 So welcome to the going deeply local to build for the long-term conversation. I'm really excited to To moderate this we're gonna I'm just gonna make some introductory comments and then I'm gonna pass so that we we sort of have this investment ceaseless between Abby and myself that we've come together to Respect and appreciate in each other which is sort of the genesis of the the conversation that we're gonna have and then we'll Have two really representative sort of case study examples Maybe ten minutes apiece with a loisias at that from farmer line and David Leventhal from playa Viva To help us really go local and get grounded into something real instead of keeping it at very high level and conceptual so If any of you were at the Little preview that we did Yesterday forgive me for repeating myself, but I think it's an important way to introduce What we're gonna talk about and I want to start by just talking about a man that I came to know About named Buckminster Fuller and I really view Buckminster Fuller as sort of the Profit of this movement that we're a part of here the sustainability movement Everything that that that I think we're we're seeing come together in Creating higher levels of well-being using business practices using social innovation using design came in the mind of this man and I think In particular his perspective and he was an inventor He looked very much at the big picture, but was also able to really Build things. He's the inventor of the geodesic dome So the big Olympic domes the the one that you see in Montreal From the World Fair that was his design and you see him everywhere So that only did he have the big picture, but he had a really grounded reality and he believed that Nature had its own coordinate system that he called synergetics That the whole was much different than the than just the sum of its parts and that you couldn't necessarily predict the outcome by looking at the parts of what a hole is and In his experiment, which he called He called himself guinea pig be be for bucky. That was his nickname and he set his mission his objective for life was to discover his own nature's own natural coordinate system because he became to believe that if he acted in accordance with this Natural coordinate system that he would find all the resources that he needed to flourish and survive just like a tree or A plant or a flower or an animal would and so as he began this experiment he he's questioned well, what what is humanity's role in this Coordinate system and what he what he came to believe was that human beings are natural information gatherers and information or and information gatherers and problem solvers and he viewed that essentially from the beginning of human history that We as a planet as humans were having these isolated Experiments all around all around the globe in survival, of course But also how to develop increasing levels of well-being And it was only through the development of more sophisticated transportation systems Communication systems Were we able to start to compare and contrast these these diverse experiments these solution sets you might say of What humans did to try to survive and I think it's interesting that at this moment where perhaps humanity is facing its some of its greatest challenges That we have these social networks in these incredible communication systems to compare and contrast Because I think diversity is the key to survival it always has been so We at Halloran Philanthropies we have Gravitated toward looking at whole systems at ecosystems as a fundamental way To the guide the way we think about investment Where we're looking for the catalytic solutions not just by individual organizations, but how they fit in the larger system so if you imagine these Solution sets on an ecosystem can be Oaxaca, Mexico where I live or it can be Mexico or it can be much smaller. It could be a village and I think that This now as I mentioned is now amplified by these incredible social networks so these combinations of local ecosystems and global platforms like say The hub platform or the fab labs or or those those kinds of global platforms that are based very locally are The are together creating a very very powerful way to problem-solve and For us we think that not only has it allowed us to become smarter faster It's allowed us to create more trusted Networks of relationships that allow allows us to act more quickly even where there's a lot of risk for our capital and I think it has allowed us to create To to think about and act in a much more Callistic systemic way, of course, so that's part of the the first part of the thesis But the second is okay. Well within an ecosystem within a local ecosystem How do you take advantage of the local wisdom of the local knowledge of the local? attempt at solving problems and It should come as no surprise that human-centered design might be part of that and that's part of what Abby is going to delve into for a few minutes now Thank you mark so I'm not sure if you all actually know the Lemelson Foundation the organization I represent So I'll just start with a few words about the Lemelson Foundation and and as a background to launching into Building local ecosystems so The Lemelson Foundation was started by Dorothy and Jerome Lemelson the Family behind the philanthropy that I work for and and Jerry Lemelson was like Buckminster Fuller an inventor an Extremely prolific inventor. He had over 600 patents to his name He was the stories I hear from the family is that he would wake up every night with an idea and he would have his wife his Wonderful wonderful wife Dorothy Waker up and say sign my book sign my book of ideas to witness that he had come up with this idea in incredibly inventive mind the thing is he struggled his whole life to be recognized for that inventiveness and When he was finally late in his life recognized for his ingenuity and his constant problem-solving The ecosystem for most of his life did not work for him but it finally came through and when he finally had a fortune He Started the Lemelson Foundation in order to help others like him In genius inventive minds who have great ideas that could lead to products that improve lives So the Lemelson Foundation following Jerome Lemelson in the family's belief in the power of Invention science engineering and technology to solve the world's problems Continues with that mission to support invention to improve lives and I'll focus the rest of What we're talking about on our developing country work we actually