“What is your big dream?”  That’s how I started out my workshop at the Africa Gathering conference in Nairobi, Kenya back in December.  “What do you want most to accomplish right now, no matter how crazy or unattainable it seems?”

Africa Gathering, a conference for social entrepreneurs and innovators who are passionate about technology and development in Africa, was a perfect venue for introducing my concepts for what makes a great start-up business.  I traveled to Kenya along with the National Peace Corps Association’s Africa Rural Connect (ARC) Project Manager, Molly Mattessich, to meet people like us who were interested in and impacted by the ARC website and wanted to make a difference in rural communities in Africa.

Giving a workshop at Africa Gathering

Similar to the collaboration platform that I helped to develop for the National Peace Corps Association’s Africa Rural Connect community, I wanted to get the Africa Gathering workshop participants thinking about networking with other people and offering any advice that they could to assist someone else with their project or business idea.  We did what I like to call “low-tech social networking,” and shared ideas on notes that we posted on the wall in the conference room so that everyone could see them.

Also at the Africa Gathering conference, Molly presented the story of the Africa Rural Connect community and told how we were able to build the site with a tight budget and even tighter deadline and still achieve our goals for getting lots of people from around the world to participate and helping them to collaborate, meet each other, and generate creative and practical project plans.

It was great to meet so many people interested in ideas for Africa, and see the presentations that others gave, like Kenyans for Change, Access Kenya, Essential Africa, Movirtu and Kenya Imagine.  Of course, I enjoyed meeting those folks with whom I’d only interacted with on Twitter prior to the conference.  I’m glad that I was able to make connections with people in Nairobi because I am passionate about helping out great startups that can make a difference in people’s lives.

Africa Gathering is coming to my hometown, Washington, DC, in April 2010, and I’m looking forward to getting people together again to discuss innovative tech ideas for Africa.

Additional pictures of Africa Gathering in Nairobi, Kenya

This past Tuesday, I attended the Green Drinks DC cocktail hour.  It’s an event that happens on the second Tuesday of every month.   It’s usually at a different restaurant/bar around the city.  It was great to catch up with “the regulars”, but even more interesting to run into close friends from other social circles that were in attendance, too.  DC is a small town, but it’s not that small!   To me it’s a local indicator that “going Green” isn’t a fading fad, but a growing movement of interest.

Typically, they have a speaker give a short talk about their company, nonprofit or project (of course, Green-related).   This time around it was Casey Trees, an interesting nonprofit that along with other programs, I know them best for going around the city and planting trees.

I spoke to their Director Jared Powell just before he presented, and he shared that they do approximately 1,000 trees a year in DC alone.  They need volunteers and of course property owners interested in having a tree planted on their property.

I ran into my friend Monika Thiele, of The DC Green Connection.  It’s been several months since I last spoke with her, but it sounds like things are going great.

The DC Green Connection’s mission is to grow the green economy locally and promote sustainable living widely through fun and informative events, green business promotions, networking, and social media marketing.

The DC Green Connection already have a Meetup group of 177 members!  They have sponsors lining up and it’s great opportunity to get involved with something Green in the city.  It’s no secret that Mickey has managed to convert my bad habits and I have also become passionate about Green-related technologies.   Anything that helps move the needle in protecting this ball of dirt we live on, Infamia is in support of.

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