Akshay Surve taking a session on Blogging4Good @ BlogCamp Mumbai - Feb 2010

It was also heartening to see among all other topics there was a special focus on on social causes. Satish and Ranjeet spoke about ‘The Sapling Project‘, Sanjukta took a session on how Bell Bajao used Social Media, Meeta shared an inspirational story, Chandni spoke on how she leverages twitter and posterous to mobilize funds for causes and finally Akshay on how bloggers could leverage their blogs for good by using Ads4Good on their blogs. Sanjukta summed it up by tweeting:

@sanjukta: Am glad we are not talking about how to make money with blogs nemore. Money is so passe, we r now changing world. #blcm

(Pictures courtesy: Preshit)

Considering it was a blogging un-conference it has been covered extensively in blogosphere by fellow bloggers:

• BlogCamp Mumbai – Experience
• “This one time at Band camp”… BlogCamp Mumbai, Mumbai College Eats
• Blogcamp Mumbai-Mukesh Patel School of Tech.Mgmt & Eng
• @BlogCamp Mumbai
• Food & Fiction, Housewives & Health, Causes & Gripes, All At BlogCamp Mumbai 2010
• My First Blog Camp Experience in Mumbai
• BlogCamp Mumbai – January 2010

(Please let us know if there are any other blogs which covered the event. We would be happy to add it to our list)

To follow conversations on twitter around the event follow the hashtag #blcm.

Akshay Surve (Ads4Good) at Startup Saturday Mumbai Feb'10

Startup Saturday Mumbai had brought together some interesting startups and folks interested in startups. The highlight of the event was the talk by Mr. Mahesh Shetty of MT Educare (popularly known as Mahesh Tutorials) on his experiences as a young entrepreneur. Having to speak right after him was an humbling experience. The real start of the evening was the curious and participating audience which not only gave everyone a patient ear but took the initiative to ask the right questions.

Not to forget there were some very interesting startups also presenting at the event viz. Dewink, Meter Down, i-Become and Deltecs. We also had some freebies given to participants with the best questions sponsored Navarang Tshirts. A big thanks to the Startup Saturday Mumbai Team and especially Netra and Annkur for the invitation.

(Pictures courtesy: Annkur)

Next you should find us at BlogCamp Mumbai on the 20th of February. If you are planning to be around please gives us a shout and we would love to meet you.

ISB iDiya 2009 Felicitation at ISB Leadership Summit

The objective of the ISB iDiya Challenge was to encourage the social entrepreneurship paradigm amongst youth in India. It endeavored to bring together entrepreneurs, mentors and investors to help create sustainable and scalable businesses that have a positive social impact.

Objectives of ISB iDiya from their website:

• Stimulate Indian youth to identify the needs within their communities, and come up with practical sustainable solutions to meet those needs.
• Create an online social networking platform to facilitate collaboration amongst individuals interested in the social sector in India.
• Support transition from idea generation to idea commercialisation through the mentorship and entrepreneurial training programme.

The highlight of the competition was a week long bootcamp with an opportunity to interact with industry leaders, venture capitalists and mentors. In addition, we are now also eligible for a 10-weeks mentoring support from a board comprising high-profile businessmen and organisations.

If we look back at the bootcamp it was the knowledge sharing and the late night discussions with invited winners which was the highlight. Considering most of the ideas were in the initial stages there was so much in common that we could share to help eachother. The other winners were as follows – Source Pilani, Green Bag Pune, Surya Kiran, Hole in the Wall and Green Basics. Our best wishes go to all of them.

To top it all, our heart goes out to the team behind iDiya. Their attention to detail and commitment was contagious. Every team was assigned a buddy and our buddy, Kavitha Gorapalli deserves special mention to help us completely restructure our business plan pitch at the last moment. Not to forget to mention, we were totally awed by the architecture and picturesque campus of ISB.