have Significant programs for us at least half of our giving is actually in the United States, but I'm particularly interested in exploring today our developing country engagements. So How does this relate to what we're talking about today the Lemelson Foundation works in the very very early stages of invention so Our programs if you think of a pathway of a of a product you've got a person who's inspired To actually create something he has an idea He then actually has the has the skills goes through Great training Strong engineering school strong design schools to actually build something with value And finally has the wherewithal to develop an enterprise because we do have a very strong bias on entrepreneurial depth endeavors To develop a business that will actually disseminate and bring that potential solution Through market driven mechanisms Now we are we out basically for this whole vision of a pathway we support in inspiring people In educating people providing them the training and skills to actually invent and develop enterprises And finally the very very early stage launch and support to companies. So we inspire we help educate and we help incubate Now in the eight years that we've spent in working in developing countries We found that the most successful companies follow a very specific blueprint what we call the invention in surprise blueprint And my apologies if you've seen this before I just do this if you've heard it before it's I feel like I've talked about this the whole week, but Excuse me Every successful business that we've invested in has four key elements. They have a very strong robust technology They are based on a very very well-defined human need they are driven by a an innovative strong robust business model and finally in this is a critical piece There is constant iteration across all three of those elements typically through some human-centered design Process and it's constant. You never these companies never Stop innovating and iterating across all three of those pieces. So that comes to today's conversation the the problem that we've seen We have networks of inventors all over the world Many of them are based in Bay Area Universities Stanford labs They're based in scientific institutes in capital cities in developing countries and the critical barrier we see there is in a way the the siloization of These inventors they hardly ever talk to their customers and The intent is there But the ability to actually get feedback That will enable them to really define well a problem To develop a solution is just not there. And so I'm interested today in exploring with With alloy and David How they within their own ecosystems are actually engaging and talking to the communities in which they work How can that model actually inform all of the others out there who we know to succeed? Need to talk to the people. They're actually trying to help Yeah my name is Aloysius and I co-founded a company called former line and Our goal as former line is to produce is to help small water farmers across Africa To produce and sell more food because currently small water farmers across the world I currently feeding one third of the of humanity and our goal is to help them to produce more food to feed the future and What is this so important to me? Why is this so very personal to me is because I grew up on the farm when I was a little boy my parents broke up when I was just five years old and I asked to leave the city and go back to the village to save my aunt Who was a small-scale farmer and all she does is you to grow a cassava and yam and potatoes And she happens to bring it home to feed to feed my sister and I and she sends the rest to the market to sell To generate money to see us through school You know, we've seen her struggle. We've seen her struggle to assess information on new farming techniques I've seen her as struggle after producing to go and sell to make money to see us through school So fast-forward when I was supposed to make it to the university I received a call from her one day and I was really surprised because you know when I was 10 even when I was five The only technology available to her is just the radio set So I said, you know, these are very great opportunity because currently in Ghana There are more mobile phones in Ghana than people and then I started thinking how can I use this technology? That is now available to my aunt to help her to produce and sell more food And you know, I started thinking about that because in Ghana when you're lacking enough to make it to the university It means two things. It means that maybe your parents are rich enough to send you through school Or maybe your community is able to support you and that's my case I grew up in the farming community and all my family my uncles my aunties all came together They farmed and they put the resources together see me through school And you know, what is usually expected of you when you make it to the top is to be able to finish school Get a very good job and give back And in now in Ghana is very very difficult to get jobs So, you know, I was thinking what can I do to give back before I get a high-paying job? And and the only thing that came to mind was to develop a technology That will help her and the farming community to produce and sell more food So then, you know, the only technology which was available was a mobile phone So we decided to build on SMS and we did that by just doing researches online We didn't speak to any farmer. We didn't speak to any stakeholder in the system We just built SMS and we're so excited about it that hey, we are going to change the world And we made our first trip to meet about 150 extension agents in Ghana The extension agents are people who are employed and tasked by the government to go to villages to teach farmers like my aunt You know new farming techniques to help them to sell and we're surprised to find this Sussex is that I said the year 2011 The ratio between extension of business and farmers is one is to 2,000 Which means that each extension officer will have to move from village to village to speak to people like my aunt to train them And and that put the future of our country at risk because 60% of the workforce is made up of like these poor small farmers So we are asking ourselves how can we do this? So we're talking to the extension agents that we have an SMS application that will help you and and we're really hostile They say hey you guys you can't just finish school We've been in this business for 20 years. You