See What’s Out There

Wednesday evening I was joined by 900 other folks at Jazz at Lincoln Center to support the American Jewish World Service and honor President Clinton. It was an amazing event.

First, the setting is spectacular. The Time Warner building and the big glass windows overlooking Columbus Circle are super classy. (You have Whole Foods in the basement, and the home of Wynton Marsalis upstairs…)

We started off with buffet and cocktails and schmoozing. Then we went into the theater. Ruth Messinger made some introductory remarks and then we watched the video that we produced here at See3. You can see the video right now on the home page of DoGooderTV.

After the video, James Wolfensohn got up to talk about AJWS and introduce President Clinton. Wolfensohn was engaging and interesting and certainly a contrast from the most recent past president of the World Bank.

Then Clinton spoke. That guy is good. A mix of wonkish policy speak, amazing knowledge of his subjects, and compelling stories of meeting people all over the world.

After Clinton spoke we heard from Ann Curry from NBC news who was honored for her coverage of Darfur. Unlike 99% of her news colleagues, Ann has actually gone to Darfur, and more than once. She said that outside of the Times (which has Nicholas Kristof), no one is doing enough to cover this story.

The program ended with a South African woman named Mama G, who thanked AJWS and its supporters for helping fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. And she sang a thank you song that was moving and beautiful and upbeat.

Stay tuned for some video from the event.

We are presenting at several upcoming conferences and that has me thinking about PowerPoint. What exactly are we going to show? How do we keep it interesting for 90 minutes?

There is nothing worse than a bad PowerPoint presentation. And there are lots of folks who talk about it. Guy Kawasaki has some great ideas about PowerPoint. Called his 10-20-30 rule, he says you should use no more than 10 slides, take no more than 20 minutes, and use at least 30-point type (or the font size of the oldest person in the room divided by 2.) Good advice!

Andy Goodman has become somewhat famous around these parts for his treatise “Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes“. If you haven’t heard him talk about it or seen it, you should.

I saw a comedian do a riff on PowerPoint that fits perfectly into these other ideas. Have a look:

Life After Death by PowerPoint

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Last night my daughter said that she was going to make me an anniversary present and a Father’s Day present. Next week I will have been married 15 years. Wow. I told her to go ahead with the anniversary present but she could skip the Father’s Day thing — I am just not that into Hallmark Holidays.

If you are used to buying your dad a tie or otherwise looking for some thing to buy for Father’s Day, I have a better idea. Give the gift of philanthropy. Changingthepresent.org is a new website that tries to package opportunities for philanthropy into gift-sized bites. They send the recipient a card, and their fees — for processing the donation — are very low, less than 4% (which is basically as low as most nonprofits would pay to process donations directly.)

Here’s their blurb on Father’s Day:

This year, why not honor your father with a gift that will change the world? www.ChangingThePresent.org, offers thousands of opportunities from hundreds of leading nonprofits, so you’re sure to find something that moves him. For instance:

If Dad’s a sports fan, you can de-mine a sports field, so kids in war-torn regions can play.
If he’s passionate about fighting cancer, you can honor him by funding an hour of important research.

If he’s a gardener, you can preserve an entire acre of the rainforest in his name.

If your father spent hours reading to you as a child, together you can make a real difference in another child’s life by giving him his first book.

Personalized Father’s Day greeting cards include the cover photo of your choice, a photo and description of the donation gift you have chosen, and your personal message.

Just remember, for arrival by Father’s Day, please order your donation gift and greeting card by this Thursday, June 7th by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Click here to begin

ChangingThePresent.org is the website of ImportantGifts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations made on the site are tax-deductible.

To find out how your favorite nonprofit can get involved, click here:

Next week I will be in New York with my wife to attend the American Jewish World Service’s evening honoring President Clinton for his work on HIV/AIDS and helping in the aftermath of the tsunami. This is a BIG DEAL event for AJWS and it will feature a short film by our team here at See3. The event will be held in the amazing Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. There is some room, so if you are in NY or could be next week join us and support this great cause. Here are the details:

Dear Michael,

I am writing to you, a supporter of AJWS, to let you know about an event you won’t want to miss. Next Wednesday evening, AJWS will recognize President Clinton for his efforts on behalf of those affected by HIV/AIDS in the developing world and victims of the South Asian tsunami. We are deeply honored that he has acknowledged the critical work of AJWS in these areas as well. This dinner is a milestone in the life of AJWS and I hope you will be able to celebrate with us.

There are still a few seats available. Please consider joining us. To purchase tickets, please contact Kim Kubert in our benefit office (212.675.9474, ext. 12 or kkubert@sualtd.com) as soon as possible.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Dinner buffet 6:00 p.m.
Program 7:30 p.m.

Frederick P. Rose Hall
Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center
Broadway at 60th Street
New York City

Special Guest, Ann Curry
Co-Anchor, “Dateline NBC”
News Anchor, “Today”

Please click here to view the invitation.

I look forward to seeing you on June 13th.

Warm regards,

Ruth Messinger
President, AJWS

If you haven’t seen Apple’s new iPhone it is very cool and you can watch the video below. It is scheduled for release at the end of this month. There is a lot of debate about how significant this will be in the handset market. Will Apple become the big dog in cell phones, or just a bit player? Will the phone be like the iPod, an unstoppable juggernaut, or like the Mac, a niche product for a group of loyal fans?

My initial concern is that the network is too slow to really have it work as shown. I can imagine loading and waiting. I also wonder if the touch-screen keyboard is really good for those Blackberry addicts who are more into email than media. My guess is that the real keyboard is better for that.

Regardless of how it goes the networks are getting better and handsets will become another common place for viewing media — including the videos and podcasts from nonprofit organizations. If you haven’t begun building your library of content get started now. You will need it.

I have written a lot about the growing trend to see for-profit solutions to the world’s problems. Grameen Bank being the most famous example, there are many people who believe that unlike traditional philanthropy, for-profit business has built-in sustainability. I don’t think it’s either or. There are certain things that defy traditional market forces that need the giving of individuals, organizations and governments. But there are other things that, with some creativity, the market will take care of.

The issue of water is a big one and there are two things on this I want to bring your attention to. One of them is something where market forces are being used and the other is more traditional philanthropy — both to great effect. The first is about redesigning the water carrier. A little design, and some market forces and you can change the lives of millions of women and children around the world. It falls into the category of “why didn’t I think of that?”

It’s a rolling 20-gallon water carrier. It is so smooth a kid could do it and it replaces those jerrycans that women carry on their heads. The Times reports on an exhibit in New York called “Design for the Other 90%” about designers who have created products to help people living on less than $2 per day live better. If you click on the story you can see an image of this water carrier.

The story is also about how market forces can be put to work to make a sustainable difference if we focus some talent on the problems. Watch the video here.

The other water thing I want to tell you about is an organization called PlayPumps. The idea is simple… design a water pump in the form of a children’s playground toy. You know those things that spin? Kids run and spin and sit and all the while they are pumping water for their village or neighborhood. PlayPumps is raising money for 100 pumps in 100 days. We are hosting a PSA contest for PlayPumps at DoGooderTV. If you have a video camera, enter the PlayPumps PSA contest and win a MacBook Pro with FinalCut. Here’s the blurb:

Calling all budding filmmakers! PlayPumps International wants you to create our next PSA.

Help spread the word clean drinking water crisis and highlight solutions that young people and/or adults can use to make a difference in both local and global communities.

PlayPumps International, with support from Reebok, women’s tennis star Nicole Vaidisova, the Case Foundation, Hard Rock International, Flashbags and The Motley Fool, is holding a contest to encourage youth and adults to produce the best Public Service Announcement (PSA) video about the clean drinking water crisis. The purpose of the contest is to raise awareness of the clean drinking water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and compel people to act on behalf of PlayPumps.

Five videos will be selected as finalists by a panel of celebrity judges. One video from among those five will be selected as the contest’s official prize-winning entry, based on voting by the general public. Our grand prize winner will receive a new 15″ MacBook Pro with Final Cut Express and more! Contest entry deadline is June 15, 2007.

I am finding that many folks have heard of RSS, but don’t really get it or understand it. The folks at Common Craft did a nice little video about this in April. If you are not a subscriber to the See What’s Out There RSS feed, here’s why you need to be:

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