A TEDx Talk about Convergence at the DC
TEDx event. It just went up on YouTube.
Here is the link: http://youtu.be/jponklwO1os
Published on Apr 16, 2014
As Co-founder of Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, Aakif Ahmad demonstrates how he tries to get both sides of the aisle to collaborate and listen to one another.
Aakif K. Ahmad is Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Convergence Center for Policy Resolution. Convergence is a national organization that facilitates unlikely alliances for action among influential, diverse and conflicting groups in order to advance innovative and widely supportable solutions to our country's most intractable challenges. Mr. Ahmad's key roles include organizational and program strategy, operations, fund development, human resources and communications. He is also project director for the U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum, a multi-year initiative of Convergence to promote greater stability in U.S.-Pakistan relations by facilitating private sector and civil society cooperation between the two countries. From 1996 to 2008, Mr. Ahmad worked at the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), a VA-based for-profit research, consulting and executive education firm with 2,000+ employees. As Managing Director, he led sales & marketing organizations across Europe and North America. Born in Chicago, IL and raised in Syracuse, NY, Mr. Ahmad earned a B.A. from Yale University in Ethics, Politics and Economics, and M.B.A from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
I have a dream of approaching the local Green Party and the local Tea Party people (and any other third parties out there - Libertarians, etc.) with a shared list of values and goals and trying to get the 2 groups into dialogue. I feel that if the various third parties of this nation could work together by focusing on the places where they agree and also focusing on the places where the dems and repubs have failed us a coalition could be created that might really change things.
Good idea, Wendy. Hopefully, the groups can overlook their differences and concentrate on their common goals.
I've often felt that non-profits and NGOs should cooperate more instead of duplicating each others efforts. It makes it difficult to know where to donate your money or time when so many of these organizations sound alike.
Recently, I came across a TED talk from a young man who was developing software that would match a volunteer's talents with a charity's needs in real time, so that it would be possible to volunteer remotely, whenever you were waiting in line or had 5 - 10 minutes free. Great idea, but when I went to the website, it wasn't ready yet. (I forget the name of it, now.)
I'd imagine that organizations already exist that would help to coordinate similar social initiatives, but the problem is finding them. This is the closest thing I found: http://www.scpclearinghouse.org/scp-initiatives.html but it's more of a list of NGOs than a coordinated effort.