can just finish school and bring an SMS application and think you're coming Take over the market and we said no we are here to help you We are here to use this technology to make your life better to make your work easier so that you can help people like my aunt Living in villages and and when they were able to understand that we are here to help You know they gave us a very push-off feedback. They said that you know SMS is not going to work He's a bad idea because you know we are limited by 1 in 60 characters and also most of the farmers in the villages Cannot read and write and in Canada we can only send SMS through English and they can't read and write So it means that if we go ahead to send information through SMS You know it to be useless to these farmers and then we came back to the drawing board with this feedback How can we use what the? What can we use the feedback I've gotten so far to incorporate into our design to build something that works? They said that you know if you're able to transfer we should find a way to Transport your voice to the farmers one because you know the farmers know their voice They know them the beauty relationship them they trust them So if you able to send your voice to the farmers through technology it to make their work easier and it to make the farmers trust The information that we are sending out so then we were trying to see how we can build a voice application That we can give to the government and other agriculture and use to use to send information to farmers We tried we go we went to India we asked people and you know the money to do that was very very expensive So then we decided to build ourselves We go funding from Indigo trust And a donor agency based in the UK They believed in our idea so they gave us guess of five thousand pounds and we're tasked to build a voice application And we're also tasked to be able to reach 500 fish farmers in Ghana and we were Ghana and You know we're so excited that we're finally you know we are going to do something to give back to our community So after building the application in March and launching we went to a catalytic relief service Conference in Accra where all the ICT for development partners across Africa and some in South America came and And I did a presentation on how that you can use our application our voice application to send information to Anybody at all who cannot read and write in their own local language and how we can use that same application To conduct voice surveys to collect data and we're so surprised to realize that Across the development sector they spend so much money trying to communicate and to collect data So we had USAID Coming into the system to say hey We you know we're facing the same challenge we spend tons of dollars trying to communicate with farmers living in rural villages We spend a lot of money trying to collect data. So let's try our software and see so they send an argument with us To use our software for for three years and one for another for six months And you know we're so like very happy about a adoption rate How that we were taxed reaching only 500 farmers we got two thousand and how we got two big donor agencies to use our Software and we understand that it's because of how we approach the whole design process We realize that because we had a buying from the beginning we built with the local folks We built with the extension agents who are who are trusted who are respected who are authority when it comes to a recapture extension And we also built with NGOs who who gave us feedback in a one crucial feedback that we got from USAID is that you know Currently the application works online. You have to log into our dashboard and send information and they said What's even on the field and how to send information they have to go back to my office to log into the dashboard and send information I have to be able to use a simple mobile phone a simple mobile phone like not get a 310 So you want to record myself and send it to thousands of farmers and that's one great thing But I that it gave us and we're very responsive and able to build it immediately for them and so many other NGOs are so excited about idea and also in Zimbabwe last year in July they did their Presidential election by July 31st and we wanted to see how the software work in other African countries because We only use it and tested it in Ghana. I was so surprised that for the first time The youth of Zimbabwe are empowered by this tool to conduct a national survey to tell the stories of what the citizens expect from their government They were able to know How much are being paid off what cases are involved in the informer sector and whether if Graduates from the university able to get jobs or not So our plans for the future is to be able to make it easy for NGOs operating in Africa and other developing countries To use our software to communicate with people who cannot read and write That will help them to save money to give them direct access to their beneficiaries And we also want to be able to make the system more user friendly and making more simple And we also want to continue building into the local folks to get to a point whereby to very easy for even a simple To just use the mobile phone to send us calls to thousand and thousands of farmers. Thank you Just a quick question before we move to David Tell me a little bit more about how you discovered That that voice was the was one of the keys and how do you like is that something that you just sort of intuitively Would have thought of or how did you discover that? And how do you make sure that you keep discovering those kinds of things? Yeah, so when we got the harsh feedback from the From from the extension agents from our first prototype just using SMS We came across a documents called the ideal human-centered design toolkit and that that document actually helped us to build Specifically for the farmers and all the other stakeholders involved and how to take feedback from them So we use the tool first of all the Advises that before you you build something you should be able to listen first of all to the people the people that you are building with And you should be able to design for that with them, too So we we ask them like what to work and the obviously to the other voice is the way But we didn't write any line of code until we recorded like voice messages in on our laptop We met about 300 of them and we played it to them that if you get this kind of information Like how to apply fertilizer how to