The Crowd Companies Kickoff Event

Last night, at a San Francisco Airbnb location, we kicked off Crowd Companies, by hosting a physical face-to-face meet- up of council members, leaders from the Innovation Network, and key industry experts., Photos of this ground-breaking event follow belowto bring it to life, I’ve included some photos below.

Exactly one month ago today, on Dec 10th, we announced Crowd Companies at the LeWeb conference in Paris, with 24 Fortune 500 companies as founding members, with more in the process of joining. We had several goals for last night’s event. I wanted to build physical-world relationships between council members, make personal introductions with the Innovation Network members, introduce teammates Angus and Miranda, enjoy amazing food and drink, and engage in dialog about the Collaborative Economy.

One of the goals of Crowd Companies is to connect the market to the council and the council to the market by providing opportunities to bring them together. We rented an Airbnb location in the Mission district. The food was provided by Feastly, where home kitchens operate like restaurants. Getaround provided a Tesla S, and a SmartCar from their P2P network. CustomMade, a community of makers, surprised me with an original artwork created especially for the event, complete with the Crowd Companies logo. Shapeways brought samples of some of their 3D printed goods. ScootNetworks brought an electric scooter. Many of the other startups from the Innovation Network were there, which we’ll talk about in future events. All of this evidence of the growing reality of the Collaborative Economy, the Maker Movement, and its leaders was totally amazing.

While last night was like an experiential taste test in the context of a meet and greet, next week we kick off the formal council calls for the members and outline the program and schedule for this group focused on the Collaborative Economy. If you work at a large company that should be part of this (or know someone who does), please contact us on our website, CrowdCompanies.com, and we’ll get right back in touch with you.

Select pictures below as we phsyically infused the Crowd and Companies together as one:

(Edit: There are more discussions on Facebook)

Thank you CustomMade, a marketplace of artisans and makers, for surprising this amazing art, a unique piece of art from their community, complete with our logo. The artists are Sarah and Brad Matthews, see their portfolio on CustomMade.

Crowd Companies team and council members: Jeremiah from Crowd Companies, Mason from Verizon, Ursula from Swisscom, Bill from Autodesk, Angus from Crowd Companies.

We kicked off a discussion, asking: “Can surge pricing sustain” and “Can you live a great life (primarily) in the sharing economy?”, sparking some interesting discussions.

Books are provided to each council brand related to professional Millennials Promote Yourself, Maker Movement Manifesto, The Mesh, and Share or Die, and each of these authors will present at the council. Photo by Karen O’Brien

Mason (Verizon), Jeremiah and Lori (Adobe) check out Scoot Networks, electric scooters on demand.

Salon style discussion on the Collaborative Economy compared to the “traditional” economy, what’s new, and what’s not?

Angela Baldwin from DesksNearMe, Padden from Getaround, Noah from Feastly.

Jeremiah and Karen O’Brien, Western Union, and a friend for many years. Photo by Karen O’Brien

Getaround shared how even Teslas are available for rent in their P2P marketplace

We opened the space in the afternoon, for co-working and discussions over snacks and coffee.

Food provided by a Chef from Feastly, who normally hosts dinners at her own house and unique locations. Homes are becoming restaurants. This is a hip Airbnb rental in Mission.