April 15, 2009
While I certainly did not attend the Summit with the intention of making friends, doing so was such a wonderful by-product! Madeline, Tracy, Catlin, Nadege… the list goes on and on of all of the wonderful relationships I made and hope to continue and even strengthen in the future. I have learned and have yet to learn so many things from these people, and I can see so many future partnerships for Salud del Sol.
I was able to attend Easter Mass before the final day’s activities commenced. We then participated in an open forum, which proved really useful. With everyone in the same room, we each wrote down our “burning questions” that we were still pondering. Then, six people were chosen to share their question and lead a discussion around that topic. The rest of us were encouraged to join one or more discussions, then each group reported their findings back to the whole group. I joined in a discussion about technology dispersion and organizational scaling. As one of the four more-developed projects represented in the conversation, I was able to provide a lot of good questions and reflections from Salud del Sol’s experience with the solar autoclave venture. We first differentiated between horizontal scaling (spreading the solar autoclave product or business model to rural clinics in other countries) and 3-D scaling (expanding into other arenas, such as military use of the product). The type of expansion we want determines our strategies for scaling, as well as IP protection. Other delegates provided a lot of brainstorming ideas for scaling strategies for the solar autoclave, as well as the three other implementation-stage projects. The general consensus for the most socially responsible approach to expansion was to support the global diffusion of ideas and the local diffusion of services and products.
The open forum was followed by our final small group session, wherein we provided feedback about the conference to the facilitators. This group of people, though from very different backgrounds and with very different projects, has proven such a valuable resource for discussion, acting as both a soundboard and a provider of critique. Our small group decided to continue this network through a Facebook group… appropriate, given the lessons I learned this week about the importance of social media networking! The summit ended with a luncheon, final announcements, and a picture slideshow of the week. We all exchanged any last-minute contact info, gave our hugs, and headed out. I was so excited to see my family, but it was sad to leave. But I can’t begin to describe the amount of inspiration and confidence gained through this Summit experience. The experience was so full and so rich that I was absolutely exhausted upon leaving. After resting up, however, I was excited to begin digesting all that had transpired at the Summit.
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2 Responses to “Goodbyes and ‘Good Luck!’s: Final Day of the Global Engagement Summit”
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Lori, so great to meet you! And, I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. Take care, and all the best to you and Salud del Sol!
Thanks, Liz! I really enjoyed meeting you, too! Thanks for all of your effort you’ve put into GES… the true impact you have is priceless!