankful for the help I have received, and now I feel compelled to be generous in return.

Second, I resolve to try.

By this I really mean to find the courage to take risks, to speak up, and to think beyond what seems possible or plausible.

People who’ve known me forever know that I’m not a big fan of risk, so this isn’t an easy resolution for me. But if there is one lesson I took away from business school it’s that when I am brave enough to speak my opinion or pursue something unknown, good things can happen. Sometimes I fail or make a mistake – everyone does at some point. But more often than not, when I push myself to give something new a try, I’m glad I did.

So there you have it – my 2011 Birthday Resolutions. While I can’t promise instant success, I do feel more focused and prepared to make this year be about both generosity and courage.

Hopefully by this time next year I’ll be reporting back to you all the ways I was able to both give more and try more.

Happy New Year to each of you, and best of luck with your own Resolutions!

Everyone knows the saying, Change is Hard.

And anyone who’s ever tried to lead change – whether starting a new diet at home or starting a new initiative at work – knows that it can be incredibly tough to create lasting, effective change, even on the smallest of scales.

What stinks about that, though, is the fact that change – and the need for change – is everywhere.

In many ways my life, especially over the last couple of years, has been my own personal study of change. Whether it’s starting (and finishing business school), getting married, or looking for a new job, the one constant in my life has definitely been change (I mean, even my blog is about change!)

Of course, I know I’m not unique in this regard.

CSR practitioners often talk about driving change internally or influencing others to create change within their organization. In fact, as I learned last year, one of the most crucial core competencies for CSR professionals, as identified by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, is the ability to lead change.

After all, when we’re asking our coworkers, our bosses, or our peers to integrate sustainability or CSR values and behaviors into their routines, we’re asking them to change.

And of course, we end up right back where we started: Change is Hard.

All of these questions and issues have been on my mind a lot recently, as I think about both the changes I am going through in my personal life, as well as the changes I am undertaking professionally.

For that reason, I felt inspired almost the instant I started reading Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by brothers Dan and Chip Heath.

If Dan and Chip’s names sound familiar to you, it’s because they probably are – both are business school professors, and a few years ago they published their much-acclaimed book Made to Stick (another fantastic read that I recommend highly).

Over the course of 250 pages or so, the Heath brothers break down change into three buckets:

• Direct the Rider
• Motivate the Elephant
• Shape the Path

At this point you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. So, here’s the deal:

According to Dan and Chip, inside everyone is an Elephant and its Rider.

The Elephant is our emotional side, our irrational side – the part in each of us that worries, loves, fears and acts on impulse. On the other hand, each of us also has a Rider – that is, our ability to reason, to analyze, or to look at things with black and white objectivity.

The relationship between the Elephant and the Rider is based on one simple idea: The Rider believes that through reason and logic, it can control the Elephant.

If you think about this for a second, you’ll know it’s true: how many times, for instance, have you forced yourself to sign up for that project, accept that job offer, or generally do something you didn’t really want to – just because it was The Right Thing to Do?

I know I certainly have.

The problem is, however, that the Rider exerts a ton of effort and energy in trying to control the Elephant. It’s hard work to force that Elephant to take a different path, and after a while, the Rider will inevitably lose because the Elephant – the emotion – is just too strong. At some point, emotion will trump reason and the Elephant will go wherever it wants. (One of my favorite examples in the book is the dieter trying to forget about the fresh baked cookies in the kitchen. No matter what, chocolate chips will always win against willpower!)

And this, in effect, is what happens with change.

When trying to influence change – for example, getting employees to recycle at work – you can start by appealing to people’s reason. Recycling, you’ll say, is the right thing to do! It saves our office money, it reduces our contributions to landfill, and it helps us meet our sustainability reporting goals.

Sure, providing the business case or the ROI for recycling may make sense initially, but to make any lasting change in office recycling, Dan and Chip would point to the Elephant. Remember: the Rider can force the Elephant to do something for a while, but he probably won’t be successful long term. For people to adopt a change initiative for good, we must create an emotional tie or personal relevance to that activity or behavior. In short, we must motivate the Elephant.

In this case, Dan and Chip might suggest collecting all of the aluminum cans thrown out in one week – and then displaying them very visibly for everyone to see in the cafeteria. Such a clear and tangible reminder of people’s waste – that my five soda cans per week, and your five soda cans per week, really do add up – might be just the hook you need to capture the Elephant’s attention. Do that, and then add your ROI calculation to the mix. Suddenly, the Elephant and the Rider are heading in the same direction!

The third part of their theory relies on something Dan and Chip called Shape the Path; that is, rather than making people do the changing, think about how you can actually tweak the change that’s needed to so it seems more manageable and less daunting.

A great example they use in the book is getting people to eat less. We all know that overeating is unhealthy and can lead to obesity, and by extension how important portion control can be. Yet how hard is it to stop eating pizza when you have that huge pie in front of you?

