Solicited Advice - Festival
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[edit] Allen Gunn
Notes from meeting with Allen Gunn, Executive Director, Aspiration, 2007-03-29 11AM, Aspiration offices, San Francisco CA
[edit] Frame it
- First thing: Frame it, set expectations
- Not a panel, antiquated, form of control
- Best events in the context of social change are those that flatten the roles
- Emphasize peer sharing ethic, rather than an expertise culture
- Everyone has expertise and knowledge that is valuable to share, and in the act of sharing, one gains capacity. Articulating what you know is the best way to learn – it’s in formulating speech that you synthesize and understand.
[edit] Goals
- Festival of change
- Your idea of making it party-like is brilliant. A huge party is a great idea, but what are the goals for that party?
- Is it going to get drunk?
- Strengthen ties between stakeholders who are passionate about working for positive social change?
- It’s a celebration of life and potential for change
- Punchline is your helping people to find an opportunity to plug in and be a part of that change
- You’re helping people find skills and insight to give them the ability to work for the change they want to see and to be
- You’re tapping into the artistic and musical creativity and joy that creates a mood that inspires understanding of what a more just and healthier world would feel like
[edit] Message to all participants
- Come with an idea of what you might share as well as what you might gain
- Not to hangout with your friends but to hang out with the friends that you have not yet met
- Come with the hope that change is possible, and the knowledge that you’ll have an affirmation of that at the end of the day
[edit] How do you get there
Second-level goals Set it up so:
- People share skills?
- Discover allies around issues?
- Have fun and feel closer?
The goals imply the event structure, facilitative model, venue
[edit] Venue
- Hardest piece is finding the venue
- Check out the Cupertino place – crowded – work with City of Cupertino
- Find a private property? Plusses and minuses to private & public
- A big flat open area, preferably with some trees
- If outdoors, means smaller group sizes, outdoor discussions are not audible, and sound amplification is noise pollution
- What is the geography, topology of your outdoor layout. E.g. Burning Man – chill out tent, skillshare bazaar, thematic areas, not controlled by orgs or individuals, but instead are collectively facilitated and populated. That’s when the cool stuff happens. Avoid anything pitch- or soapbox-like
- Micro venues – vignettes – no booths
- Music area, performance, jamming. Multicultural, music that gets people dancing, celebrating: salsa bands, African drums, music of empowerment
- Skills area
- Question area - how does that work?
- Games area
- Art area
- Circes that form a large circle around a center space
- Pick a headcount – my votes is not too big, 2-300
- That drives venue selection and infrastructure
- Less is more – getting lost in the noise risk of bigger event
- Smaller – a series – start with a small one
- A buzzkill to wait in line for 15 minutes to take a leak
[edit] Food
- Figure it out – find out how people bring food
- Get food providers, x% of proceeds
- Let participants bring their own food – a picnic; focus on beverages
- Try to find ways to offload logistics to participants
- No plastic bags, paper plates, everything compostable. Talk to Green Mary to have a zero waste event; greenmary.org
[edit] Next steps
- Find someone who does this
- e.g. outdoor music promoters – see who they are that would be willing to sit with you and give advice
- you’re inspired by what they do, want to learn from what they know
- not planning to make any money off of this, not competing with their events
- Outreach – how to publicize – who will give free radio time, newspaper coverage, tv time
- Logistics team –1 logistics person per 20 participants (you should not have any "day of" duties)
[edit] Darian Rodriguez Heyman
Notes from meeting with Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Executive Director, Craigslist Foundation, 2007-03-29 230PM, CLF Offices, San Francisco CA
[edit] Keep it as simple as possible
- Free
- Bring your own food & drinks (with some extra to share)
[edit] Focus on production, promotion, and programming
[edit] Production
Space, restrooms. sound system, power generation etc
[edit] Promotion
- Get promotional partners to spread the word, in addition to Craigslist Foundation, Idealist, Aspiration
- We ask them to make a good faith effort to promote, we give them the materials, in exchange we list them as a promotional partner on our website
[edit] Programming
- Fun games
- Educational content
- Make a schedule, bounce it off Darian, Liza, Ami, Gunner – e.g. 11AM – Introduction icebrakers, 1PM – Gunner speaks on Open Source for a Better World, 3PM – Thre-legged race, 8PM – Fireworks
[edit] Immediate: set date & venue
- Date : September/October 2007 Do it this year
- Venue: Find the right park; Get reservation & permit
[edit] Define
- Name: Better World Festival, something that’s active
- Come up with a one-sentence tagline
- A one-page event description that will help people to contribute time, talent, equipment for free
- This event is designed to celebrate, connect, and inspire people who are dedicated to bringing about positive and lasting change
- CLF, Idealist, Aspiration logos at bottom
- End with call to action – “if you have any questions or if you would like to support this event, please call or email me”
[edit] Other considerations
- Green event – will cost $300-500 to keep event green
- Options: Get an org to step up to be the greening funder; ask for $5 donations from participants; ask government environmental agencies to supply
- Set up an evite
[edit] Member feedback
- Doreen – picnic bag auction – to pay for the greening
- Lynn
- Hispanic U – parking’s just for 100
- Tents – nonprofit oportunities, international, each with a facilitator
- Gina - put it on organizing team to get facilitators for tents
- Matt S. - Looks good to me! It would be great to hold the event in 2007. I like the name "Better World Festival." It will help tremendously with donations if we can get under someone's 501(c)3 umbrella. Who will be on the central planning committee?