harvest your fish what to sell your fish when get you done a mobile phone Just on a laptop would you appreciate it? Would you like it and and they gave us the go-ahead before we actually went into building So so we are really committed to this and we think that you know We had all these assets because of the way we approach the design and we still want to continue building it in that way That as we move forward we want to keep listening to the farmers want to keep listening to the other stakeholders involved in the sector Great, thank you. Thank you, David. Can you tell us about play of Eva and and What what kind of Or the keys to I mean it definitely want you give you an outline of What you did and how you did it, but but I also want to really think about the same question I asked how was this is how do you how did you connect the stakeholders the diverse stakeholders that were involved in the project? Yeah, I was just taking some notes As I was just was talking to remind me of a couple of things The first slide talks about one of things that play Viva has done is we move beyond green Beyond what we call sustainable or net neutral to what's called regenerative and the regenerative development And the whole idea behind the regenerative development platform is that it's a whole systems thinking Program and a story that came to mind was as part of that regenerative development process We interviewed the town elders and asked them You know what they've seen is kind of the change in the community that they're in and how it's evolved and what their hope streams and aspirations are and what came back from that was that they saw kind of a lost generation and That the town like the migration has been to Z1 a week stop or to Mexico City or even to El Norte and they really want to see the vitality come back to the town and What's interesting and I mentioned the last point of the slide there is Julia Garcia who is now our general manager literally walked in the door of our hotel the day We opened she had just been let go at Club Med because of swine flew They had to get rid of their home middle management. She was in charge of restaurants there She had worked for 20 years with Club Med and she's from the town of hula-tuka's town of 500 people and had come home and now she's managing the largest enterprise in the town and You know helping her community to regenerate itself so you know that was just one quick story that came to mind as you were talking about how doing this regenerative process and Kind of how it's gone deeper into the community just by asking that question Another thing I wanted to mention was our investors include Verdi ventures with conservation international what the great names in conservation and then root capital They actually made us go through the gears process and as part of being evaluated for gears You know, we're looked at and we're asked how green is our supply chain and We had hired an intern to work with us to The first pass of the gears Certification didn't get us as good as certifications We wanted so we got an intern and that kind of go through it again And in that process we developed our own mini gears Where we began to work with our supply chain and our community to ask them the same questions The gears was asking of us how green are we how are we including? the community and following certain rules so that's another Way in which kind of this outside community affects us and then we begin to bring those same processes in Related to The regenerative process one of the first things you do is you develop a set of guiding principles So we sit down as an entire group in the charrette process and these is what came up as our guiding principles promoting biodiversity generating cleaner water and energy Promoting a transformative experience, which I think is what happens in communities like that Creating a living legacy and the important one is this question of meaningful community and what is meaningful community? And how do we affect the different communities that we serve? So what was the charrette process the charrette process is? The word charrette comes from a French word meaning the cart in which the at the final exam of The architect they would bring in their cart with the models and the plans and everything else and have everything in one place And the charrette process brings in Members of a very broad community So you're looking at not just the architect and let's say the owners, but you're looking at Potential guests you're looking at members of the community and the elders you're looking at biologists archaeologists anthropologists as many different points of view as can be brought into the process to begin to look at how you're developing and make it the whole systems thinking into the design process and Really open yourself up to it So from that came came those those guiding principles Related to meaningful community and I've done an entire presentation just about what we do on the meaningful community standpoint But we've really over the years seen that we focus in on three things education Healthcare and economic development These are the areas where we think we can bring to bear the resources that are part of this larger community That includes our guests that come in from the outside and maybe a doctor who comes in for vacation But says what's happening in the local health community? How can I help out? So a story that just came to mind there. There were pediatricians that came in want to go local health center We went down there and they thought oh, we're gonna help them do added value services Maybe teach some clinics And we waited for the doctor to finish and we went into the clinic and the clinic was It looked like it had been destroyed. I mean the Ceiling was falling down and had no hot water heat just basic elements were missing there And so the doctors these guests put together an entire program to go raise funds to Start with a hot water heater and it involved the community where the community was responsible for providing the labor And they would provide the supplies for it So that's how we really become this conduit between the varying communities that are part We don't direct we just provide access to opportunity. I think that's a key example of how we work Did that seem? Forced at all did it to the locals did it seem? natural did they did it was that an easy sort of transition from a Western doctor walking in and seeing the the state of the clinic and The ability for him to jump in or what was that like? I