Some pictures from the ISB iDiya 2009 National Social Ideas Challenge

]]> http://ads4good.org/blog/2009/12/18/ads4good-wins-at-isb-idiya-2009/feed/ 2 http://ads4good.org/blog/2009/12/04/ads4good-in-the-cloud/ http://ads4good.org/blog/2009/12/04/ads4good-in-the-cloud/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:11:27 +0000 Akshay Surve http://ads4good.org/?p=234

Merrill Lynch - Cloud Service Providers

Behind all the technical mumbo jumbo what it means to the users is that our ‘adjets‘ will now load faster and we will be able to scale more easily in size and geographically. Considering that soon we would be out of our pilot phase we needed to ensure that we had the infrastructure in place to support massive viral growth when needed.

In the coming days we have some very interesting announcements to make regarding our progress and associations. All we can share as of now is that our team is now in Hyderabad at ISB and will be attending ISB Leadership Summit tomorrow.

We have already added a new ‘Adjet’ size for you to add in your blog based on your feedback.

Our twitter stream also saw a fair amount of activity with mentions, #FollowFriday and #yfollow recommendations. Thanks @ppandhi, @saagarS, @rinashah, @social_connect, @kartik_iyer, @amar4m, @icecubed, @lavinm, @aTEEtude, @royston_olivera and @amodprabhu

I would also particularly like to thank Wendy, Royston, Manav and Praneeth to reaching out to us through email with feedback.

In the coming weeks I would love to share with you more about our vision. If you are in Mumbai, Hyderabad or Pune and would like to catch up please feel free to get in touch with us or connect with us through twitter (@Ads4Good). We are always looking to meet curious individuals who want to make a difference.

We started off by serving Adjets of width 300px. One of the most requested feature in the last few days has been that you would like to see narrower Adjets that fit nicely in your blog sidebars. As I write this post we have released Adjets of width 160px (and height approximately 640px) code for which you can now see in your profile page.

Here are some samples:

The 160×600 ad format also happens to be one of the top performing ad formats and we are happy to give you an option to use it. This is also the ad format which you see many times on Facebook on the extreme right.

In other news we had some remarkable NGOs which have come onboard to join hands with Ads4Good. They are particularly interested in participating in this massive online intervention that all of you are taking part in. I think I would take some time out over the weekend to share with you some of the on the ground work of organizations we are working in collaboration at Ads4Good.

Facebook only offers this service if one has considerable ‘Fan Following’. It was for this very reason I want to take a moment and thank You for becoming a fan of Ads4Good, inviting your friends and sharing our stories on your profile page. While I write this message to you we are 140 fans in all.

This is also the best time to show your support for Ads4Good. You could do this in the following ways:

• Fan us on Facebook. Share our stories on your profile page.
• Follow us on Twitter. Shower some Twitter love on us by giving us a #FollowFriday or #yfollow recommendation
• Blog about us and our work
• Need I say signup? Signup with our special Facebook Fan invite code: http://app.ads4good.org/signup?invite=facebook

Joy of Giving Week

The Joy of Giving Week is a new national movement that aims to engage every single Indian in giving back to society in a way that she or he chooses-money, time, skills or resources.

The spirit of the Joy of Giving Week is in sync with our Ads4Good philosophy. For this we have initiated the Ads4Good Event for the Joy of Giving Week campaign. Although the Joy of Giving Week ends on the 3rd of October, we are pledging our support to the event and its spirit by allowing our community to donate all funds raised to the partner NGOs. Yes, at Ads4Good we and our community will be celebrating the joy of giving for the whole month of October.

How can you participate?

If you have a blog (active/dormant) go ahead and signup with us with your favorite cause.

(It would only take two minutes)

Spread the word

Know of friends who blog? Let them know about us and why they should participate in this unique program.

Are you active on Facebook? Fan our facebook page! and post it on your profile.

Do you Tweet? Follow us on twitter. Extra Brownie grains if you feature us in #FollowFriday or #yfollow

Also, feel free to get in touch with us if you would like to share interesting ideas around online giving.

