There are two things that we purely enjoy in this world.  One, drinking for a cause.  How can we not love that?  And second, drinking for Charity Water (which is one of our favorite charities, ever) which is why all of you should join us at Twestival.

“On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water. The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects.”

If you’re in NYC, come join us at M:2 which is located on 530 West 28th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues).  Those crazy video DJ’s Eclectic Method will be spinning it on the one’s and two’s so come out and drink for a cause!

Our team is excited to attend the 2009 Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard.  “The Social Enterprise Conference provides a forum for exploring the synergies between for-profit, non-profit, and public sector approaches to addressing critical social issues. This goal lies at the heart of the Harvard Business School mission “to educate leaders who make a difference in the world” and the Kennedy School of Government mission “to prepare leaders for service to democratic societies.” The Conference is entirely run by students from these two schools.”

This speakers have not been announced yet but looks promising from the lineup last year that included Nicholas Negroponte among many others.  Tickets are $110 for the general public which makes it one of the most affordable conferences in the world.  Register here and if you plan on attending, let us know so that we can meet up!

More than three years after the failure of the levees, New Orleans has emerged as a haven for young leaders dedicated to rebuilding an American city that was 80% damaged. Young people from all over the world have arrived to work with local New Orleans residents to think about how to solve old problems ( lack of adequate, affordable health care, a crumbling public school system, defunct city government, blighted neighborhoods, etc) in new, innovative ways.

Join us for a talk on how the most pressing issues facing New Orleans residents, how Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Nathan Rothstein are addressing some of these problems, and how students can get involved, and also find intern/job opportunities in the city.

RSVP here

The New New Orleans

Monday, December 8, 2008

7 – 9 PM

NYU Hillel, First Floor

7 East 10th Street, NY 10003 (Google Maps)

It’s not about ideas.
It’s about making ideas happen.

Insights and stories from a diverse set of speakers, the conference will assess productivity in a creative context, offering a sneak peek behind the process, exposing how ideas come to life.

Our team is super excited to check out 99% to make our good ideas happen.  For more information, please visit The 99 Percent Conference.

We’re excited to announce that “The Feast Conference” will be coming to New Orleans on Friday, February 6th, 2009! Featuring Social Innovation from the city that knows it best, “The Feast: New Orleans” will gather 125 of the world’s leading creative mavericks, entrepreneurs, revolutionaries, radicals, and innovators together to inspire action to change the world.

Our first wave of speakers includes Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures and Nic Perkin of New Orleans Exchange with more being adding shortly. Part of an amazing agenda of inspiring, mind-expanding, innovative talks, insights and surprises, they’ll be in NOLA to showcase a look at social innovation from all angles.

We only have 100 tickets for sale so buy yours today as space will sell out fast! For more information, visit http://www.thefeastconference.com and to register for The Feast: New Orleans here.

From NOLA to NYU, Alldaybuffet’s bringing the love and inspiration of the Big Easy to New York. Want to learn more? Join us for “The New New Orleans”, a workshop that will discuss the most pressing issues facing New Orleans residents, how Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Nathan Rothstein are addressing some of these problems, and how you can get involved, and find intern/job opportunities in the city.

More than three years after the failure of the levees, New Orleans has emerged as a haven for young leaders dedicated to rebuilding an American city that was 80% damaged. Young people from all over the world have arrived to work with local New Orleans residents to think about how to solve old problems ( lack of adequate, affordable health care, a crumbling public school system, defunct city government, blighted neighborhoods, etc) in new, innovative ways.

Michael Karnjanaprakorn is the Co-Founder of All Day Buffet, an incubator for social innovation. They connect, create and launch ventures that use creative solutions for positive change.

Nathan Rothstein is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of
NOLA YURP. The organization was created in the summer of 2007 to help new young residents connect with locals and attract more young people to New Orleans.

RSVP here and see you there!

The New New Orleans

Monday, December 8, 2008

7 – 9 PM

NYU Hillel, First Floor

7 East 10th Street, NY 10003 (Google Maps)

We recently stopped by VII photo gallery in Brooklyn during one of Swiss-Miss’s Creative mornings. A collectively owned agency founded by photo-journalists, VII focuses on photojournalism and changes and development of society and culture.

You may recognize one of the agency members, James Nachtwey, winner of the 2007 TED prize, who launched the site http://xdrtb.org/ in October to generate awareness of the story about an extremely drug resistant strain of TB known as XDRTB. If you haven’t checked it out yet, do so and spread the word. It’s a great example of the power of photography and media in creating awareness and subsequent political and public action.

Along this concept, Demos, a UK-based “every democracy” think tank is putting together an event in London this week (November 18): How to make news and influence people: Media and journalism in the network age which will discuss “the new politics of images” and “what kinds of news and photo-journalism are emerging to connect people with politics.”

From Frog design:

The event, held at London’s King Cross Hub, will gather a salon of experts to examine the making and implications of James Nachtwey’s XDR-TB’s awareness campaign, a much acclaimed example of visual storytelling and a winner of the TED Prize 2007. Panelists include Charlie Leadbeater, Author of We-Think; Charlie Beckett, Director, POLIS, LSE and author of Supermedia; Amy Novogratz, TED Prize Director, TED Conferences; and Alfie Dennen, Founder of We’re not afraid, Moblog and XDR-TB ‘Find-me.’

