May 23 Summary and May 30 announcement

Last Wednesday (May 23), Dave Pollard joined us as we continued with the process of pitching ideas to each other and playing with ideas to fill in gaps, identify challenges and ascertain viability. It was again a stimulating and enjoyable session, with the added bonus that it gave us a business idea to use as the focus of our next session on Wednesday May 30. Three people pitched their ideas, which were for:

• a social and material rewards system to create incentive for people to engage in sustainable behaviours, such as using alternative transportation or buying local.
• a "job developer" service that connects workers to those who need their skills and that might also connect unemployed/underemployed people with potential partners for creating enterprises.
• Life Skills Education that enables people to get training in transition skills from people and educational resources that already exist in the community.

On Wednesday evening from 6-9:30pm, Dave Pollard, who has helped many entrepreneurs to establish and succeed in their businesses, will lead a free workshop on Market Research: Finding and Filling Unmet Needs. The session will begin with a brief orientation to a proven 5-step process for world-class market research, followed by hands-on 'role-play' exercises designed to teach you how to ask the right questions of potential customers to identify unmet needs that are aligned with your personal 'gifts'.

We are moving from the purely exploratory "expansion" phase of identifying our ideas, interests, gifts and passions into the investigation phase of finding and refining things that will work. Like self-exploration and finding partners, finding and filling unmet needs is not a tidy or quick process with a discreet beginning and ending, and all these processes work together the more we use them. This coming session will be an opportunity to learn and practice some new skills for connecting your gifts with relevant and significant needs in the world.

Please note that the session will start an hour earlier than usual, to allow enough time to complete the process. You can read the attached ppt document for an idea of what we will be doing. Please visit the event page and RSVP if you plan to attend.