Weekend Briefing No. 48
Welcome to the weekend. I’m writing to you from beautiful snow-covered Cambridge, MA. This is the third year that I’ve been invited to co-teach a course on social entrepreneurship at Harvard Law School with my good friend Suzanne McKechnie Klahr. It’s an honor to be working with one of the leaders in the field… what a great way to start the year.
The year is off to a bang, CES takes over Vegas, California breaks ground on its bullet train, jobs data indicates that 2014 was a good year for job creation. Get 2015 started right with some great tunes. Check out my January playlist. (link to spotify)
WEEKEND BRIEFING //
2015 CES Innovation Awards. It’s that time of year where everybody in consumer tech heads to Vegas to show off the hottest new toys. Through a sea of gadgetry, a few truly innovative products emerge including wireless, smart headphones, eye tracking technology, floating speakers, and iPhone glucose meters. See the most innovative products of CES here.
Forbes 30 social entrepreneurs under 30. Check out the emerging leaders in social entrepreneurship. They are tackling problems ranging from biofuel to food systems to access to information. A special shout out to Krysia Zajonc, founder of Local Food Lab, a client of Westaway & Co.
10 predictions for philanthrocapitalism in 2015. Matthew Bishop and Michael Green put together a list of topics that the social innovation sector will have to address this year including: Bitcoin & drones for good, Impact Investing going retail, the role of Millennials and Ford vs. Rockefeller. See the entire list here.
Nonprofit management calendar of agenda items. Do you run a nonprofit? Are you on the board of one? Do you ever feel like you’re so busy trying to do good work that you have no idea what you should be doing from a governance standpoint? If so, this month-by-month calendar should help frame your year.
Bill Gates drinks shit. At least 2 billion people, use latrines that aren’t properly drained. Others simply defecate out in the open. The waste contaminates drinking water for millions of people, with horrific consequences: Diseases caused by poor sanitation kill some 700,000. This ingenious machine turns that sewage into clean drinking water and generates electricity to boot. This is a smart tool for an entrepreneur in (increasingly urbanized) developing countries, because it aligns the purpose of sanitation and clean energy with a profit motive. That’s what I call profit & purpose. Check out this video of Bill Gates drinking the water.
THINGS I LIKE //
Mark Zuckerberg vowed to read more books. The Facebook CEO will try to complete one book every two weeks as his annual goal for 2015, inviting Facebook users to read along and discuss with him. First up is The End of Power by Moisés Naím. What books are on your reading list for 2015?
Marriage can make you happy. Here’s definitive proof that a good marriage, especially to ‘your best friend,’ makes you happier.
The price of lettuce in Brooklyn and what it has to do with how big your raise is next year.
All Songs Considered. NPR’s music team put together a list of some of the best albums to be on the lookout for this year including my good friends The Lone Bellow (who performed on Kimmel this week).
ABOUT THE WEEKEND BRIEFING //
The Weekend Briefing is a selection of the best stories from around the web about innovation and society curated by Kyle Westaway – author of Profit & Purpose and Managing Partner of Westaway & Co.
Join over 12,000 subscribers receiving the Weekend Briefing, and stay on the cutting edge of innovation & society. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE.
Follow me on twitter and instagram for updates throughout the week.