Attack Poverty with the PDMA to Promote Social Change

Get Involved. Make a Difference. Join the Cause.

Purpose, Goals and Objectives:
For the 2010 Global Conference on Product Innovation Management, the PDMA will be focusing on the social cause of attacking poverty – a deep issue that affects virtually everyone in the world on an emotional, social and spiritual level.

In partnering with Games for Democracy® (a non-profit organization formed to promote democratic discourse through the use of serious games), the intellectual property we are able to generate as a group will be shared with Grameen America, our recipient non-profit organization, who focuses on the issue of poverty and can use our findings in their everyday lives.

Supporters and attendees will join forces to Attack Poverty in the following ways:

• Help facilitate games and activities on the Show Floor  that will explore ways in which we can collaborate as a professional group to attack poverty in the world and assist Grameen America with many of the challenges they face on a daily basis
• Use the exhibit booths as a vehicle to make an organizational statement about how business can impact poverty and how the PDMA constituency can help take this to the next level

Theme: Attacking Poverty:
Throughout the three day conference, attendees will play innovation games and engage in fun booth activities designed to address various topics and questions such as:

• The e-waste mountain
• Impoverished women
• Microfinance
• Emerging technologies that help to fight global poverty and bring opportunities to the world's poorest people
• What can, should, and must PDMA Conference attendees "do" in order to create customers in emerging markets?
• What is the sequence of growth or activities that are needed?; What's the critical "next step?"
• What is the role of fair/sustainable trade practices?
• What makes people sustainably happy?
• How can we leverage the emerging research on happiness in product design to create great products in emerging markets?
• What are the best practices for entrepreneurs in emerging markets who wish to sell into existing/mature markets

Publishing Results & Sustaining Engagement:
Our primary goal is to share our findings with Grameen America and to ensure the amazing results we’re going to create at the conference are shared with all members of the PDMA so that they can benefit from the wisdom of PDMA conference attendees.

• Real-time event photos will be captured and posted to flickr and the PDMA conf web site
• On-site, real-time blog posts and Twitter updates @PDMAIntl #PDMA2010
• An event report will be generated by each participating company and provided to the PDMA*. In return, the PDMA will use this report as the foundation for a web-site article, Visions article and post conference news related content and PR engagement
• All attendees/participants will also be furnished  with a copy of the report
• We will solicit affiliate and local chapter leaders to take these results back to their respective organizations where they can be reviewed and extended through additional games. Our goal is to educate, inform, and engage the global community on these critically important questions
• The PDMA, Games for Democracy, and Grameen America will provide a web location whereby the results of these ongoing engagements can be captured and shared

Resources: