The 3rd Annual Social Good Summit happened this past weekend and brought together thousands of people around the world over three days to discuss how new technology can help to overcome some of the world’s toughest challenges.
Companies like Google, Twitter, YouTube, Starbucks and RED talked about successes and their most impactful strategies. Agencies like Droga5 shared how they helped to amplify World Humanitarian Day, while BBDO’s work with Save the Children inspired people to learn more about Every Beat Matters. Nonprofits like American Red Cross, J&J, charity water, and Tim Pool of Occupy Wall Street shared how they embraced technology to bring real world action. And start-ups like IndiGoGo and MeetUp discussed how brought people together under like-minded causes. Since it would be impossible to take you through it all, we’ve made a top ten things you should know about.
1. Every Beat Matters – Save The Children and BBDO used actual heartbeats of children in need to create a song by One Republic called Feel Again. The video has since hit 1.8 million views and dozens of covers like this one by JDviolinboy have been well received. JD also performed at the summit.
2. World Humanitarian Day – To recognize humanitarians and people who have lost their lives for humanitarian causes, Beyonce wrote the song I Was Here. The UN used Thunderclap, a product of Draga5’s product development studio De-De, that generated over a billion messages.
3. Occupy Poland – One of the emerging leaders of the Occupy Movement, Tim Pool, shared how they used Quadracopters to tell the real story of what happened. When a fellow Occupier questioned using footage that portrayed some protestors in bad light he said, “It isn’t about what you want, it’s about what actually is.”
4. Data Visualization – Doctor Hans Rosling wowed the crowd by making numbers come to life and using animations of graphs to tell compelling stories over time.
5. Make The Facts Personal – To raise awareness around the 27 million slaves around the world, Slavery Footprint created a dynamic survey site to show how many slaves potentially work for you. Over 900,000 people have taken the survey since launch.
6. Check in on Foursquare. Save Lives. – RED partnered up with Foursquare and a select group of retailers like Starbucks to ask customers to check in to some of their favorite stores. In return the companies would donate money to RED. To promote it, RED enlisted dozens of celebrities saying what $0.40 could do in the lives of someone with AIDS.
7. Follow The Frog – The Rainforest Alliance created a video dedicated to what viewers should not do when faced with a serious issue like deforestation. The story takes you on a journey of someone who did follow his or her heart.
8. Social Games as Education – Nick Kristof author of Half The Sky partnered with J&J and Games for Change to create educational games for feature phones to educate women on prenatal health, worms, human trafficking and family values. Inspiration for this project came from the viral video game Darfur is Dying, which aims to offer a window of insight into the lives of refugees in Sudan.
9. Google Earth Outreach – Rebecca Moore helps organizations use Google earth for good. Just a few examples include helping HALO Trust find and clear land mines, mapping wildlife habitats for the WWF, and tracking the coastal health for Living Oceans.
10. Mobile For Good – Larry Irving, co-founder of Mobile Alliance for Global Good, talked through a variety of examples of how mobile can change lives in places struggling with infant mortality and poverty. Products like Aakash’s $35 tablet give a voice to the voiceless in Africa, India and China, and Johnson and Johnson’s Texts4baby provides new mothers with support throughout their pregnancies and their child’s early development.
These companies and organizations are moving the world forward to a better planet we can be proud to leave future generations. More notes can be found through my Storify notes here: (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3).
Shawn Cheng
