Something I have been thinking about for a while just got crystallized by PragDave, via Nigel James, via Dennis Howlett
Nigel says:
“I don’t need to tell you there are people starving every day. I don’t need to tell you there are child soldiers fighting wars. I don’t need to tell you that just a little contribution could make a massive difference.
I don’t need to tell you this.
We are about to go to a conference and spend a small fortune on fees, food, hotels and travel. What if you took a small portion of what you are going to spend on TechEd and made some contribution to help someone break out of poverty?”
I can’t speak for SAP, and its expenses, and I must admit I am a fan of the company’s T&E for bloggers program, so I am a bit conflicted here, but Nigel and Dennis make great points.
So what about small things: anything we can do?
I moderated a track at a great architecture and software development conference earlier in the year called QCon. Thoughtworks, which is popping up everywhere at the moment… was the main sponsor. I was particularly taken with its approach: instead of giving presenters a crappy bag full of corporate schwag nobody actually wants, they offered to make a contribution to one of five charities chosen by the presenter themselves. The approach made a real impression on me.
So can more vendors running events please do something similar? Just a few dollars, pounds or euros can make a big difference to people’s lives. Please not another bag or set of binoculars or ethernet cable or mouse.
I can’t guarantee that we won’t have some schwag at SAP TechEd RedMonk track at the community day, but I will make this undertaking – for every delegate that attends we’ll donate $2 to charity. If only a few people show up we’ll bump that that up to $5. A small thing perhaps, but hopefully we can make a difference. I am pretty sure Cote and Stephen will have some good ideas for charities we might support.
One thing i really don’t need- another big vendor advertisement on a backpack.
ewH says:
June 27, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Glad to see you on board, James. I will be there for the RedMonk track. Someone mentioned to me yesterday that a good charity to donate to would be the One Laptop per Child project: http://laptop.org/
It also would open up the possibility for everyone to donate their conference laptop bag (I get at least 3 per year). Surely the kids getting their $100 laptops could use a nice laptop bag to go with it. š
Cheers,
ewH
jgovernor says:
June 28, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Hey Ed that’s a phenomenal idea. One laptop bag per child. Phenomenal. I better get in touch with SDLC and ask them. but seriously i love that frigging idea.
James Governor’s Monkchips » One Laptop Bag Per Child says:
June 28, 2007 at 4:49 pm
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Greenmonk Associates : Conference Bags finally start to go green says:
April 4, 2008 at 4:40 pm
[…] They’re often poor quality and fall apart quite quickly. So what would be a better approach showing some social responsibility. My friend Ed then came up with a great idea: One Laptop Bag Per Child. Nigel James had […]