Well, the first day of the Feast on Good conference has passed, and it’s been a lot of fun. With hundreds of attendees, over a dozen speakers, and a ton of ideas and projects presented, it’s no surprise that this is one of the conferences to go to. While it would be impossible to truly represent what happened at the conference, we’ve done our best to transcribe the events. So without further ado, let’s check out what went down.

Speeches : Round 1

• Jerri Chou and Tamara Giltsoff (Lovely Day)
• Patri Friedman (Seasteading Institute)
• Mitchell Joachim (Terreform ONE)

The speeches started off with the duo of Jerri Chou (one of the conference founder) and Tamara Giltsoff of Lovely Day, speaking about the goals of the conference, and the importance of involvement. They both talked about ‘you’, the idea that everyone must participate in change and reform. They also focused on the breakdown of barriers between life and work, and how the two must be blended together to really create change.

Tamara continued on this path, giving examples of many organizations and projects that spawned from this combined life/work idea. In addition, she highlighted the recent global climate and economic change, and how it has turned business on its head; it has started the move from revenue-based to more collaborative, ‘citizen-enabled’ business models.

The second speech of the day was given by Patri Friedman of the Seastedding Institute, who spoke at length about the absurd lack of governmental change in the world. He showed how if government was regarded as an industry, it would be the largest and most expensive in the world; not only that it would also be the most outdated, our own democratic system dating back to 1776. He drove the point that while there is certainly plenty of merit to design in many areas, government is one that drastically needs it.

To that end, Patri showed off his own ideas about redesigning government; more specifically, his Seastedding idea, in which ‘floating cities’ are constructed out of conglomerations of ships and floating sea platforms. It would allow for governments to be formed freely and collaboratively (topics that ran parallel throughout the conference). He pointed out that while there are still many kinks to work out with the idea, the importance was the fact that the same trial and experimentation that was happening in other areas of design, must start happening in government design.

The next speaker was Mitchell Joachim of Terraform ONE, whose talk mostly focused on the redesign of cities and their infrastructure, most closely focusing on transportation. He showed dozens of concept ideas, from stackable cars that drive up buildings, to floating man-powered gym-boats, to large parade blimps that acts as buses. His presentation was very imaginative, but also brought to light many clear points: that we as citizens should reduce our massive overconsumption, and find ways to interact with the growing environment without resorting to the wasteful and damaging suburban sprawl that happens today. From energy to building to transportation reform, the focus was always on progress.

After Mitchell left the stage, the attendees were given some time to relax and grab a few mid-morning snacks to re-energize. The break was quick, however, and the crowd soon found themselves back at the auditorium, ready for the next set of speeches.

Speeches: Round 2

• Naveen Selvadurai (Foursquare)
• Scott Belsky (Behance)
• Tony Wagner (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

After the break, Naveen Selvadurai of Foursquare was up first, speaking about the changes in the world due to an increase in technology, and the influence of self-tracking on individuals. He spoke at length about how he though of the idea of Foursquare, and how it stemmed from his own attempts to track his own varied activities, such as sleep schedules and exercise patterns. He then focused on the influence of such tracks on people, and relating his ‘Fun Theory’; the idea that people are much more likely to do things that are fun, and hence creating games out of things that are normally considered work will often improve their performance in these tasks. He gave many examples, throughout history, though mostly focused on the present, of the proven effects of such tracking on the well-being and success of individuals.

This idea of ‘the world as a game’ would return later in the conference, but first came Scott Belsky of Behance, on the stage and speaking about the systems we have in place to measure success, and the idea of ‘creative meritocracy’. He spoke at length about attribution, and the advantages and problems of both the lack and presence of attribution in our society today. Mainly, he focused on how the current systems favor ‘critical mass’, where the sheer volume of a single opinion often decides the rule of law in effect. His idea, however, was to change this system to on of ‘credible mass’, where opinions on topics are weighted by the expertise of the people in question.

He talked about bringing out talent through this system of mastery, called ‘creative meritocracy’, where expert opinions are valued more heavily than those of the masses, and talked about how many of the useful and powerful techniques of today, such as crowdsourcing, are actually devaluing individuals and their time. He punctuated his speech with a return to the idea of ‘you’, and how all these changes must start with the individual.

The final speech of this round was given by Tony Wagner, a teacher from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who spoke at length about the failing education systems of today. He talked about the idea of ‘unteachable skills’, things like critical thinking, and the ability to ask good questions, and how the current systems do not and can not teach these things. He also spoke at length about the misconceptions of todays education systems, and how they force quantity-based assessments on qualitative values.

He then highlighted the possible solutions to our problems, which start with a complete reinvention, versus a simple redesign, of the school system. His idea of ‘mastery assessment’ was based on that qualitative value, where students are judged on their bodies of project work and progress, rather than discrete tests and questions. He also mentioned that the student-side should not be the only focus, and that teaching methods themselves should be overhauled. During his question-and-answer session, he delved further into this topic, talking about the importance of shared responsibility amongst teachers, and the change of teaching schools from simple classes to ‘learning schools’, where teachers must go through sessions just like medical students must pass through hands-on residencies to become doctors.

