The Feast NOLA: The Connected Age Emerges from New Orleans
Woody Tasch’s hypothesis, author of Slow Money, is that money has become too fast (along with everything else), and as a result we’ve become completely disconnected from it. He’s right; and what greater evidence of our lack of vested relationship with money than the financial crisis. Fast money is made at the expense of society and the planet. When A LOT of money is made some of it is given to philanthropy to clean up the mess the fast spending created. There is no social capital in that way of making money.
Woody’s observation is that we’ve been too focused on “markets” and not “places”, when once upon a time we used to trade in marketplaces. He challenges the logic of 20% return on VC investment in a venture as a success, when we are subtracting such significant amounts of capital from the local economy. He asks “What if 50% of assets were invested within 50 miles of the marketplace?”. What if smaller returns became the norm in exchange for preservation and restoration of other forms of capital such as ecosystems, soil and communities? What if the connection between capital wealth and its provenance were once again made?
Does “restorative” resound with you at all lately? Are we in a moment of restoration? Possibly the oratory and policy development exuding from the White House of late might suggest so. The thing about NOLA is that it’s been ‘restoring’ itself since 2005 post Katrina. This is what was so fascinating about the conference: at times it was hard to tell if we were learning from the speakers on the day or the stories, evidence and people in the city who have ‘restored’ and transformed it. NOLA has become a leader for educational innovation because it was broken and exposed as broken when the city crashed under the pressure of nature’s force. John Alford of NOLA 180, KIPP charter school, is leading educational restoration. 107 out of 128 schools in New Orleans were failing; it’s the young and mission-driven generation who are moving into these schools and treating pupils like stakeholders in their school.
Woody describes an emerging Restorative Economics – because “we are past the point of sustainability”. And he’s right, we are. This planet, our economies and many of our social systems are broken. Restorative Economics, or “Nurture Capital”, is a new wealth creation from restoration – like the KIPP schools.
Brian Bordainick, age 23, spoke about his ambitious project to raise $1.85M to build a community football field and track on the campus of Carver High School – a recovery school. With no experience building ventures, raising finance or working in sport, Brian entered the Restorative Economy to create a job for himself with a mission. He is a story that the citizens of America should follow and the “Fame Game” story of our time.
What if instead of feeling bad about the mess in this country we took pride in restoring it?
It goes without saying that social innovation is humanistic; it’s emerged from (the growing) tribes who are born with altruistic values or come to these values through a significant shift that happens in their lives. Katrina kicked New Orleans hard, but what’s kicked back is a generation of idealistic change agents and a city that could actually become the beacon of our times. (The rest of the country and world is feeling a different sort of kick right now). Dan Pink describes these emerging tribes and their work as the dawning of the Conceptual Age.
Alldaybuffet exemplify this tribe. Michael Karnjanaprakorn presented their new business model and social venture at the conference. The idea: an incubator that will invest in talent and passion to make something happen (human passion) versus an idea measured on how fast it will make money. Theirs is a fund that will invest in people to create good ideas that create social capital, instead of judging the numbers and short-term return of a business model. That is a new paradigm right? Have you heard of investors funding people and their values? Believe it, as it’s happening. They are gaining significant traction.
Team Alldaybuffet ARE the generation of the Conceptual Age. They’re young, smart, loaded with values and rejecting fast money jobs. This breed have built massive networks of support and interest, and with it are incubating social ventures. Thus far Alldaybuffet has been built on a platform of values, and a network of disciples and supporters.
This is a provocation rather than a discussion that actually came out of the Feast conference. The kickback from Katrina has resulted in a city that is fast becoming a ‘beacon’ of excellence in reforming charter education and developing green buildings. It is a city shaping the definition of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. And it is a magnet for “smart, idealistic change agents” in Vitrano’s words.
What if the lessons and innovation, and talent, were exported to other parts of the country and in exchange seed investment and talent invested social capital back into the city? I’ve been dreaming about brand NOLA in the 21st century, which then made me think about others parts of the country where ground-up innovation is driving greater prosperity. What if the country was divided into centers or “beacons” of excellence, each one building on the unique cultural, social, environmental and economic attributes of its place (the “marketplace”). But instead of siloe’d entities, the beacons actually exist to drive leadership and innovation in other parts of the county? Centers would cross-pollinate and exchange social capital with other centers.
It’s just a thought. Whatever way, I would urge business leaders, entrepreneurs, citizensof this country and the rest of the world to spend some time connecting with the innovators, like Robbie Vitrano, in New Orleans.