mean there's many different ways to answer that question because When you work in developing countries like that so many times a they're working with so few resources They are used to people coming in and kind of dumping resources You know part of what I was going to get at is in this next slide this Korean parable if you'll Let me digress for a bit. It's this parable about This prince that was going to be king who went to see a Sensei and was wanted to learn a lesson and the the sensei said well You know I'm go out and gather all the firewood you can and build the biggest fire And come sit with me by the river and so the prince goes out and gets all this wood and comes in and those Is huge huge bonfire to prove what how good he is and the sensei sits there quietly And the bonfire just burns all night while they're sitting by the river and that's the He's like what's the big lesson? Please teach me and at the end when the fire was was gone He said well, did you learn your lesson and the first like what lesson and he said You know when you got here the river was running And then you went you built this huge bonfire and now it's all burnt out And there's nothing but embers, but the river still running and so We really look at are I can our development from the standpoint of are we being fire or are we being water and so you know We need to make sure that whenever we come in to a situation like that We're not just dumping equipment and it's fire, but it's okay How do we work with you to make sure that it's it's water its river and its community so great answer This was another example related to water that I had mentioned in our when we are in the plenary, which is I Don't know if you can see from the slide, but play Viva's Located at the base of the watershed so everything that happens up the watershed ends up in this estuary So we are literally what I call a toilet bowl of whatever happens up up the watershed So what responsibility do we have to work with the community to make sure that the watershed is clean? So we really started to look at what ways we could work with them to clean up One of the obvious one was to work with the agriculture waste that comes down the watershed So we set up this organic agriculture class and brought in hundreds of farmers as you can see from the photo To work with us on that but the feedback loop that came from it was this is all wonderful We'd love to farm this way, but who's gonna buy these goods? Who's gonna buy what we make and so the challenge has been moving from not just us being the consumer of that But setting up a marketplace so that there's a broader market for them to work with so these are some of the challenges We deal with in these cascading cycles as you like to say so I think the Kind of last challenge is that you know How do we replicate what we've done at play of Eva and begin to do it in other locations? And that's where we've set up this concept of regenerative resorts to begin to look at our business model and do it in other locations as well Great. Thank you, David I want to spend a little bit more time before we open up to questions Delving in more to the the ecosystem that's surrounding where you work and Yeah, it's one thing to have an idea to start engaging some people to You know identifying a challenge and gauging people into the the process of fine finding out how to Solve that challenge. Tell me I'll like a little bit more about the the ecosystem of players That evolved that began to support your work But at the same time allowed you to stay true to what you were doing The ecosystem of players whether it was USAID or or some of the outside influences Within the ecosystem the local ecosystem that you were working with Yeah, what was it like to start to begin to work with with these different? Organizations or groups that maybe didn't have the same view that you did Yeah, and when we stopped at first But then we just had the idea and I spoke to An organization that was being the space for the past eight years They've been using SMS, you know, and I was pitching to him and he said look at you You're just a schoolboy, you know, you don't really understand the market. He don't know how it works You know what shows are you have adequately the mental altitude, you know to carry this and carry it forward? From there we realize that we have to be able to work hard You know, you know to end a seat at the table because it's not very common to have a startup in a development space in Ghana I like we have some other startups there, but they are focused on other things So we realize that we have to be able to work harder. We we can't afford to do a Video call work. We have to work hard. It's just as hard as any other business in the space to to to be able to succeed We also realize that we can't fight against them because you know the guy in the space I'm working for eight years. They are valued at like $20 million. So if you really want to go and fight with them, we would you know, we just die early So so we decided to work with them even though initially we you know, they really underestimated us Along the way, we went to work with them and it made everything easier for us For instance, the guy who said, you know, the biggest player who said, you know, we can't do anything When we finished building our voice application, you know I made it a point to go back to his office and and do a demonstration for him And now he used our application to be sending information to farmers and now we are working together And now we also got the extension agents who initially thought that SMS was not going to work We ask you to then we can't go on we we went to them We explained to them that we cannot do this without you We don't have the expertise, you know to provide the content We still want you to use application to make your work easier and better. So they bought into it The idea can you answer the same question? I mean as the different as the as the project evolved and You you began working with the community, but also you were trying to raise money to to Invest in the community. I know that you had A very people centered centered funder and a very eventually attracted a more environmental funder What was that like? Was there was it what did that happen naturally or tell me about that as far as fund raising and Fund raising and how how they came together to to create what we're talking about these these cascading cycles of impact You know the funding side Believe it or not happened here at SOCAP. I mean