***Archival video for this session is available here.***
Concurrent Town Halls in Various Locations
Parallel sessions open up spaces where you can learn about the projects of your fellow participants from around the world. They amplify the unique potential of all of us being together at The New School. Think of the format of this session as a topically-focused town hall; it is not a traditional panel. Each speaker has 5 minutes to introduce their work. The second hour of the session is dedicated to discussion that promptly engages the people who are not on the stage. Find the presentations in the File Swap folder linked below.
About This Town Hall
Without access to real capital, the cooperative digital economy cannot thrive. Platform co-ops around the world struggle to access start-up funding given that traditional venture capital is not appropriate for these enterprises. Various groups have received foundation funding. British cooperators are using the Community Shares Model, which allows them to benefit from tax incentives for startups. Adapting the Mondragon process, cities like Cleveland (US) and Preston (UK) follow an ecosystem approach to launching and funding worker cooperatives. Yet others explore ways of creating “user trusts” to democratize the Internet. Learn about diverse financial instruments and strategies that can help groups to launch an upstart without venture capital. Together with the International Cooperative Alliance, philanthropists, and communities worldwide, we need to urgently take bold steps to meet these challenges.
The hashtag for this track is #capitalconundrum
File Swap
Would you like to dig deeper, learn more about the discussed topics, or have documents to share? Download PDFs of the presentations, background readings, and/or upload your own materials to this folder
Speakers
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Olivera Marjanovic Professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Felix Weth CEO, Platform21
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Kevin McQueen Kevin McQueen, former Vice President of Capital Impact Partners
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Ludovica Rogers Program Manager, Co-operatives UK
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Nathan Schneider Assistant Professor of Media Studies, The University of Colorado Boulder
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Emma Back Founder, Equal Care Co-op
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Amelia Evans Research Fellow at the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy
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Christopher Mackin Founder and President, Ownership Associates, Inc.