For a peak at the back-end research, they should talk to Fame Theory, the creators of Fame Game, a site that tracks and analyzes celebrity fame through a combination of event photography and online media. They’ll be holding an event of their own tomorrow entitled “Fame Theory 101″, exploring How Fame Game and the internet are changing the world of branding, public relations, and social and celebrity culture.

More than just a site about the vain and self-promoting, they’re using the data they’re gathering to develop all algorithms and visualization to track the functioning of popularity, offering insights into how can you leverage the power of the media to create more attention for your brand/project/client/artwork… or even XDRTB?

Next steps.. leveraging that for social good. We know, we know…we’re working on it.

From main street to Wall street and everywhere in between, there’s been an outpouring of lamentations, exclamations and downright indignation and concern.  But what are we all going to do about it? How about slow down?

That’s one of the concepts behind a new movement called Slow Money. Based very much on the Slow Food concept, Slow money is the closest thing we’ve seen yet to a return to the fundamentals and meaning of “investment”. Here’s the def:

A concept under development by Woody Tasch, Chairman of Investors’ Circle. Inspired by the mission of the Slow Food Movement, Tasch considers that “fast” money investments (such as venture capital) is expected to return a profit quickly but is rarely invested long enough to create sustainable ventures. This is especially true of early-stage companies in some industries (such as biotech, high tech, and food development) which often require longer time frames to generate competitive returns. Slow money is invested with an understanding of the natural dynamics of these businesses and investors set their expectations of financial return around these processes.

PURETALKS, will be presenting a talk by Woody Tasch on the topic. In partnership with StartingBloc, NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship, Green Leaders, and Pure Project and hosted by  NYU Stern’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies it’s sure to be enlightening. So if you want to learn more, stop in. Your wallet will thank you.

Eventbrite it here and see below for info.

PURETALKS presents: Slow Money: An Evening with Woody Tasch

Join us for an inspiring and innovative talk with Woody Tasch, Chairman of Investors’ Circle and Founder of Slow Money

A founding group of advisors, funders and members are making 2008 the year of Slow Money. The newly organized 501c3, incubated by Investors’ Circle, is designing strategies for investing in local food systems and promoting new definitions of fiduciary responsibility around principles of carrying capacity, cultural and biological diversity, non-violence and care of the commons.  Woody Tasch will present the vision, mission, and strategy for the new intermediary and share from his recently published book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money.

Q & A and and catered reception to follow.

Hosted by:

NYU Stern’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

In partnership with:

StartingBloc, NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship, Green Leaders, and Pure Project

Slow Money – An Evening with Woody Tasch

NYU Stern – Henry Kaufman Management Center
Cantor ballroom (top floor)
44 West 4th St.
New York, NY
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
7.00 ~ 8.15PM
Catered reception to follow
RSVP: By November 14, 2008
Post-event Social Networking hosted by StartingBloc
Apple Restaurant
17 Waverly Pl. (near Greene)
New York, NY
8.45 ~ 10.00pm

PURETALKS is a collaborative series of conversations touching on topics of creative expression, sustainable practice and social entrepreneurship.  The goal of these talks is to inspire and ignite activity among its participants, and to offer a platform to support this activity.  These conversations will take the form of action workshops, networking events, lectures, and conferences.

About Woody Tasch:
Woody Tasch is Chairman of Investors’ Circle, a national non-profit network of investors dedicated to “Patient Capital for a Sustainable Future.” Since 1992, Investors’ Circle has facilitated the flow of over $130 million to over 200 sustainability-minded early-stage companies and venture funds, including over $24 million to 37 food companies. He is Chairman and President of the newly formed NGO, Slow Money, an intermediary dedicated to catalyzing the flow of capital to enterprises that support soil fertility and local food communities.
The mission of Slow Money is:
•    To promote entrepreneurship that preserves and restores soil fertility, appropriate-scale organic farming and local food communities.
•    To catalyze increases in foundation grant-making and mission-related investing in support of sustainable agriculture and local economies; and,
•    To incubate next-generation socially responsible investment strategies, integrating principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place, diversity and non-violence.

Woody Tasch, Investor’s Circle, Slow Money

Want to learn how to go from Green to Gold?  If you liked Tom Szaky’s presentation at The Feast Conference in New York, you’ll like the Opportunity Green Conference in Los Angeles.  Be profitable.  Be green.  Be awesome…

Opportunity Green is a convergence of the prime movers & shakers and up & coming innovators driving today’s new green economy.

We inspire a collaborative culture of new thinking and unconventional ideas that pushes change in unexpected ways.

Join the best and brightest entrepreneurial business leaders for an exciting 2 day forum, focused on effectively integrating sustainability into your organization.

November 8-9, 2008 at UCLA

Some of the speakers include Rick Ridgeway (Patagonia), Jane Savage (Nike), and Jonathan Greenblatt (GOOD Magazine).  And if you really want to get the hook-up, enter discount code “JoinBehanceP3″ to receive 30% off your ticket prices!

Opportunity Green Conference

We can hardly believe it either but the day’s almost here and the excitement is unbearable. We’ve gathered the best of the best in the socially innovative and creative worlds–and not just speakers mind you, but attendees, partners (and a few surprises too).

Hear from the likes of Dickson Despommier, of the vertical farming project, Scott Belsky, Founder of Behance, and Dale Jones, CEO of Play Pumps International, just to name a few. Then connect and collaborate with some of the best in the business. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

If you haven’t bought you ticket already, there are only 41 left, so get to it! You can register here. And for more information, go to http://www.thefeastconference.com

It all goes down on October 16th at The Scandinavia House NYC in 7…6…5…4…