Event Coverage: Social Innovation with Alec Ross from the US State Department

Last week we had the honor and privilege of hosting a unique event with the US State Department that explored US social innovation and entrepreneurship.

The conversation was led by moderator Alec Ross, Senior Adviser for Innovation in the office of the Secretary Hillary Clinton and also included speakers Paull Young from Charity Water, Rachel Schechtman, Tom’s Shoes and Oren Michels from Mashery.

The session was webcast in both English and Spanish and drew in an audience from 21 countries, including Argentina, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Guatemala, Marshall Islands, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Sweden, Turkey, the US and Uruguay. Notable participants included IRC San Jose, US Embassy Buenos Aires and the Young Beninese Leaders Association hosted at US Embassy Cotonou.

WATCH THE RECORDING HERE:

The audience was not only able to watch the live webcast, but could also contribute questions, comments and provide feedback to each of the panelists via the chat module.  Some examples included:

“Thank you for coming together in such an awesome way that people like me can chime in and get educated. I’m astounded and consistently amazed by how social people are becoming and I think that mindset can help my issue.”—online participant.

“muy buena idea, por favor repintanla en el futuro…gracias” [translation: this is a great idea, please do it again…thanks]—arwin, online participant.

“thank you Mr. Alec Ross and distinguish panel!”—tg23, online participant.

“very informative”—Laurence, online participant.

Establishing a working relationship with the US State Department has been a very important step for the global Social Media Week effort.  In the future we hope to do more of these types of events, which are designed to connect across geographical and cultural boundaries, a goal which is very much at the heart of the Social Media Week platform.