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Of course, we don't have an infinite capacity for news and information. We seem to need to clear our hard drive quite frequently because we have ADD or we get bored of the issue. Remember the 2000 Election, we just got bored and asked people to make a decision for us. Katrina and New Orleans seems to have gone the same way. It's no longer in the news and we don't seem to have the desire or capacity to deal with it.

Dave Winer in today's Huffington Post brought the issue up again.

"Katrina never ended, three years later, it's still not over. New Orleans is still broken. Whole families were wiped out in the disaster, and while we don't spend much time on it in our national discourse, even as the election approaches, it's still there, reminding us of something. But we're not learning the lesson, and now our nation faces a Katrina-scale disaster, across the entire country, and like New Orleans on the first night of Katrina, it hasn't sunk in."

Thankfully there are people out in NOLA who are committed to making sure that we don't forget and this city gets the people and the attention it deserves. One such group is the Idea Village. This is a non-profit who's dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship in the city.

In the last few years, there's been an influx of talent migrating to the city to help post-Katrina and there's a danger that without work these folks will start heading back home. To try and provide jobs for this talent, the IV has launched a competition to attract new business ideas to the city and provide jobs for this talent pool.

This beautiful film- made by Trumpet- explains all.





Please share this and spread the word about NOLA..


Posted by Ed Cotton Most of your have made or are currently making your resolutions for 2008.

So here's a commercial, if one of your resolutions includes doing more good- please join Planning for Good.

To remind those that don't already know. Planning for Good is a group of 1400+ media, advertising, design strategists, their friends and a growing band of creatives who give their time and thinking to non-profits. A new brief is sent out to the network roughly every six weeks, brainstorm sessions are hosted, ideas developed and these are all collected for a presentation to the decision makers at the non-profit.

There are currently PFG groups in 40 cities around the world

Here are 7 reasons to join us...

1. You are joining a group of likeminds

2. It challenges your mind

3. Your ideas are likely to inspire a non-profit that needs you ideas

4. You will meet new people

5. You will get thoughts and ideas to bring back into your place of work

6. You will feel good about doing it because you are doing good

7. It will allow you to tick a box on your list of resolutions

If you are on Facebook, you can find the main group here.

If you are or aren't on Facebook and need contact information for our city leaders, please email me at ecotton@bssp.com and I will direct you to the right people.

If you work for a non-profit and could use some help, please email me as well.

Of course, we also have a blog.

Our plan for early 2008 is to have two months where the network is free to work on local projects and take a break from the  centrally driven briefs. 

Since our foundation in August, we've worked with fantastic people; Alisa Aydin at UNICEF, Lauren Baum and Tim Wilkinson at the Idea Village in New Orleans and Nikki Streifler at Live Earth.

None of these projects would have been possible without the help and introductions from Robbie Vitano and Michael Karnjanaprakorn at Trumpet in New Orleans (who also gave us a pulpit to speak from at their conference), Frank Streifler at MAL and Brian Reich at Cone in Boston.
Thanks are owed to many for what's been achieved this year to- the folks at BSSP- especially Greg Stern, John Butler and Mike Shine, Gareth Kay and the gang at Modernista for design help and support etc. Mark Earls for his bursts of brilliant thinking and his massive efforts in building PFG in London and to Jason Oke and Aki Spicer for their support and for building our bases in Toronto and Minneapolis.

To our fantastic group of city leaders around the world who are the true pioneers and frontline workers, to everyone who attended a brainstorm or contributed an idea and supported us in some way.

A last shout out to Max Schorr at Good Magazine for getting behind the idea and for Domenico Vitale at Lowe for his support and picking up the tab for our NYC pizza party.




Posted by Ed Cotton I am delighted the Planning for Good initiative is off to a great start having completed its first assignment and presented its ideas to the client.

The assignment was to develop thinking for the Idea Village in New Orleans, a non-profit set-up to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurs in the city.

This was the first assignment out of the gate when the group was around 200 strong, compared to the 700+ that now inhabit the Facebook group.

The presentation can be seen below.

I intend to follow up with more feedback on what happens to these ideas.

Needless to say the Idea Village liked alot of thinking and are keen to move forward with many of the initiatives that were presented.

If you are interested in helping, there are three things we need.

1. Some technology wizard or a company that can create a virtual workspace for the group.

2. A great brief from a non-profit that would appreciate thinking from 700 strategists.

3. Simply, join the group and participate in the next brief.

Posted by Ed Cotton New Orleans is on a search for new ideas and the non-profit, the Idea Village is helping make them a reality.

A newly established network of 500+ planners, strategists and their friends at Planning for Good are working on brief to help the Idea Village retain, motivate and build a community of young talent in New Orleans.

If you would like to help, please take the following steps.

1. Join Facebook

2. Sign up for the Planning for Good group

3. Read the Brief

4. Download the entry form here

5. Ideate

6. Send in your entry to the committee@planningforgood.org

Entries due by September 20th


Posted by Ed Cotton