Cisco @ National Conference on Volunteering and Service
More than 5,000 corporate, nonprofit and government professionals who lead civic and government service efforts experienced an extraordinary three days this week at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service held in San Francisco.
Cisco was named a finalist for the “Governor and First Lady California Business Volunteer Program of the Year” award bestowed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver. In addition, Randy Pond, Cisco executive vice president, operations, processes and systems, presented on leveraging corporate social responsibility to respond to today’s community needs. And Sandra Wheatley, director, global community relations, was a panelist for a discussion on corporate matching gifts and volunteering technology solutions.
Sessions included such topics as the importance of public-private partnerships; the use of corporate social “intrepreneurisim” (grass roots level corporate innovation); and leveraging new media such as Facebook, Twitter and other social networking an collaboration tools, to increase community impact. One of those new age tools cited—and used—consistently at the conference was Flip Video, Cisco’s own compact video camera, which nonprofits and companies alike use to easily capture, edit and upload videos to further their great community work.
Attendees were awed by an all-star cast of change agents including First Lady Michelle Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Schwarzenegger, Shriver, Jon Bon Jovi, California Secretary of Service and Volunteering Karen Baker, Points of Light Institute Chair Neil Bush, and actor and volunteer, Matthew McConaughey.
The big takeaway was that we can all—corporations, nonprofits, government entities and you and me—make a difference, even through simple acts of service. As the Cisco Human Network tagline suggests: We are more powerful together than we could ever be apart.
Posted by Meg Taylor at 04:58PM PST
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