One of the first things we did as a company was to map out our values and the positive change we would like to see in the world as a result of our efforts. It’s probably no surprise that themes around energy equity, increasing the amount of clean distributed energy sources on the grid, and resilience are high on our list. Our plan is to become a BCorp as soon as we are able, to bake these values into our business in a more formal way.
We know we’re not alone in putting purpose and meaning at the centre of what we do. It’s a common thread nowadays in many business magazines like Fast Company, who have even setup a dedicated site, FastCo.Exist to explore the space. And inspiring conferences like Purpose, let alone countless conversations that I seem to have with colleagues and friends in my network.
Thus, we were intrigued when details of the Sydney NewCo conference pass across our inbox. According to the organisers:
NewCo celebrates business on a mission, connecting its audiences to the stories shaping business, politics, and culture as society undergoes the greatest transition since the Industrial Revolution: a shift beyond profit toward purpose-driven business. … NewCo festivals have the focus of a business conference, the feel of a music festival, and the model of an artist open studio. Participants chose which organizations they want to explore and then gather inside the company’s home office, experiencing firsthand how these inspiring organizations drive purposeful transformation in their industries through authentic, experiential offerings led by founders and executive leadership.
With our interest piqued, we put in a submission and we’re thrilled to be joining the Sydney NewCo festival program.
Darius and I will be running a session on Thu 9 Mar at 12:30pm entitled “Bringing energy to the sharing economy” where we hope to explore the emerging energy ecosystem and local energy trading as a response to the disruption of the conventional utility model.
As is our want, we don’t intend for this to be a “sit down and watch a slide deck” kind of affair—those of you that know us will no doubt recognise we’ll be making it interactive and as engaging as we can. And in keeping with Lean Startup principles, might even embed an experiment (or two) to help us better understand our customers and business.
In any case—we hope you can make it to our session, and also to get along to a few of the many other inspiring companies and meetups that are happening across the day. And also, big props to the Pollenizer crew who are kindly providing the venue (in addition to hosting their own session earlier in the day).
Posted by: Grant Young, Chief Experience Officer (CXO) of Nexergy.
