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Eight years ago, both of us attended a gathering organized by Indiaspora that changed the course of history and impacted millions of lives. It did so because the format allowed for the kind of spontaneity and unpredictability that most conferences and symposia go to great lengths to discourage. One participant responded in a totally unscripted way to a report showing a $2 billion “giving gap” between what Indian Americans could give and were giving by suggesting that the community accept this finding and simply commit to closing the gap in five years.
In the six years that followed, many of those in the audience encouraged others to increase giving from Indian Americans to all causes and grow giving to India from all sources. When it came time to do a follow-up study to see if the needle had moved, the same experts at Dalberg found—somewhat to their surprise—that giving had increased to an estimated $3-$4 billion per year. The title of that study said it all: “From Closing the Gap to Setting the Standard.” Given the quality and efficiency of the best Indian nonprofits, these additional resources changed countless lives in India for the better. This inspiring example suggests that it is time to have the courage to reinvent the increasingly stale conference format to allow for more magic moments that get attendees to look away from their screens and participate.
If we are to have more conferences, seminars, and symposia that keep people’s attention and create real change in the world, organizers will need to give up control and experiment with new formats. That is precisely what we did when IPA joined hands with Indiapora to organize the eighth Philanthropy Summit last September in the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Gandhi Jayanti.
From the start, we wanted an unconference feel, and put a lot of effort and thought to increasing participation and engagement from the attendees. Our purpose was to increase interest in philanthropy in the diaspora and get more of us across the generations to embrace it. For instance, we held a freewheeling debate about whether forcing nonprofits to reduce their overhead rates was counterproductive. We had three participants pitch the 180 attendees about their ideas for an afternoon panel discussion, and allowed all attendees to vote on which would actually take place. We allowed participants to engage in an online commentary of the proceedings on a screen displayed at the front of the room while the speakers were presenting. So by design, participant engagement and interactivity were built into the conference core and it worked last year in the Philanthropy Summit. So it is now part of our DNA, and will be integral to future summits as well.
The closing keynote by Desh Deshpande was not a standard philanthropy stump speech but rather his response to a question we posed to him: “What Would Gandhi Say About Today’s Philanthropic Model?” We encouraged all attendees to contribute to a Summit Communiqué through a shared Google Doc; the final version was published as the definitive report from our proceedings.
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have learned that attracting talented people and freeing them from formal structures and position descriptions can allow for breakthrough ideas to emerge. Indian Americans have been at the forefront of taking advantage of such environments. But most conferences remain stuck in the past in terms of how they are organized.
Many conferences preach to the converted; the majority of scientific seminars are attended by academics who already know the subject matter very well. Philanthropy gatherings are often attended by nonprofits seeking to meet the one keynote foundation leader featured in the agenda. Opening keynotes that simply summarize what everyone already knows are followed by panels where everyone says essentially the same thing in their own words. Within an hour of the start of most convenings, many attendees are in the hallways networking or checking their phones for news and messages. Building time for networking into the agenda is smart; great ideas are often born from unstructured conversations.
Let’s commit to reinventing conferences, harnessing the power of technology and spontaneity to keep people’s attention and to have discussions that matter, building on some of our colleagues’ ideas published by the South Asian Herald about how to reinvent fundraising galas.
We are trying to do our part by organizing our next Summit in Dallas, Texas, along these lines. We hope to have an eclectic mix of nonprofit professionals, donors, volunteers, academics, and trustees create something unpredictable next September 28-29. We can’t tell you exactly what will happen there, but that is exactly the point.
For example, we intend to ask registered attendees to propose an afternoon panel discussion several weeks in advance and then have the summit attendees vote on which to actually hold. Which ones will be proposed and which will be chosen? We have no idea. Therein lies the excitement. We know we will have very smart and accomplished people taking the trouble to come to the conference; we want to make the most of their presence and spark a new thought or idea.
For example, we plan on sharing Arogya World’s “Menlo Park Declaration” that challenges the diaspora to make lifestyle changes that could significantly reduce the incidence of diabetes. How will the delegates respond to these proposals about how they live their daily lives? Come to Dallas and find out!
One of the best conferences we’ve both attended is one organized by Rural India Supporting Trust (RIST) a couple of years ago where all attendees took part in breakout sessions in smaller groups and actively worked on solutions with light facilitation by the organizers. The results were truly insightful and made everyone feel a part of the RIST community. In this year’s Philanthropy Forum, we have added an additional symposium at the University of Texas at Dallas and will be looking at hackathon solutions on the use of AI for social good. In future conferences, we would love to workshop an idea where all attendees co-create a solution to a very big problem.
Let’s commit to getting outside our comfort zones when we plan gatherings, taking a page from our brothers and sisters who are designing new technologies that are revolutionizing how we live our lives. Innovation need not be confined to Silicon Valley and information technology. It can infuse how we design our meetings, conferences, and seminars—indeed, how we use our time together whenever two or more of us break the isolation that increasingly defines our era and decide to have a conversation of some kind.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article/column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of South Asian Herald.
