The annual Craigslist Foundation non-profit boot camp is a event held to help advance the many causes which non-profits champion. “The goal is to help non-profits be more effective” says Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.org
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The boot camp is not limited to just non-profits however. Any community organization or group can benefit from the services offered at the boot camp.
The boot camp is organized into breakout sessions. These sessions are designed to help groups and organizations to meet each other and collaborate. A form of peer learning guided around a central theme or idea. This allows networking, brainstorming and an all-around good time.
Guests registered arrived early and were greeted on the campus of UC Berkeley in California. Refreshments were made available by volunteer staff at the 7th annual boot camp.
The keynote address 'Creating peak experiences in your community' was delivered by Chip Conley, founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality.
After which attendee’s could choose which break out session to attend according to their individual needs. Each break out session was hosted by an industry leader in the topic.
Joe Lambert from the Center for Digital Storytelling hosted the 'Storytelling and Documenting' breakout session. This workshop helped organizations develop the skills necessary to tell the story behind their cause. As a documentary photographer I found this session to be excellent as it demonstrated the need for story telling as a call to action.
Daniel Homsey from Empowersf.org moderated the "Building resilient communities through multi-sector collaboration" breakout session. Helping network different community groups was the focus and I saw many diverse groups engaging each other in productive brain storming sessions.
Kay Sprinkel Grace, a organizational consultant, presented during the 'Creating Powerful Partnerships: Inspiring Greater Community Investment in Your Cause' breakout session. Following the goal of connecting organizations and groups, this breakout session was a heavily attended workshop.
Beth Kanter of Zoetica speaks at the ‘Understanding the Networked nonprofit’ breakout session. Craig Newmark of Craigslist attended the 'Understanding the Networked nonprofit" session and gave his opinion on the future of networking.
As a social media consultant I found the advice given at this workshop to be on par with my consultations. The Internet is a powerful tool, which we are still learning. Workshops like these teach, in my opinion, core practices which can greatly improve a organizations visibility.
Towards the end of the day attendees of the 7th annual Craigslist Foundation boot camp participated in a Yoga breakout session to help relieve some stress. They could also get a massage thanks to the National Holistic Institute which was located in the center of the main tent.
The closing panel, 'Future of community' during the 7th annual Craigslist Foundation bootcamp, included Lateefah Simon, Craig Newmark, Marsha L. Semmel and Bob Johansen. The panel covered topic like the hybrid-nonprofit, dilemma flipping and cloud computing. Hearing these thoughts from such powerful people was very inspiring.
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