How can tech and new media make our world a better place?
For the past decade, two trends have emerged side by side: the influx of investment in social good issues and the technology revolution.
Yet better synergies still remain to be found between these two collectives that most of the time ignore each other. How can we bridge the gap between the tech addicts and those who want to make the world a better place?
+Social Good was born out of this need. Its objective is to spark conversations and to catalyze projects leveraging new media and technology to accelerate change. With a worldwide mobile penetration of 93%, it is time to imagine how technology can contribute to solve major issues as access to healthcare, education or gender inequality.
Eleven global partners, from which UN Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Mashable or 92Y, ranging from business, tech, philantropy and media worlds, make the community as diverse and strong as possible.
Ongoing conversations from local to global, with an anual Summit in New York, independent local events and a strong digital presence through the platform are the keys of the success of the brand.
As part of the first worldwide cohort of +Social Good connectors, I had the pleasure to join the rest of them in Washington late June and to meet this diverse crowd of “ecosystem builders” who all leverage media to create impact in their communities. Among them, you could meet:
- Ruben Cantu from Austin, who ran more than 40 panels on technology for social good during the last South by Southwest conference.
- Maria Ressa, the founder of Rappler, an innovative Philippines news network.
- Abbie Jung, who is building in Hong Kong an ecosystem of strategic philantropists, impact investors and social entrepreneurs through Synergy Social Ventures, Nexus and ANDE.
- Sebastian Lindstrom, co-founder of the guerrilla filmmaking collective What took you so long, who travels the world to make movies about stories worth spreading.
- MJ Degadjor who is involved in Blogging Ghana and recently co-founded Africa New Media.
- Hazami Barmada who organized MENA +Social Good event last year which conected 27M people in over 53 countries around the world to shift the perception on the Arab World.
We were all interacting during two days to imagine how we could effectively collaborate between each other and actívate the conversation in our own local communities.
+SocialGood recently released its new platform allowing deeper engagement from worldwide members. Check it out!
Next Social Good Summit will take place on September 20th in New York.
So, if you are interested in technology and social entrepreneurship, stay tuned for the coming +Social Good event in Barcelona!
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