Catalyst Workshop

This afternoon, I led a workshop on "Catalyzing Tangible Community in Your Local Group". This was our first open-to-the-public workshop and I thought it went well. It was a small group where we could talk more intimately about things. If it helps them be a catalyst in their own group or organization, then I'll consider it a success.

Much of the concepts I introduced were a lot of the Catalytic Approach that we've implemented in Catalyst and also some of the organic principles from The Starfish and the Spider by Brafman and Beckstrom. It'll be fun to do this workshop again!

Catalyst to Host Green Festival

So after meeting with Elliot earlier this month, we decided that we will work together to see about making his idea for a Green Festival a reality. I gave him some tips on how we should proceed. I told him that he'll obviously be the event organizer for the festival but I'll be there to support and assist him logistically.

One other stipulation I made was that Catalyst isn't about events for event's sake. We're about ongoing relationship. So if we're going to be part of putting on this festival, then my focus will be on catalyzing ongoing relationship and collaboration after the festival. Elliot liked that idea. Sweet!

So it's official! Catalyst Community will be a host for the Green Festival!

But uh oh. Elliot wants to do this in May. oy!

Arts & Culture Focus Group

The City of Long Beach is making development plans over the next 20 years and they are particularly interested in developing the city's arts and culture. The city's project is called Create Long Beach and they're basically trying to get the input of people and have them speak into their process as they make future plans for the city. It's actually very exciting that they're wanting to do this!

I heard that they weren't getting a whole lot of input from people under 30 years old so Catalyst organized a focus group for today targeting that age group. We arranged for a group of 9 men and women ages ranging from 20-30 years old.

It went really well and Create Long Beach got a lot of great feedback! It was fun to be part in putting this together for the city!

Catalyst Info Meeting

We had an info meeting tonight for people interested in hearing more about Catalyst and possibly being on the team. We packed my lil apartment with folks, had potluck, and even had Pru video cast from Atlanta, Georgia! It was a great time of connecting, sharing vision, and exploring ideas.

Meeting Elliot Gonzales

I could tell that Elliot was a catalyst.

He's this fire ball kid - 21 years old - super excited about this idea that he has about having a Green Festival here in Long Beach. He saw a Catalyst brochure, called me up, and we scheduled a coffee shop meeting tonight to talk about his idea and to hear more about Catalyst. Our visions seemed to click and I'd like to see how I can empower him if at all possible.

We'll continue a dialogue to see how we might continue working together.