Inside // Purpose Conference

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Last month with much anticipation, we walked through the door of the Commune, a collaborative event space that brings people together for creative experiences in Sydney’s Waterloo, not knowing what to expect yet knowing exactly our intention. To learn, to connect, and to gain more insight and understanding of this earth we live on with all living beings included.
We were welcomed with soothing, expansive music by The General Assembly band, as we flicked through our programs and looked around in awe among the 400 other like minded purpose people. The lead singer, Matt Wicking, walked across to the middle of the stage while his band continued to play, as he opened a little book and introduced himself as our host for the next two days. Matt so fluently transitioned from band singer to host, from introducing each speaker to each break, from opening to closing. 


The three main themes explored were; 

  • ‘The ethics of exponential tech’ 
  • ‘Mental health and human well being’ 
  • ‘Systems change and the new economy’


To go through all the content that was covered in detail one must write a book. However, having had a couple of weeks to digest the experience we can now share with you some highlights. Paul Hawken, environmentalist and author of ‘Drawdown: the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming’, filled the room with compassion and love as he spoke with hope about the biggest crisis we have ever faced, Global Warming.

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Rachel Botsman, world-renowned trust expert and author of ‘Who Can We Trust’ about how technology is transforming trust and what this means for life, work and how we do business. This session posed the question; are we so caught up in what we can create that we are not thinking about what we should create? Speaking about deep ethical questions surrounding technology’s impact on us, on trust, the media, our privacy, our behaviour, our well-being, our humanity and our relationships.

Tim Silverwood is a passionate advocate for protecting our oceans and environment from human impacts. Tim is the co-founder of the not-for-profit organisation 'Take 3 for The Sea'. Did you know that 8 million tons of new plastic is going into our oceans every year?! The ocean is downhill from everywhere therefore all plastic will end up in there. As Tim said “feel the state of despair but channel that into action. Instead of thinking Challenge, think Opportunity”. This is an overwhelming issue however change does begin with each individual. If you are interested to know more about this you can visit www.timsilverwood.com

SPEAKERS

We heard from Andy Maks on the War On Waste. Impact producer is a first for the ABC and Andy co-designed the role to ensure the War On Waste creates meaningful, measurable, viewer driven impact. We learnt that each week the average Australian family throws out 20% of the food they buy, that’s one in every five bags of groceries. This adds up to 3.3 million tonnes of food a year, enough to fill the MCG 6 times over! Food waste accounts for around 40% of the average Australian household’s rubbish bin and if it isn’t composted (and most of it isn’t) it produces methane gas which has a 25 times stronger impact on the environment than carbon dioxide. How many Australians are actually aware of this? We sure weren't.

Other speakers also included;
Stuart Anderson - Co-founder of Flow Hive.
Dr. Michelle Maloney from National convenor Australian Earth Law Alliance.
Dr. Fiona Kerr, Neuroscientist, systems complexity who spoke about Human Wiring, how we shape each other, the vitality of human connection and so much more.

The conference was filled with many inspiring speakers, workshops, vegetarian food, strong coffee, strong sunshine and interesting people. We walked away with an empowered feeling of optimism, strength and future flowing through our minds and bodies as we began to process it all and to begin exploring ideas about what is next in our future for a business that works for the world.

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http://purpose.do/