Drive-thru (social) Innovation in Two Hours Flat
Posted By Sidney on June 18, 2009
Yesterday evening I had the grand opportunity to be apart of the first (social) startUP event in Columbus, Ohio in the Sandbox, a coworking site near downtown Columbus. Inspired by the growing popularity of Startup Weekend, the purpose of this event was to crowdsource or as the coordinators called it “open source” ideas with local, socially conscious professionals in two hours flat.
The choice of location was quite poetic and apropos as the Sandbox had the look and feel of a hip Apple commercial with its bleach white walls and sleek IKEA furniture located in what appeared to be a renovated former garage and office space (complete with thirst-quenching kegerator). In essence, the creative minds in attendance (representing such areas as business, marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, IT, and others) were a garage band thrown together to brainstorm a new song from concept to lyrics to melody with the goal of widespread distribution.
Coordinated by Luke Barbara (@lukebarbara) and Joe DeLoss (@joedeloss), leaders of the recently formed Columbus Social Entrepreneurs Meetup group, the event attracted 25 people including three representatives of the local nonprofit partner Lower Lights Ministries. Lower Lights is a place-based, faith-based organization that offers children’s programming, affordable homeownership, post incarceration support, and substance abuse counseling.
The agenda for the evening included:
6:00 PM – networking + arrival + sign-in
6:15 PM – welcome + introduction
6:25 PM – Lower Lights presentation about assets, opportunities, and challenges facing the organization
6:35 PM – small groups creative solution development
6:55 PM – elevator pitches (1 min each)
7:05 PM – voting (top 3 ideas move-on)
7:10 PM – larger groups create action plans with five or more concrete steps
7:35 PM – action plan pitches (2 min)
7:45 PM – conclusion + next actions
8:00 PM – conclusion and after event social activities
The three creative social enterprise solutions developed at the end of the night were:
- Organic “slow food” urban garden supplemented with product from a food coop with primary customer mid- to high-end restaurants;
- Recycling/Sorting Facility with primary customer local businesses interested in doing their part to improve the environment; and
- Maintenance/Repair Business with primary customer rental properties in the neighborhood and throughout Columbus.
The event proved to be success as judged by accomplishing everything on the agenda, on time, with 25 very engaged professionals who simply want to make central Ohio a better place to live.
Now, its up to the nonprofit to decide whether or not they want to investigate either of the solutions further with the assistance interested volunteers from the event and others. As I left the Sandbox, a local band (a real one) showed up. It appeared that they were going to use the coworking space to practice their art after the facility closed. How fitting was that?
I will be monitoring the next steps with the hope that both future (social) startUP events and the social enterprise efforts of Lower Lights Ministries are successful.
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