Joy of Giving Week 27 Sept - 3 Oct 2009

The Joy of Giving Week is a new national movement that aims to engage every single Indian in giving back to society in a way that she or he chooses-money, time, skills or resources. So far, 35,000 schools, hundreds of colleges, several state governments, corporates, celebrities and sportspersons have signed up, and the fellowship is growing every day.

In the words of Venkat Krishnan the founder of GiveIndia which is coordinating this event:

We need this because giving unites people across numerous divides-urban-rural, caste, class and gender-and brings them together. Thus, competing five-star hotels of Chennai will unitedly host a lavish Battle of Buffets fundraising dinner to benefit all Chennai’s NGOs, and citizens of every shape and size will run together at city marathons to generate cash and community feeling.

We need this because giving is an eclectic function-let me count the ways. An artist can donate a painting, a student can use his pocket money to buy a pair of chappals for the flower-seller, a housewife can pay for her maid’s child education. What better inspiration than young BPO executives whose parents are maids or drivers but who are still eager to donate Rs 50 to 100 a month from their salaries to a cause.

We need it because India could do with more Bill Gateses and more Warren Buffets. As India continues to struggle with its paradoxes of growth with inequity, of having the most billionaires in the world and the largest impoverished population, the Joy of Giving Week is an opportunity to redeem ourselves. To paraphrase management guru Peter Drucker’s words, when we look in the mirror in the morning, we should be looking at a citizen who takes responsibility, a person who as a neighbour cares.

We at Ads4Good wholeheartedly support the spirit behind the Joy of Giving Week and would soon launching our campaign for it. I believe ‘giving’ is infectious and it reaching pandemic proportions can save this world.

You should surely check some of the celebrities endorsing Joy of Giving Week:

Philadelphia, PA – June 1, 2009 – Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter presided over a “virtual ribbon-cutting” at the Navy Yard today, welcoming GoodCompany Ventures and its inaugural class of ten entrepreneurs to “Center City South.” The Mayor noted that his goal to build Philadelphia into the nation’s greenest city is strongly supported by GoodCompany’s role as an incubator for businesses with high potential for both social impact and profit.

The ten businesses selected to receive training, guidance and support through GoodCompany this summer represent Philadelphia (5), Delaware, New York (2), Western India and Western Pennsylvania. Their business models range from recycling sewer grease (BlackGold Biofuels) to providing support to nonprofessional caregivers (Partners on the Path).

GoodCompany plans to select and nurture a new cohort of promising businesses every summer, who will receive the benefit of group sessions, one-on-one mentoring and pro bono services.

Former Ben & Jerry’s president Chuck Lacy also spoke at the ceremony

Source: http://www.goodcompanyventures.org/news-and-events/

Unfortunately, I missed the inauguration as it took a little longer to get the VISA formalities done. I really look forward to meet other entrepreneurs and mentors at GoodCompany Ventures soon.

Update:

Here is a slick video from the inaugural address:

June 1st Kickoff from Good Company Ventures on Vimeo.

Here are some pictures from the event:

GoodCompany Ventures catalyzes start-ups with innovative solutions to big, unmet social needs. GoodCompany entrepreneurs are offered a great place to work in Philadelphia, a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and access to a network of capital sources and expert advisors. They champion models that offer investors financial return and social impact. The program kicks off on the 1st of June.

One of the reasons we are really excited about this development is because GoodCompany Ventures is the best fit for Ads4Good. They are one of the very few incubators which talk about financial returns and social impact in the same breath.

I think GoodCompany Ventures is a pioneering effort in the right direction and so we are excited about being part of this effort. Go Philly!

GoodCompany Ventures

For now I leave you with the thought which has emerged out of my real world experiences:

Every single day reinforces my fundamental belief that people are good and they would like to exercise this inherent urge to do good without having to go out of their way. (source: akshaysurve.com)