the the initial meetings that we had with Root capital happened right here and it took about a year or two for that to all evolve. Um, and You know Neil Indemdar who's with Or was with the Rudy ventures. It's doing a session somewhere else, but if he were here I remember when we finally finished the funding with him He he looked at his database and said that the first time our name popped up in his database was almost four years before the deal had actually closed But you know those guys do Similar but different things because they are all you know, uh, verde ventures is funding from Starbucks and does some coffee work and the same thing with with root capital So they they do similar deals in in many ways. It's they're more overlaps than our parent from it Because I think whenever you are involved with Social investment you you're involved People are involved with place and they're inter they're interlaced inextricably So, um, I I think the interesting part for us with the investment side was really more on the due diligence part On how deep that they went into our business and the work that was done And then as I mentioned in the earlier slide related to the gear certification process that really became a benefit To us and our ability to to push it back out to the community But I think from the the cascading cycles, it's much more organic And it it happens in the most unexpected ways sometimes You know two quick stories one is earth day we we have people that that kind of work Uh doing community development work with us on site and so A morgan had organized an earth day celebration With uh with the community and went reached out to the school kids to help clean up the rivers and do trash pick up on the rivers And this in exchange they cooked pizzas because we have a pizza oven for the schools and we had um non Soda drinks for the kids as well, which was important and the teachers Gave morgan who had done all the community organizing a list of supplies that they needed And right about the same time I had read about this nonprofit called pack for purpose So we kind of put those two together and put the list out to all of our guests If they wanted to bring school supplies in and now it's gotten to a point where we've Provided enough school supplies for that one school where it's really moved up the watershed a similar thing happened where A julia who's the manager was at the school handing out supplies and it was raining that day And she noticed the kids were waiting in line to use the bathroom and we're getting soaking wet and so she developed an entire program to fix up the bathrooms And get them to a point where the kids had a covered area and then we looked at the bathroom saying you knew toilets Then you knew sinks and water and everything else So that was a project that she initiated that was done with again So these cascading cycles happen very organically You know those are those are the wonderful surprises about what you do Abby if you want to join in Please do I only have one more question, but go ahead. I did have one question actually to maybe we could end on but In the lemelson foundations experience in working through partners to build ecosystems There are two specific players that struck me actually are Not very present at soca so I was kind of curious in terms of your own experiences at playa viva and in farmer line What role if any the specific stakeholder of government? And These dynamic academic institutions actually have played in either hindering or helping Your work yeah, so Our first client actually came through my professor in an university You know because they were doing workshops for fish farmers every year and What they were doing is that they they fly all the fish eyes from across the country Into one location they house them And and they're trying to teach them all the research that they've done For the last year through power point presentations and through like bushes so I pitched to him that oh, you know To support what you're already doing. How can we make sure that okay? This promise are not just attracted are not just coming here for socialization and for the free food How can we make sure that they they keep receiving the information that they came to learn here? So then the idea for my also came to police and and he pushed for me to get the deal with a usa id Which was our first customer and also Coming to government um, even though Some people in the team to provide the content even though we can provide content that works We still need people who has the on the ground knowledge Who who know the farmers whom the farmers know and trust even though the information we also have is valid Even when we send it to them without the local force in government The farmers are the farmers are not going to take it So when we realize that we worked with the government even though they were not buying even though they will not pay us money for the system They just coming to volunteer to record the message and sending out sending it out to the farmers Help us to increase adoption and help the farmers to trust that formula is really legitimate and we are here to help them So those are the roles that we got even though it was not in terms of money, but you know, it was it was really helpful yeah So I would say government would be involved on a couple areas From the construction side. It was really the whole permitting and being involved We're on the beach and we have the waterways and that's all considered federal land So we really had to go through a whole environmental impact process We also have an archaeological site there as well Which involved the government ena who came in had to do a whole study of our site and say Yes, you have an archaeological site. No, we're not going to take the land from you But you can't you know go in these areas and do these things and this is what the meaning is We also have a turtle sanctuary on site and we have mangrove and I think we've wanted to engage the government more so as plie viva plie viva being a model for sustainable development And I think we're still under the radar, but it begun to make Relationships that are getting us higher up in the visibility with the government with universities, I would say there's A couple of areas in which we've interacted with universities. There's a local technical school and We have got we're 100 off-grid solar where we are So we've really wanted to work with them on and we're also off the phone grid there and are So we've really tried to work with the