Project Party Recap

Earlier this month we hosted our first Project Party at Story and it was a total hit. We want to thank everyone who attended, our incredible presenters, volunteers and sponsors.

Sam Potts kicked off the night with a remarkable talk that offered insight into and inspiration for achieving project success. A tough act to follow, Jennings Hanna and Alex Todaro captivated the audience with Pen Moms, a platform they developed in the Feast 2012 Hackathon that fosters conversation between low income mothers to better support them succeed as parents. Matt Yasecko followed up with +1, an organization that developed out of a partnership between Partners in Health and Arcade Fire that provides an engagement and fundraising platform for the music and entertainment industries.

We couldn’t have done it without the contributions of our awesome sponsors. Between the Absolut, Runa energy drinks, and Sweet Loren’s cookies, attendees engaged in conversation, bouncing ideas and feedback between one another and onto white boards. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and furthermore, our project leaders walked away with some really great feedback for their next steps. A big shout out to Mailchimp for their support in helping us throw such a successful event.

If you think you have something to offer Pen Moms or Matt, get in touch with them through Collabfinder.

PenMoms needs:

- Assistance in framing the language of the site

- Local-leadership to introduce the service

- Financial support to cover development costs

 Matt and +1 need:

- Identity system designer

- Social media strategist

- Legal support

Featured Project: Pen Moms

How They’re Changing the World:

Pen Moms is a project we began at The Feast Hackathon last year. It’s centered around the idea that low income moms need more conversation in their lives but have huge trust issues. We set out to build a webapp that allows these individuals to start and foster conversations around issues that are important to them with others that share their personal situations. Since then, we have been working on developing a deeper understanding of why our users would need this product and how to engage them on their turf without coming across as charity.

What They’re Wondering:

With a small, segregated userbase, how do we get the prototype into their hands?

What They Need:

1. Developers
2. Organizers
3. Tech (domain, hosting, etc.)

Think You Can Help?

Contact: Jennings Hanna
Email: jenningshanna@gmail.com
Bio: Graduate Student at SVA IxD

THE VOTES ARE IN. AND THE WINNER IS…

Open Source Ecology
@OSEcology | opensourceecology.org 

OSE will use the $25,000 prize to create open source training documentation to help others build and use GVCS (Global Village Construction Set) machinery: instructional videos, 3D models, fabrication drawings, and manuals. They will also be speaking at The Feast Conference 2013. This platform will allow them to gain visibility for their project, network with potential investors and mentors, and connect with a vibrant community of like-minded entrepreneurs.

We’re extremely excited to announce Open Source Ecology as the grand prize winner of The NBCU Rev Up Change Challenge. We also want to acknowledge how amazing all of our finalists are. ioby, BOULD, Health Leads, and Fenugreen will all receive tickets to The Feast Conference 2013. Be sure to continue following and supporting these amazing social ventures as they continue to do good.

We’re Bringing the Good to Austin

It’s almost SXSW and everyone knows what that means - parties galore and lots of digerati schmoozing. But what if you could make all that count for good too?

Through a special partnership, The Feast is making every mile you travel do good. It’s simple. Download the Charity Miles app to your iPhone or Android, walk/bike/run around to all the SXSW parties like you normally do. Every mile you walk will donate 25 cents to the partner charity of your choice!

If you want to track The Feast’s collective impact, enter Team code: Feast to your profile and your motion will donate to Feeding America.

It’s as easy as that! Help us spread the word at SXSW and beyond. The more people who participate, the bigger the impact, so lets take over Austin for good!

Tweet it out: Join @feastongood in taking over #SXSW2013 for good! Download @CharityMiles app + every mile you walk donates to charity! #hackedforgood

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P.S. Going to SXSW? We’d love to see you. Hit us up at the FEED Sanctuary by flavorpill. We’ll be doing a special breakfast for all those early risers on Monday, March 11 from 9am - 10am.

RSVP here!

Balloons over the crowd as they watch/ rock out to @girlwalkallday #TheFeast (Taken with Instagram)

.@Girlwalkallday screening erupting into a dance party. Awesome film! #TheFeast (Taken with Instagram)

We’re lucky to have two of the @girlwalkallday dancers here for our screening! #thefeast (Taken with Instagram)

There are 212 vacant stores and lots in the LES. Here at #TheFeast we’re crowd sourcing ways to fill them (Taken with Instagram)

Inspiring works of art accompany #TheFeast pavilion party like this one of Amber Waves presented by ARTIST BUILD COLLABORATIVE & 52 Studios (Taken with Instagram)

The Feast attendees combine forces to change the world

At The Feast, we’re not just waiting for the world to change, we’re taking action to change it.

You can watch all the final presentations for yourself in this video from our livestream!

Our hackathon focused on Intel’s Data Challenge, which encourages innovators to use data to change lives, focusing on elderly people in the city and a young, low-income mom. They came up with applications in response, including:

• An iPad app which allows the older generation to easily send messages & pictures to family members to nurture existing relationships
• EduHack, a resource for easily locating free educational resources based on available data.
• iPhone and iPad app for the older generation to be able to share their legacy in stories. It collects questions from younger family members like “What was your wedding like?” and allows for the collection of these stories.
• PenMoms, a platform for connecting single moms with other single moms of different backgrounds to create new, lasting relationships and share experiences.

Meanwhile, the rest of the The Feast Conference attendees also brainstormed solutions our social challenges after being inspired by our speakers and toolkits. The ideas were presented in everything from a musical slow-jam format, to live reenactments of scenarios.

Open Design Challenge presented by Beth Comstock of GE:

• BreakerBox: Allows kids to learn by taking things apart, remix, improve, and build.

• The Hottie: Introduced to us by way of a slow jam, the Hottie allows you to trap excessive heat (say off a old radiator), and use it for later.

• AngryGerms: a game to get kids to care about health issues
• New #dancewithPIH hashtag you use after donating to Partners in Health. This group suggested we need to make donating to serious social causes more happy and uplifting by focusing of lives saved and having people literally #dancewithPIH.

Data Challenge presented by Intel (non-hackathon response):

• Bring together single moms with not enough time with elderly people who have too much time but feel unconnected. Help them help each other. Community based, elder enabling, free childcare network.