The Wise Fool: New Stuff Edition
Hi. I’m looking for your help.
Next month I will be launching a new quarterly digital publication called The Accelerate Us Journal. The Journal will be a thematic collection of content around a specific emerging issue in our local economies and communities. My hope is to bring together a lot of very different stories that allow all of us to look at that theme from multiple perspectives -- and find new insights. It will include some of my repurposed/redone/rejiggered/created content, but it will mostly focus on what other people are doing in the US and all over the world.
For that reason, I need you.
The first issue is tentatively subtitled How We Work Together Now, and it will focus on how people and organizations are collaborating and co-creating today in ways that are different from how we did that in the past. Part of this change is a result of technology (Zoom makes it easier to talk to people in other places, for example), but a big part of it is about...
How we’ve changed how we see our own roles in our organizations,
The coalitions and joint problem-solving we’re seeing in a lot of cities,
How we are learning to work with people who don’t have the same background as us,
The way both academic research and practical applications are combining professions in new and different ways.
If you or your organization have a story to tell that talks to this issue, I want to hear it. And if you read, hear or watch something that makes you think “That fits what Della was talking about!,” I want to hear about that, too.
Non-written material is awesome!!! I’m especially looking for things that aren’t conventional words on a page. You do visual art? You want to record a video? You heard a cool podcast? Or a song? A modern publication should engage all our senses, and it should talk to our hearts as well as our minds.
So whether it’s your own creation or something that you enjoyed, I hope you’ll send me your goodies!
This first edition will be free to prove the concept, but the plan is to generate some revenue so that we can pay contributors in the future. For the same reason, I’m not actively seeking sponsors or advertisers this time, but if you have an advertising budget burning a hole in your pocket, feel free to hit me up.
In other Wise Economy News Around the Network:
The first AccelerateUs Salon will be held on May 5 at 7 PM, with a virtual happy hour to follow!
After doing the AccelerateUs: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Local Economy Revolution series on video and podcast last year, I wanted to start connecting and combining some of these amazing creators and see what kinds of new insights happen when they talk together - and with you. For our first Salon, titled “You Ain’t Doing it Alone,” we’ve got an amazing crew, including the founder of the SoCAP conference, the executive director of the American Independent Business Alliance and the CEO of Co.STARTERS, the international entrepreneurship movement.
Tickets are only $5, which gets you access to the live stream, the ability to ask questions and maybe appear on screen, and a private virtual happy hour with the speakers afterward! Register here .
The Wise Economy Substack, and the Wise Fool Digest that I produce weekly, is turning into a high point of my week. I love being able to get out of the abstract (hard not to go abstract in a book) and dig into how those big changes are playing out in the real world. Substack subscribers also get free access to the Journal and the new AccelerateUs Salon. So it’s more than worth a little cash for a great weekly dose of insight you probably won’t find any where else. Check it out here.
Trep House is officially launched, and this Virtual SuperHub for New Majority founders is starting to make some waves. If you’re a member of IEDC, you’ll find the first of a two-part interview that I did with Trep House CEO Kemo A’Akhutera in last week’s EDNow. Or you can watch the video of that interview here.
We’re just starting to quietly look for sponsors who want to see the explosion of entrepreneurship and innovation that will come out of fully supporting Black and disadvantaged young entrepreneurs in an environment that enables them to thrive. I’ve posted the sponsorship levels here.
In most editions of this email, you get to enjoy a little art/weirdness from my brother, children’s book illustrator Barry Gott. Barry’s second writer-and-author book hits the street next month… and I love this one extra.Moon Camp is about a boy who doesn’t want to go to summer camp… even though this camp is on the moon. Did you know an air canoe can spring a leak? Me neither.
This is the cover, but having seen the early sketches, I can’t wait to see the drawing of lunch in a spacesuit. Preorder wherever you get your books.
Thanks. Hope you can join us for the AccelerateUs Salon on May 5. Looking forward to seeing and hearing from you soon.