The Heath brothers point to a research study that showed people ate less – but felt just as satisfied – when they were automatically given smaller portions. Instead of trying to get people to change, the researchers actually changed the portion size of the foods people were given. You certainly can’t overeat when your pizza’s been shrunk!

All in all I thought this was a fantastic book with immediately applicable lessons and ideas, and I highly recommend it for anyone implementing any kind of change, either personally or professionally.

We all know that, cliché or not, change really is hard. And yet when so much of our day at work and at home is built around creating and implementing it, knowing how to tackle that change (and people’s aversion to it), is crucially important. Switch is one book that will help you get there.

A door without a window...

This morning started out like any other day.

I was scheduled to attend the Communicating Sustainability conference in Santa Clara, CA, and in typical fashion, I was running a few minutes late.

Running out to my car, I didn’t notice anything amiss – at first.

But upon closer inspection, it hit me: shattered glass covered the driver’s side seat, the glove compartment was open and bare, and paper and trash littered the interior. My car had been broken into.

Practically everyone has had an experience like this – expecting your day to look one way, and in a flash, everything changes. Whether it’s getting your car broken into, or something more serious like being in an accident or being the victim of a crime – everyone knows that feeling of the pit in your stomach. How quickly things can change.

Thankfully, in my case, the story appears to end well. I didn’t have much of value in my car, and at the end of the day, all of my “stuff” is replaceable. I got lucky.

But this got me thinking.

Every day, people start their mornings expecting life to look a certain way. The community in San Bruno, for instance, who lost loved ones and saw their homes go up in flames, could never have imagined their lives would change forever, in an instant.

Today, in my own small but very real way, I was reminded how it feels to be vulnerable, like a victim. To have something happen that, no matter how random, felt intentional and hurtful. And I needed help.

As I waited for the police, my thoughts drifted to what I was missing at the conference. I looked at my watch and thought about who’d be on stage now, and what they’d be talking about.

I wondered how many of the panels and sessions today would talk not just about trends in CSR reporting, or measurement, or best practices. Instead, I wondered how many times everyone in the room would talk about the people their programs are trying to help.

Recipients, constituents, stakeholders – yes. But in many cases, the people who benefit from the “social” side of CSR work are victims. Victims of violence, of natural disaster, or even of lack of access to things like education or health care.

As someone who enjoys talking about the “business side” of CSR, I know how easy it is to get caught up in the issues of strategy, implementation and others.

But this morning reminded me the reason I fell in love with CSR in the first place: People.

At the end of the day, what I love most about CSR is the very real opportunity that the business community has to effect change and impact the lives of people who need help.

The people are what matter – in my opinion, they are what makes this work all worthwhile.

As I wait to have my window repaired and get all the glass swept up, I’m going to give myself permission to put down the CSR theory, and to stop thinking about the business behind CSR.

Instead, I’m going to spend some time remembering what matters most.

Hello everyone!

I am back from my cross country road trip and happy to report I am officially based in the San Francisco Bay Area again.

I have many stories to share from the road, but before I recap my trip, I wanted to give a quick plug for my friend and fellow Twitterer Aman Singh Das, Corporate Responsibility Editor of Vault.com.

For anyone who participates in the CSR community on Twitter, Aman’s name and her work on Vault.com and the In Good Company blog will definitely ring a bell. I first met Aman a few months ago when she was interested in publishing one of my CSR job search posts.

Our paths crossed again a few weeks later when she reached out to me for an interview. Curious about how MBA graduates are faring in their CSR job search, Aman decided to write what she called an “intergenerational study” of MBAs who want to create change in business.

Included in my interview cohort were MBAs from Case Western, Marlboro College and UC Irvine (including my friend Geetanjali Singh). The unifying theme for all of the interview subjects was our interest in finding a job in corporate social responsibility.

Here’s what Aman had to say about her report:

Over the next two weeks, I will be publishing interviews with each of the graduates, providing you with in depth insights into their worlds and their progress—or lack of it—in finding employment in their chosen field. Each of the graduates left behind stable, well-paid careers—ranging from IT, programming, and nonprofit fund raising—to strike out in a field they feel truly passionate about. Will they sacrifice that passion for CSR in favor of employment? And if not, how long are they willing to search for that perfect job, and what alternatives exist in the marketplace?

I am so thrilled to have taken part in such an interesting inside look into how MBAs are finding their way in the field of corporate social responsibility. Thanks Aman for including me in your study!

Since I thought this content would be of interest to readers of The Changebase, I’ve provided links to all of Aman’s great reports, including the full transcript from her interview with me.

I hope you enjoy!

