I’m hoping to zip (as in shared car rental) to Palo Alto today for a screening of and discussion about “The Entrepreneurs,” a new documentary that chronicles Zambia’s first large scale women’s leadership program. The film, which was created by Helen Cotton and Academy Award-winner Ross Kaufmann, is being presented by the San Francisco-based non-profit Camfed (which is no stranger to film now that it’s projects have been screened in 81 countries and more than 1,000 homes). Stanford’s Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research will host “The Entrepreneurs” and dialogue about young women who–despite coming from extreme rural poverty and sometimes being orphaned–launch furniture stores, preschools and other business through the 10,000 Women Program.
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A great dinner with friends (you know, one of those I’ve had to go to the bathroom for the past half hour but don’t want to miss something meals) this week has me feeling grateful about being in SF and in the vicinity of smart folks. So that it didn’t just remain in scribbled ink on my hand, I’ve pulled together–wait for it–Em’s Current Inspiration Roundup.
Organizations that I’m thinking about at the moment for their forward-thinking work include:
Headstand, a group started by local educator Katherine Priore that partners with classrooms and studios to prevent childhood obesity. Lower stress and higher grades are the goals of @headstandyoga’s curriculum for kids, and I’m excited for their next local presentation of their work.
The Tenderloin-based Gray Area Foundation for the Artsis not only increasing awareness of and participation in digital art and culture–it’s also working to support a community of coders, hackers, designers, engineers, composers, and technologists. Among its civic projects are a set of workshops and “data revolution” discussions, and you can explore the current goings on through @gaffta.
TED Prize winner JR, a moving and innovative artist, shared a large scale participatory art project today that will feature black and white portraits to reveal personal stories. The InsideOutProject invites photo uploading, poster creation, and physical poster receipt by participants for work to be exhibited in their own communities. more
In a city of coworking spaces, The Hub is special to me. And not just because their sister organization in Berkeley helped bring the first Ignite Bay Area event to life, but because it’s partnering with the Mission Street social innovation space to offer more entrepreneurial resources. A new 12-week evening program, Hub Ventures, is intended to provide “funding and resources to a community of 16 entrepreneurs building for-profit solutions for a better world.”
Applications are open to those looking to participate in weekly peer review sessions, mentor office hours, speaker events, and the like. The curriculum (including courses in Design for Impact, Fundraising Methods, Customer Development, and Market Validation) will culminate in a peer selection process to give three ventures $75K in seed funding in the form of convertible debt. Get yourself involved, good doers.
Among Women 2.0′s good news this week (including the completion of the third Founder Labs incubator program class and Spoondate, a company started in Founder Labs, receiving seed funding) is the launch of a custom FoundersCard. The members-only card offers discounts at Equinox gyms, the Clift Hotel and on Zipcar and other lifestyle brands. Consider it a “passport to the entrepreneurial lifestyle” and one that innovators who participate in Women 2.0 programs can enjoy for $200. Think of it as a black AMEX that wants you to enjoy Wine Library.
I’m glad to see pal and MamaHope founder Nyla Rodgers’ work with Kenyan communities attract so much positive attention lately (including a great piece by Xeni Jardin on Boing Boing this morning). Nyla has collaborated with good production partners–including local groups Whirled, creator of the Commando kid video at right, and Storytellers for Good, which created the story spot–to highlight her non-profit’s work in sustainable health, water and education projects. The most recent message (“Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential”) is an important one that’s humorously told.
PeopleBrowsr on Bryant and Girls in Tech will host a Social Media Week panel on Tuesday on a topic that I’m unsurprisingly excited about: women and the social web. The conversation about online influence is to feature All Things D’s Kara Swisher, consultant and friend Cathy Brooks, BlogHer co-founder Jory des Jardins, Intel Capital director Christine Herron, and Women 2.0 CEO Shaherose Charania. Great group, methinks.
If you had five minutes on stage, what would you say?
On February 8th, 16 technologists, entrepreneurs, writers, musicians, and philosophers will answer this challenge as Ignite SF comes to Public Works in the Mission. You’ll learn about the history of clothing, future building and (it’s true) how to keep a hot body at any age. Speakers include:
Thor Muller, co-founder of Get Satisfaction
Bess Kalb, Wired
Tim Hwang, The Awesome Foundation and ROFLcon
Amber Caldwell, trauma surgeon
… and more
If you’re one of the early birds around 6 PM you’ll get free food from El Porteno (Wait, is that the awesome empanadas place at the Ferry Building? You bet!) and live music. If you’d like to tell pals once you get your own tickets ($5 each), this can help you get started:
I’m going to this cool event called Ignite on Tues 2/8 6pm at Public Works. You should come! 16 entrepreneurs, writers, philosophers get on-stage to talk about their passions but each gets only 5 minutes. Their slides automatically advance every 15 seconds. Think TED Talks on speed. There’s also a full bar and free food trucks for first 100 in the door. Only $5 bucks! How many tickets do you need?
I hope you’re enjoying a relaxing (or ski-filled) holiday weekend. A few things to add to your calendar if you’re interested:
February 3 | Art Live Launch Party The Common SF
The International Museum of Women will be serving cocktails and apps from 6-9 and featuring the fashions of Hunter Dixon, Taylor Stitch, and Marine Layer.
February 8 | Ignite San Francisco Public Works
The idea and tech talks are coming back, and I’m excited to work with @PattiChan to bring them to the stage. Tickets are $5, and you’ll want to nab ‘em in advance.
February 10 | Women 2.0 Founder Labs night Institute for the Future
We’re headed to Palo Alto to see final demos from founders in the mobile program. I couldn’t be more excited for this round.
And save the date for March 10 | Celebrating Change Art Live Lounge at Terra SF
The International Museum of Women annual benefit celebrating women artists and social change will include live art installations, music, dessert, and other goodness.
Kiva co-founder Jessica Jackley sat down with Women 2.0 recently to talk about her goals for improving company fundraising with her latest endeavor, ProFounder. The LA-based startup looks to make it easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital and give returns to investors they know (or don’t–there service has a new offering for public investment). Do take a look.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg spoke at the first TEDWomen conference today about the challenging but vital contributions of working mothers. “Let’s start by acknowledging that we’re lucky—we live in a world where not all women have human rights,” she told participants in DC before citing dismal percentages of the number of women in C-level jobs. When only about 15 percent of corporate board members are women, a number that has hardly risen in the past 10 years, she says she’s concerned not only about the rates at the highest earning parts of the economy but that women are too often dropping out of it.
To stay engaged, she advised:
Sit at the table. Whether physically or metaphorically, it’s important to “raise your hand and keep it raised.” Women don’t negotiate for ourselves in the work we do enough, she said, and no one gets a promotion they don’t think they deserve (especially those who underestimate their abilities).
Make your partner a real partner. Even when they’re working, Sandberg estimates that women perform three times the amount of childcare than men do in two parent families. She suggested working inside the home to create more systematic balance, including not pressuring children of different genders differently to succeed.
Don’t leave before you leave. After seeing women opt out of new projects before they were pregnant or went on maternity leave, Sandberg says she’s tired of seeing women lean back, not forward, even before they take a break from working. “Keep your foot on the gas pedal.”
She brought up the success/likeability paradigm (which says that the two together has a negative correlation for women but a positive one for men), which wasn’t a first for an afternoon that included searching for a new analogy for the “glass ceiling.” Going back to working motherhood, Sandberg said her vision of success—and one that doesn’t include 500+ million Facebook users–is for her daughter to not just succeed but to be liked for her accomplishments.
