I returned last night from PUSH, a conference that is all about ideas and trends and our global future. This was my second PUSH, and it was an amazing experience. I’m still trying to process everything I heard, but I came away with two predominant (and interwoven) themes, ENGAGEMENT and YOUTH across the four conference topics: economics, politics, religion, and technology.
The first theme was of ENGAGEMENT. It may sound cliché, but we have to be the change we want to be in the world (to me, it mostly sounds really hard). From an economic perspective, businesses produce what consumers will buy – as Nate Garvis from Target pointed out, the conversation used to be “is that a cotton shirt”, which moved to, “is that a cotton shirt made without child labor” to “is that an organic cotton shirt made without child labor in sweatshop free conditions”. If we ask the right questions, companies have to respond. It’s simply good business. Yes, it takes critical mass, but 20 years ago I didn’t know what organic produce was, now I can find it virtually everywhere.
The same concept of ENGAGEMENT applies to the media. A statistic thrown out at the conference was that 90% of mainstream media comes from one of two news sources – which is why it sounds like we keep hearing the same thing over and over. But, in the age of YouTube and witness.org, citizens now have a voice. We can influence political campaigns for the first time (Howard Dean’s scream, “macaca”, The Obama “yes we can” mashup), and have the ability to do much more.
I heard more about ENGAGEMENT in religion and technology. Anthea is a religion professor who discussed using the power of the communities formed by religion to serve the planet and the greater good. She also urged those not involved with the church to reach out to these groups and to use this shared value of service to accomplish great things.
With Eboo Patel and Michael Furdyk, ENGAGEMENT met YOUTH. Both men have created non-profit organizations designed to ENGAGE YOUTH to create communities, build respect, learn, and overcome differences. The YOUTH factor is so important when you consider that the median age of the global population is 28.0 years old (Global Health Facts) with US residents being 36.6 years old and Iraqis being 20 years old.
Eboo Patel is the founder of InterFaith Youth Core (IFYC). IFYC “builds mutual respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others.” Eboo’s message was extremely powerful for me. By taking youth of differing faiths, introducing them, and focusing on their similarities, they can overcome their religious differences and shed their prejudices. By seeing each other as equals, they learn to co-exist. By “catching” them as YOUTH, you end up with adults who believe in pluralism. It’s an interesting option for tempering religious extremism.
Michael Furdyk is the 25-year-old genius and founder of TakingITGlobal. TakingITGlobal is “online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities.” The community has partnered with the UN and is now represented in every country around the globe, truly creating a global community. A teen when he founded this company, he realized that most teens are disengaged from what is going on around the globe, are bored by school, and not optimistic about the future. He wanted to change that conversation, create a global community to make the learnings in school relevant, and like Eboo, he recognizes that by “catching them young” you can develop patterns for positive choices. They have 350 Guides to Action to help teens actually DO something, online communities for YOUTH to make commitments and be held accountable for them.
These two concepts were really powerful for me, and perhaps resonated because of my work with Community for Youth. Regardless, what I distinctly heard is that is it up to US to engage companies, the media, and youth to make a difference. I definitely left the conference with a message of hope.
More thoughts and deep dives forthcoming…