Pop!Tech Launches Social Innovation Fellows Program

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Pop!Tech (www.poptech.org), the renowned annual ideas summit and social innovation network, today unveiled the 2008 Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows: a corps of high-potential change agents incubating breakthrough ? or ?big bet? ? approaches to the world?s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges.

Each Fellow is working on a transformative solution to a critical global challenge, in categories such as sustainable energy, human rights, education, economic development, healthcare and civic engagement. Pop!Tech will accelerate the positive impact of their projects by connecting Fellows with world-class thought leaders and a 21st century toolkit ? including the latest tools and thinking in emerging technology, design, communications, branding, funding and scalability.

The program?s faculty will lead the Fellows through an intensive four-day ?boot camp? just prior to the start of ?Pop!Tech 2008: Scarcity and Abundance? (October 22 ? 25, 2008, Camden, ME). Each Fellow will then be showcased at the acclaimed thought leadership gathering, kicking off a year of access to mentors, influencers and resources.

The 2008 Pop!Tech Fellows program will be led by iconoclastic social innovators and acknowledged category leaders, including Paul Polak (helped lift 17MM people out of poverty worldwide), Bunker Roy (Barefoot College), Clara Miller (CEO, Nonprofit Finance Fund), Ethan Zuckerman (co-founder, Global Voices), John Balen (General Partner, Canaan Partners), Robert Fabricant (Executive Creative Director, frog design), Gideon D?Arcangelo (Director of Creative Strategy, ESI Design), Jim Koch (Director, Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University), Lisa Witter and Josh Baran (COO and SVP, Fenton Communications), Cheryl Heller (CEO, Heller Communication Design; Pop!Tech board) and many others.

?Every Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow has the potential to effect dramatic and systemic positive change ? yet each require particular skills or resources to take their project to scale,? said Andrew Zolli, curator and executive director of the Pop!Tech Institute. ?This program is purpose built to close that gap.?

Pop!Tech received more than 100 submissions from over 30 countries for its inaugural Social Innovation Fellows program. The following individuals were selected to participate, all expenses paid.

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Source: Press Release (link opens in a new window)