The Conference like no other

It has been AGES since the last Barcamp, so much so that most people, even those that are regular with event attendees, may not have heard about it.

Well, I heard about it, but just never got the chance to attend it before the LONG hiatus. Truth be told, it was one of the first few movements in KL (some say Malaysia) that inspired many of the community events and community builders you see today.

Me included.

Started by my buddy Daniel Cerventus and a couple of friends, Barcamp KL is indeed an unusual spin on conferences. Some call it the "unconference".

How is it unusual?

• There's no real set agenda
• There's no promise that the speaker you wanna hear from, you can get to hear from
• There's no promise that even if you want to speak, you get to speak
• You can prepare all you want, but if you topic is not selected, you just be a participant
• And if you do get picked, there are no real rules to how the speakers get to conduct their session. It can be a TED like talk, activity, debate, skies the limit, as long as the message is delivered across

I submitted my topic a couple of days back, as a spinoff an article I wrote on Steemit, titled A World Where Charity Don't Exist. Figuring it was a decent topic, and a chance to introduce Steemit to the participants, I thought, why not?

Some highlights of the slides I've prepared:

This is an old stat from a few years ago, but I'm pretty sure the numbers have increased since then. Sure, with the rise of Social Enterprise, they could help reduce the number, but a lot of SEs are taking the philanthropic approach, rather than an inclusive one.

Plilanthropic SEs donate a percentage of their revenue/profits to support causes. For example, 10% of quarter sales go and help the poor and underpriviledge.

On the other hand, an Inclusive Approach for the same example would be this: train and hire the poor and underpriviledge, and give them a job within the organization. This way, even if the profit is not good enough to give the 10%, the causes would have already benefitted by being included in the process of business.

Hence the quote:

Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime

But the question is, is there a better way to fish, and if it is teachable?

What Einstein said is true. If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you have always gotten. Teaching a man how to fish may work in the old economy, but it's also in the old economy that caused some of the problems in the first place. The keyword here in Innovate, and the context? Income Generation.

So true enough, we need to think outside the box. We need to be daring to experiment on new methods of income generation. And I stress on the word "we", because unlike those in need of charity, we are not as desperate. Desperation is bad for curiosity, because when we don't have much, we can't afford to try much.

It's up to the rest of us to consciously look for alternative means of income generations, innovate ways to make money, and then, see if the method is replicable. If indeed it is, we will be able to teach others not just how to fish, but to fish better.

Introducing Steemit.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

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Wait, why's Mav posting on Steemit nowadays?

Well, unlike other blogging and social media platform, Steemit is the only platform that allows me to earn cryptocurrency when I engage with it. Yup, one Steem is about USD1, and you, too, can earn Steem Dollars every time you:

• Create content (articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, photos)
• Upvote (like) other people contents
• Comment on other people's posts
• Have discussions, share opinions etc!

Yup, basically it's the very same thing you're doing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc all along!

The only difference? For once you can earn a nice income on the side!

Sign up for a free Steemit account, and you can thank me by coming back and upvoting this article. And guess what, you will earn Steem too for doing that! #awesome