Causecast

by JONATHAN HARRIS, Managing Editor

The Feast Conference on October 1 will bring together thinkers and entrepreneurs from many backgrounds to discuss how to change the world for the better.

From this conference will emerge ideas on sustainability, social awareness and positive change; they’ll discuss issues such as world hunger, poverty, education and women’s rights, all through a creative lens.

Causecast had the pleasure to chat with Michael Karnjanaprakorn, one of the founders and creative innovators behind The Feast Conference. Read on:

How did The Feast Conference start? Is it different now than you thought it would be initially?

The Feast started from a conversation at a BBQ in Brooklyn. A couple of us were talking about finding ways to get a ticket to TED. Since we couldn’t afford the $3,500 it costs to go directly, we were brainstorming other ways to attend. By the end of the conversation, we decided that we could take a stab at doing it ourselves and in our own backyard — New York City. From there, The Feast was born…

The Feast is a cross-disciplinary series of programs addressing social innovation and new ways to make the world a better place. Our goal is to turn The Feast into the TED and SXSW for this community in New York City.

You try to bring together a diverse community of individuals for the conference. How do you think this diversity influences the ideas that come out of The Feast?

We curate our audience as much as we curate our speakers. As you can see from our speaker list, we have cross-disciplinary speakers that will be talking about everything from education to design to music to farming. We placed a lot of emphasis on this diversity because we feel that it is essential to attract a dynamic audience. We believe that social innovation occurs “between different kinds of people and disparate forms of knowledge."

We believe that an open exchange of ideas across industries and societies is necessary to produce lasting, sustainable, meaningful change. The Feast brings together the world’s leading creative entrepreneurs, revolutionaries, radicals, doers and thinkers to inspire more action, share best practices, and create valuable connections that will change the world.

Just for a little background, how many people have registered to attend and who are some of the featured guests?

There’ll be close to 375 attendees at The Feast Conference this year ranging from nonprofit leaders to tech entrepreneurs to industrial designers. Some of our featured guests include speakers such as Grammy-nominated musician Kenna and professional poker player Annie Duke.

In order to stick with our cross-disciplinary and diverse theme, we have guests coming from places such as Thailand, Rwanda and Denmark to San Francisco, New Orleans and Connecticut. Some of the guests include social entrepreneurs such as Daniela Papi, who runs a hybrid business in Cambodia (PEPY), to advertising executives such as Leila Fernandez from Naked Communications.

In an effort to eliminate the cost barrier that my friends and I originally experienced with the TED conference, we’re flipping the traditional conference model on its head and asking all those who can afford it, to pay what it’s worth to attend this world class event. Our sliding scale method of pricing tickets allows us to microsponsor 150 awe-inspiring “Feast Fellows” from around the world whose brains should be able to get them where their wallets can’t.

What are the next steps? Is there a call to action after the creation of these ideas?

Yes! We see The Feast as so much more than just a conference. We believe it’s a movement that’s changing the way we do good. Our goal is to galvanize this movement and give it a massive jumpstart to help practically experiment with these ideas in order to speed up the rate of innovation that we are currently seeing. Imagine what the world will look like if New York City turns into the social innovation hub of the world.

What’s been your favorite moment from previous events?

In February of this year, we brought The Feast down to New Orleans. The night before the conference we had an authentic New Orleans dinner hosted by Robbie Vitrano (Trumpet). Over shared meals, speakers and industry leaders mixed with attendees and new comers from all over the country and world with the shared goal of dedicating their time, energy and passion to come together to make the world a better place.

What was served? Red Beans and Rice with Sausages and a side of Abita Amber Beer. Can’t beat it!

Visit the official Feast website for more information on how you can get involved with this groundbreaking conference.