technical school to help Do some capacity building so that they are training people how to be solar engineers and be able to come and service us So we're not having to wait for people to come from mexico city to service us So that's on the local level. The other one is we've been lucky to be engaged with stanford and they have a center for responsible tourism development Who've really used us as a model for sustainable sustainable development and that's been a wonderful community to have out there Great, thank you. We're going to open it up to questions if anybody has a question for any of us here, please Raise your hand you can have the microphone come right up to you Hi, gary mirpuri. I'll run something called the learning firm in indonesia. We take Vulnerable youth street kids and they learn organic farming And then find a way to go home back to their villages Really interested in the sms program that you have especially the voice program because we work very much with the farmers and the whole community What are the kinds of messages you put on to the What kind of you know tools what kind of training do you give the farmers because there's only this much you can Put in a voice sms and do you need a special phone for it or would any Cheap Nokia do you know the the sort of ripoff phones that you get from china for 20 dollars now? Can those do that as well? and just a quick comment about community engagement for us we Have something like 12 corporates Who said they'd like our program but we make sure that they don't just give money But they come in and they teach units to the to the kids as well And each of them has got a specific so it's not organic like with your program But it's very specifically aimed at what we are trying to fulfill In our curriculum. We do the agriculture But everything else that they need to know to get back out there And face the world again. We get our corporates to come in and And teach to them and works quite well So the question is about the sms in please. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for that question Aquaculture in Ghana is very lucrative. In fact, the margin is very high When when you sell your fish for like 2.5 dollars when it ends up in the restaurant, they sell it for 10 dollars So so many people are like encouraged to enter that sector and and the bigger your fish the more money you make and Over our pilot once in a week try to teach is that so many people thought for you to get a big fish You need to pour a lot of fish into the water So we spent a lot of time trying to educate people that you you don't actually have to pour a lot of fish into the pond Because if you do that you lose your fish If you do that you actually have to if you want to grow more fish and make it bigger You need to feed it five percent of the body weight And handy to surprise you that is something very simple that people should go to get but We spend about six months trying to like communicate this technology to them And also we didn't record long messages to the farmers We organize workshops and after the workshop we use the voice calls as we remind us of what they've learned through the workshop So so the average length most of the message that we send is is within two minutes and it works in all phones So we record the message We log into our platform We upload it and we send it out to the farmers that we work with they all get phone calls And they pick the call then they hear the information in the local language that they best understand If they want to replay the message they can press a key on the phone and replay the message So as you mean they're on the farm and they are busy working and they miss the call The system will call them back until they pick the call and if the network is also bad The system is intelligent enough to dictate if the network is bad For to call them the farmer is back again until they receive the message Yeah, any phone it works on any phone other question Hi, this is a question for david on the Basically, you know, we heard this morning about the difference between what comes first impact or return And you know, it's it's Very good to hear you david speak about playa viva in a way that you don't mention really a difference So I was wondering if you've done any analysis on the profitability of playa viva versus say just a standard You know hospitality or you know, just a normal hotel And whether really everything you've done in terms of helping the community and and and you know Regenerate the place is something that actually has affected your costs Or whether these costs are you know important versus the benefits that you're getting Wow Couple ways to answer that question. First of all, I think The market that we go after the reason they come to us is because Of the values that we stand for So we have to invest in that first um But I want to give an example We have 200 acres and around us A cattle farmer has bought basically all the land around us And he has slashed and burned everything and so At the same time since we purchased the land We've been regenerating it We saw what was there and it planted 10 000 trees and we brought back the mangrove which then brings back the fish and have this park this forest in the middle of Just devastation around us and it's I can't wait for the new google earth map to come out because then you'll really see The difference that's there and you know, I was just in new york and you see central park in the middle of new york And and what's the value of property next to central park? You know, what's the value Of what the playa vivas of the world are going to be like When there's all that devastation around us so You know We have a a permaculturist on on staff on budget and there's a budget There's a line item for regenerating the land and that's an investment That I make all the time Um I have to believe that it's in our long-term best interest when people come and they're surrounded by so much nature And so much abundance and so much biodiversity That changes the equation It's something you just have to believe in Uh, but there's another model that we've taken as well We used to ask for donations for the turtle sanctuary that we have on site And that was part of that at the end of the bill would be here's your room. Here's the bar. Here's the messiah And then would you like to make a donation to the turtle sanctuary? We've now added a regenerative trust fee Of 2 which is optional You can opt out if you want but we've now added that to it and that