Big thanks to everyone who stopped by the Idyllic Nerd Commune last night for our Social Media for Social Good panel. NeighborGoods hosted the event for Social Media Week LA. Catherine Geanuracos moderated and I was joined on the panel by Kurt Daradics (CitySourced), Zach Behrens (LAist) and Joe Linton (CicLaVia).

Our audience was even more impressive. Here’s a picture of them!

We had representatives from LAANE, Bike Oven, Arroyo Time Bank, City Year, Jewish Federation, First 5 LA, The LA Times, The LA Weekly and countless other non-profits and organizations. With such a great crowd, we were able to host an open an informal conversation that I hope was as useful and interesting for the audience as it was for me.

We talked about how technology is being used to strengthen our local community in Los Angeles. We shared tips and tools for non-profits to use social media to reach out to local citizens. We explored issues of trust, bridging the digital divide to low income communities, and how outreach is changing with the proliferation of mobile technologies. Most importantly, we connected offline in a real space with real people who are working to improve Los Angeles. I know I gained a lot from the experience. Thanks so much to our awesome moderator, our kick ass panelists and our engaged and intelligent audience. Let’s do it again soon!

For those who want to continue the conversation, the organizers started a ‘Social Good In LA’ Google Group.