Prague

Things just keep on picking up momentum with lots of new riders on board for 2008, established working committees for key projects and exciting new developments on the horizon. The AOC-U Microcredit Challenge is kicking off this Friday at UBC and SFU here in Vancouver, and with THIRTEEN teams registered its already guaranteed to be a success. The teams will be hard at work all week implementing their fundraising, business and awareness strategies, with judging and a sure to be rocking afterparty set for Friday Nov 9th at the Anza Club.

Most recently Agents of Change has been invited to speak about our rapid growth and utilization of Web 2.0 tools (facebook, kiva, givemeaning, etc.) for a conference affiliated with the United Nations Information Center in Prague next week. I’ll be speaking Tuesday evening on a panel with Tom Williams from GiveMeaning.com of Vancouver and a host of local Czech experts.

The organizers are most interested to hear about our ability to “act big, despite limited resources” by using the internet tools available – which is great, as thats one of our favourite things about us too! We have virtually nil admin expenses and yet administer fairly complex programs and arrangements. We really hadn’t been forced to stop and think about it before this invitation, but without the host of tools available and brilliant tech minds out there doing all the leg work we certainly wouldn’t be able to attact and mobilize resources at level we ave been so far. Any dedicated organization has very few excuses for not reaching out in a big way in the current paradigm…interesting at any rate.

Wish us luck, should be an exciting week!

Shawn