-Ashley

• Job Hunting in CSR: What’s Next for These MBA Graduates?
• Part 1: Will the Recession Serve as a Tipping Point for Corporate Responsibility?
• Part 2: Connecting Corporate Responsibility with Career Objectives.
• Part 3: After All is Said and Done, Where Are the Jobs?
• Career Change: Leveraging Business School to Move From Nonprofit Fundraising to Corporate Sustainability (My Full Interview with Aman)
• Readers Respond: The Evolution of CSR and What Might Be Next.

To get there, we’ve decided to take two weeks and drive cross country. After all, after two years of business school, I think we’re both in need of a little vacation!

For anyone who’s curious, here’s our proposed route:

Although it’s definitely going to be nice to unplug and take a break, that doesn’t mean The Changebase will go silent. My hope is to blog from the road – and I’m sure that there will be plenty of inspiration along the way.

I’m especially curious to see how areas along the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, are faring in the wake of the BP Oil Spill. While that might be my most obvious story, I’m generally just curious to see how local communities throughout the U.S. are approaching issues like recycling, local food, education and public transportation.

Should be an incredibly fun and eye-opening trip! In the meantime, I hope you had a great Fourth of July and that you’re enjoying the summer.

See you from the road,

-Ashley and Dan

Our first road trip picture!

I’m incredibly pleased to announce that May marks the one year anniversary of The Changebase!

It’s amazing to think that what started out as just a small experiment has actually become one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever worked on.

The Changebase has not only been a great vehicle to learn and share ideas, but it has given me an incredible opportunity to meet and connect with people doing great work in our communities and around the world.

I have been overwhelmed by the interest people have shown in my writing and I so appreciate all of the feedback, advice and support each of you has given me.

I’m definitely looking forward to Year Two!

In the spirit of celebrating, I thought I’d create a “Top Ten” list for my most favorite* posts from the last year. Enjoy and thanks again!

-Ashley

The Changebase Top Ten

10. It’s Too Late to be a Pessimist

9. Diary of an Intern: My Summer in Corporate Giving

8. Defining Local

7. What Yoga Can Teach Us About Sustainability

6. Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

5. The Challenge of Translating Sustainability

4. High Risk, High Reward

3. Want a CSR Job? Read This First.

2. The Value of Storytelling

1. Request from a CSR Job Seeker 

*In this context “favorite” means: the posts I most enjoyed writing, as well as the ones that were most popular with readers and on Twitter.

I’m very pleased to announce that I’ll be live blogging (and tweeting!) from this year’s Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Conference April 11 – 13.

In case you’re not familiar with it, the BCCCC hosts an incredible conference each year that includes a “Who’s Who” list of CSR, sustainability, and philanthropy professionals from around the world.

The purpose, like most conferences, is to bring together respected corporate citizenship professionals and thought-leaders for idea-sharing, discussion and networking. Students like me (and basically anyone who’s not a corporate member of the BCCCC) don’t usually get to attend, but somehow the stars aligned this time around and I’ll be there. It’s a rare opportunity, for sure – and I’m very excited.

I’ve been asked by BCCCC to provide live blog content for three sessions:

• The Business of Corporate Citizenship: Creating New Social Ventures within Your Company
• A Seat at the UnCommon Table: Leveraging your Philanthropic Investments in Education
• Corporate Citizenship Journey – What have we learned? What is next?

With experts from industry, government, and the nonprofit sector, the sessions promise to be thought-provoking, informative, and inspiring.

Once the conference ends and the dust settles, I’ll be reposting my write-ups on The Changebase.

Can’t wait until the Conference has finished? Check out the BCCCC blog for my posts as they’re uploaded, and be sure to follow me on Twitter. I’ll be tweeting regularly so you can get all the updates.

And another tip: don’t just follow me on Twitter. Search the conference hashtag #bcccc_conf to see what everyone’s tweeting about!

To learn more about the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and this year’s conference, check out their website.

Ashley’s Note: As of April 15th, all of my posts from the BC Conference are live on The Changebase. Check out:

• Social Intrapreneurship at Work
• Taking a Seat at an Uncommon Table
• The Corporate Citizenship Journey

This past summer I got wind of an organization called All Day Buffet and an upcoming event they were hosting called The Feast. With names like that, I was immediately intrigued (after all, I do love food!). But when I read more about the event, I started to get really excited.

The Feast Conference gathers the world’s greatest innovators from across industries and society to empower, inspire and engage each other in creating world-shaking change. A creative look at the world’s toughest problems, The Feast Conference presents the most innovative solutions, insights, and best practices as a catalyst toward action.

Sounds like fun, right? Even more intriguing:

More than a conference, The Feast represents a bottom-up movement, so we’re curating an audience as cross-disciplinary and diverse as our talks. But we’re doing something a little different — we ask those who can afford to pay higher prices to micro-sponsor The Feast, which allows us to offer $99 invitations to awe-inspiring vanguards whose brains get them where their wallets can’t.

