The second day of Feedback+Atlanta was just as incredible as the first! Let’s recap all that we did today!
Attendees started the day with another tasty breakfast and more Breakfast Tables presented by Ada Gomero, Jeremy Page, Jordan Reeves, and Cesar de Valle. It was great to see the tables full, and we hope you enjoyed getting to talk to some of our Feedback Champions about the exciting work they’re doing.
Breakfast was followed up by the Morning Funder Plenary moderated by Johnathan Brack with panelists CC Moore, Gabriela Alcalde, and Jehan Veldi. They walked us through the changes their foundations and others in the funder space are undergoing as well as how they’re collecting, using, and appreciating feedback. Numerous important points were made, but the importance of defining who are the collective good and understanding the ways feedback is actually being used to serve communities were occurring themes throughout the hour. Ideas about how power should be shared and not being extractive of communities’ time were sentiments from yesterday that were re-echoed today. Additionally, Gabriela Alcalde received multiple rounds of applause for pointing out the need for philanthropic culture to evolve to better support BIPOC leaders in the field and to acknowledge when mistakes have been made.
So many great points were made at the #FBLSummit Morning Plenary! Thank you to @jonlbrack @mooreccmarie @JVelji & Gabriela Alcalde for sharing how @4SharedInsight @WK_Kellogg_Fdn @Hewlett_Found @EBSewallFdn and funders are listening and changing feedback processes pic.twitter.com/4UvNRfm7CK
— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) February 9, 2023
Afterwards, attendees split up into the morning Breakout Sessions. Like yesterday, there were five different sessions to choose from on a diverse range of topics related to Feedback+Atlanta’s sub-themes.
During lunch at the Shifting Power plenary, we had the opportunity to listen to Mari Kuraishi, Tais Siqueira, Ronnie King, and Michelle AT Hughes give individual lightning talks about their organizations’ work, and then engage in dynamic conversations with each other. They emphasized focusing on relationship development between communities and the people in power rather than treating the relationships as transactional. Mari and Tais also spoke to the various ways funders can support smaller grassroots organizations like offering flexible and multi-year funding, lessening the burden of individuals by uplifting communities, and humanizing and compensating activist work. All of the panelists, along with audience members who asked questions, recognized that shifting power dynamics in the field is difficult, but that policy change, deep listening, and redistributing power are steps towards enacting change.
Great conversations took place during the #ShiftingPower plenary about redistributing power & promoting equity. Some takeaways to focus on:
-reduce transactional relationships and focus on relationship development
-recognize knowledge, expertise, and lived experience #FBLSummit pic.twitter.com/rPT7UV0hUK— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) February 9, 2023
The rest of the afternoon was spent in LabStorms where presenters from International Rescue Committee Atlanta, Third Sector, MIT Museum, Second Helpings Atlanta, and Habitat for Humanity presented on various feedback-related challenges they are facing and crowdsourcing potential solutions from attendees. Some ideas that were crowdsourced from these unique problem solving sessions included co-creating listening tools with communities or hosting events to gain a community’s trust when an organization is struggling to get their feedback and using AI or virtual data technology when multiple sources of data are being used and it becomes difficult to analyze.
#LabStorms at the #FBLSummit are underway! @MITMuseum is thinking about how to better integrate community voices and @ThirdSector is working through how to support youth and adjust programs based on feedback pic.twitter.com/OysJ0nnrWT
— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) February 9, 2023
Our afternoon concluded with time for networking and reflection on the days’ events. The summit is going by so fast, but we hope you had a great second day and are ready to finish strong tomorrow!