After that long session, the conference broke for a lunch, but it wasn’t too long before they were back again and ready to go. The third round of speeches was much more unique, however, featuring singers and artists rather than designers and educators (though in many ways, they are both).

Speeches : Round 3

• Baja and the Dry Eye Crew
• John Forte
• Rachel Botsman (Collaborative Consumption)

The first part of Round 3 wasn’t a speech: it was a musical performance by the Dry Eye Crew, led by frontman Baja. The group, originally from Sierra Leone, sang about the impoverished people and terrible conditions there, and the fire in them that these conditions inspired. No such performance can truly be put into words, however – it was something that had to be seen and heard to be appreciated.

The next event was a sort of segue back into the speech format that we had seen in the morning. John Forte, Grammy-winning rapper, spoke, and sang, about the extravagant lifestyle he lead in his youth, and how his success and ego lead him down the wrong path. John, who saw first-hand the problems of the prison system, spoke about his struggle to get out of it, and how his eventual rescue was due to education. He explained the near-impossibility of gaining acceptance to universities or institutes of learning while in jail, and how his eventual success through hard work showed him that no problem was too tough to tackle. He stressed the importance of this idea, and how he hoped to use that drive to help reform the prisons systems of today.

The final speaker of Round 3 was Rachel Botsman, a former TED speaker. She explained the idea behind her organization, called Collaborative Consumption, which tries to re-establish the old-school barter and trade systems to cut down on the rampant hyper-consumption of today. She talked about the benefits of trade, such as building communities and reducing the costs of basic services. She highlighted the roles of current technologies in building these systems, and how without the advent of vast, omni-present social networks, these trade systems could not flourish.

Speeches : Final Round

• Robbie Vitrano (Naked Pizza)
• Dong-Ping Wong (FamilyNYC)
• Daniel Epstein (Unreasonable Institute)
• Adam Braun (Pencils of Promise)
• Bob McKinnon (YELLOWBRICKROAD)

Finally, after another short break, came the last set of speeches to wrap up the afternoon.

Robbie Vitrano of Naked Pizza was up first, talking about the deterioration of health as a result of poor diet in world. He highlighted the changes that fast foods have brought to both the cultures and actual biologies of people, and showed that these changes not only altered the people, but even the bacteria inside them. His provocative presentation emphasized the importance of healthy foods, not just organics, and showed how his company, Naked Pizza, was helping to promote this idea.

The second presentation was given by Dong-Ping Wong of FamilyNYC, who focused on the effects of the recent recession and the current aftermath. He gave his perspective of working in the architecture business, and the unique difficulties faced by both his field and the small teams that he was a part of. He also focused on the importance of sustainability in architecture, and how buildings can often be dual-purpose, both using up resources but also returning them in the form of energy. His highlight project, the Plus Pool, is a floating pool built in New York’s waters, providing a way for people to use the river waters without the problems of hygiene that are present.

The third presentation, which we at SuperProfundo were forced to miss, was given by Daniel Epstein of the Unreasonable Institute. His talk, following a video from the Institute, was very free-form, and focused on mentors and entrepreneurs, and the relations between them.

The second-to-last speech was from Adam Braun of Pencils of Promise, who focused, like others, on the importance of the impact of individuals. He related his experiences traveling around the world and trying to bring positive change to communities in dozens of countries. He talked about the principles of guaranteeing changed in ones self and others, by embracing a few basic principles. He pushed the idea of getting out of the ‘comfort zone’, and tackling problems that seem impossible with a unreasonably realistic and hopelessly idealistic attitude: the only kind of attitude that can actually solve these problems.

Finally, we came to Bob McKinnon’s speech, who drove home a point focused on throughout the conference: going out and actually making a difference. He spoke about the idea of actually living change, versus simply imagining it, by forcing ourselves to plan and look to the future. He talked about the disconnect that often happens between the problems and solutions proposed to various social issues, and showed how often the solutions address the effect of a problem rather than the cause. He also focused on the importance of passion, and its role in making impressions and building the connections that would lead to these positive changes.

The Conference Close

The final speech of the day was given by the two conference founders, Jerri Chou and Mike Karnjanaprakorn, who spoke about the roots of the conference idea, and the previous events. They closed the conference by inviting the entire audience to dance on stage, one of the most memorable and fun parts of the entire day.

For more information about the conference, check out FeastOnGood, and the LiveStream of the event, which has videos of all the speeches and interim videos. Be sure to check out the amazing performances by Baja and the Dry Eye Crew and Grammy-Award winner John Forte, and check out the #feastongood twitter feed for dozens of awesome quotes and discussion of the events.

Check back here later in the week for a few first impressions, as well as a more-summarized view of events!