This paragraph really caught my attention. I’m a student, so I can’t really afford to attend lots of conferences. But $99? I could do that. So I sent off my mini-application, including information about my interests and my work with The Changebase, and waited for a response. Amazingly, I only waited about half an hour before I got an email saying, “You’re in!”

At the time, I didn’t realize what a true honor it was to be accepted to attend. Now that I’ve been, I understand just how lucky I was.

Without hesitation, The Feast was absolutely the best conference I have ever attended.

Of course, a statement like that begs the question, “Why?” Let me explain.

The Speakers: All Day Buffet did an incredible job creating a lineup of diverse experts from a wide spectrum of industries.  In 8 hours, we heard from social entrepreneurs, designers, authors, musicians, executive directors, and even a professional poker player. What’s amazing was that even with such variety in speakers, the day definitely held some common themes. I thought I’d include some nuggets of wisdom passed down throughout the day:

Matthew Bishop, Chief Business Writer at The Economist, talked about the importance of the heart and the head coming together to create social change.

Bob McKinnon, Founder of YellowBrickRoad, told us that empathy is not just about understanding someone else’s suffering; it’s about creating solutions to overcome that suffering.

Uffe Elbaek, Founder of The KaosPilot, challenged us to not just be the best in the world, but the best for the world.

Annie Duke, Professional Poker Player, taught us about how to use “cooperative ultimatums” to win in poker and in life.

Kenna, a Musician, reminded us that we need to be clever, collaborative, and curious in order to find our spark and create change.

Jay Parkinson, Founder of Hello Health, showed us that there is potential for a new model of health care that relies on collaboration and communication between doctors and patients.

Joshua Viertel, President of Slow Food USA, encouraged us to eat food that has a story we’re proud to tell.

Ken Banks, Founder of Kiwanja.net and FrontlineSMS, proved that the possibilities are endless when you create a technology that’s adaptable and open for everyone to use.

Elizabeth Scharpf, Founder of Sustainable Health Enterprises, shared with us the potential to empower women in developing countries through market-based solutions.

Rod Arnold, COO, and Becky Straw, Director of Water Programs at charity:water, demonstrated that when business and nonprofits truly partner together, people on both sides of the money win.

William Drenttel, Partner at Winterhouse, explained that designers aren’t in the design business but the consequence business.

And certainly last but not least, Brian Bordainick, Founder of 9^th Ward Field of Dreams, engaged all of us in a discussion of just how far an entrepreneur will go for a mission he believes in.

As you can see, it was an incredible day – one that certainly can’t be recreated in a single blog post. Luckily for you, All Day Buffet was live streaming during the event, so you can check out what each speaker had to say.

The Attendees: While the lineup of speakers was impressive, and their messages were certainly inspiring, what made this day invaluable were the people.

I have never attended an event where people were so singularly focused on connecting, engaging, and helping everyone they could. In one day, I met social entrepreneurs, artists, business owners, marketers, and nonprofit leaders. And after talking for a few moments, inevitably they asked, “What can I do to help you?” That may not seem impressive in a small crowd of dedicated social innovators – but this wasn’t a small crowd. This was almost 400 people.

In fact, it turned out that a common theme, throughout all of the speakers and the conversations I had during breaks, was collaboration and community. At the end of the event, All Day Buffet’s Jerri Chou encouraged us to put out the energy of what you’re looking for, and let this amazing community support and help you.

For me, yesterday was a homecoming to a community that I knew existed but hadn’t been introduced to yet. I came home feeling renewed and energized and overwhelmed (in a good way) by the possibilities laid out before me: itching to get started yet sad to leave this incredible gathering of changemakers.

As if she read our minds, Cindy Gallop, Founder of If We Ran The World and our moderator for the day, challenged us to seize this excitement and inspiration and turn it into action. She called us a “crucible bubbling over with good intentions” and she warned us not to let this inspiration go to waste. Turn your good intentions into micro-actions of change, she said.

And, I’d add, don’t lose sight of the fact that you are part of a community that wants you to succeed. Because in our collective goal of long-term social change, when one of us wins, we all do.

To see some photos from the event, check this out.

To learn more and follow The Feast’s speakers and their organizations:

• Matthew Bishop – @mattbish
• Kenna – @OKKenna
• Annie Duke – @realannieduke
• Joshua Viertel – @joshviertel
• Rod Arnold – @rodlarnold
• Becky Straw – @beckystraw
• William Drenttel – @designobserver
• Ken Banks – @kiwanja
• FrontlineSMS – @FrontlineSMS
• Elizabeth Scharpf and SHE – @SHEnterprises
• Yellow Brick Road – @YBRTweets
• Hello Health – @hellohealth
• 9th Ward Field of Dreams – @9wfod
• Cindy Gallop – @cindygallop1
• If We Ran The World – @iwrtw