fee then goes towards the community fund Which helps for the turtle sanctuary and other community projects like that. So we ask our guests to participate in that part Then answer your question anyone else question I have one um I'm really curious um From the from the eyes of someone That's starting a new project in a in a new local ecosystem wherever it might be What advice would you give? To someone that started that you wish you would have had when you started your project Yeah, in my case if you want to start a project, especially ices for development projects Don't you know you have to try and speak to those who are already doing it in the space You know and the mistake that I made from the beginning was that When when I met that big guy who was in the space for eight years, you know when you said those Mean things to me, you know in my ego came up and I really wanted to you know prove a point So I did not actually approach him to ask him, you know, what are some of his failures to learn from it So that I could also omit it that So I I also committed some of the mistakes that he has made which I could have avoided should I was looking to him So, you know, my advice is that if you want to start something in the ices for development in the space in Africa You have to try and identify the various players who are already in the space And you can get a lot, you know, you can get what it learns for the past eight years or 10 years In just one minute one hour or two hours of meeting them and you can avoid the same You can avoid those mistakes and do the work better because After all, you know, what is more important is not about you But he's about the impact that you want to create and I think that's what you The new come into the space and all the other guys in the space share in common And I think you need to take advantage of that I think a relationship to this panel I'm glad you asked that question because I think it's it really is going deep into the community that we're serving and I wish we would have understood them A little bit better Just what the different constituencies were and who were the leaders Within the community. I think We did a lot of fire early on and it took us a while until we really understood the community and understood that We were there to stay and that they were understood That we were there to stay And that we were going to be part of that community so I think that's a perfect question to kind of ask To close it out at least for me because it is Really go deep go as deep as you can into that community. I met a guy On the way back from a so-cap conference to a SVN conference A guy from the crux family who basically does that he does mapping of communities and really Goes deep into almost household by household of who's there and what are the Political groups and the religious affiliations, etc. And I think how do we done more of that in our charrette process? It would have helped us realize what we needed to do to to be a tributary into that river I I think one from my perspective from my experience another issue that that we face in wahaka and I've seen at many places is There's a lot of well-intentioned People that that that really want to do the right thing at a local level, but they don't know how and I think that has burned a lot of people in villages and communities So there is sometimes an inherent distrust That why this why would this be wouldn't be the same situation where For example, the government decides that a particular Area needs should be all about ecotourism builds Caban yes for them to use to rent out but without even asking the village or a solar technology that That's dropped in like like an alien and and then becomes furniture, you know So anyway, I really appreciate the the perspective and just to bring it back to Where I started Do you have one more question? Not get off the learning part real quick, but I'm interested in knowing I saw that you have 2000 farmers out it's you've been out for six months since you've launched and You said it took six months for your farmers to cut to understand the product So how much of your time and and this a little bit Just understanding the learning around integrating Customer feedback or user feedback and everything that you do how much sort of time and resources do you devote to Getting that feedback and then how do you digest that feedback once you have it because That also takes time to to gain insights Great question. Great question. Yeah, so we we actually started Last year in February But we launched this year march So we spent like a year and one month studying these farmers You know, we have to go and live in in the villages. You have to go and see What do they do in a normal day, you know, who do they interactive? What do they spend money on before we actually finish building this product? So so we spent a month and and but then we didn't get funding So we were using the whole we are learning and idea to apply for competitions In Africa so we're winning some of the competitions and we're getting grants from them and we're using it and we also positioned ourselves in a way that Students like in America and Canada who are doing like who are doing their thesis on our on our on our topic We send them emails and they fly down to Ghana to volunteer for like months And and we get free human resource and return to help us to develop our product So that's one of the ways that we used to come to come to this point Great so Thank you very much. I just want to sort of tie the conversation back to Sort of the way I introduced it and why going deeply local is so so important and something that that we really want to see more of Because we are able to share You know information about these solution sets these ideas Around the globe that allow us to do things better. There's a great author Stephen Johnson has written a number of books emergence his most recent one is a book called future perfect one of the things he says is that diversity not only Expands the common ground of consensus But it increases the larger groups ability to solve problems And I think that that's what we're we're doing in forums like this And what we hope to do in a in a forum on social innovation that we are planning for Mexico in april called catapulta where We specifically are aiming to try to Let people compare ecosystems and how how our networks support them So I invite you to that as well. And if you want to know more about that come and see me But thank you very much. I really appreciate it