Bring a real problem from Austin's impact work. Jam on it with the people who can actually move it. Leave with an owner, a next step, and your work on the map — because the network goes live in the room.
Date and venue are being set with co-hosts now · mid-September, Austin
Austin has been pitched community platforms before, usually from a stage. The network is being built as a cooperative, owned by the people who use it. So the launch is a working session: the first decisions about how it works get made by the people it's for, in one room, with the result public by the end of the day.
The long version: why Austin needs shared impact infrastructure →
Times are relative until the venue is confirmed. The shape is fixed.
Check in, and your organization is listed in the directory on the spot — name, what you do, a link out to you. That's the launch. It happens at the door, not at the end.
Where the network stands, what's real, what isn't yet, and the four prompts for the day. No vision deck. The same honest status that's on the site, said out loud.
Four tables, one prompt each, seats deliberately mixed. Two rounds so you work two prompts. Each table has a host from a co-hosting partner and one rule: work from a real problem somebody at the table actually has.
Each table brings back the ideas that survived, and the room narrows them. Not by vote — by asking who will own this, and by when. An idea nobody claims goes on the parking list, in public, for someone to pick up later.
Owners, next steps, and dates go into the build log before anyone leaves, with the room's names beside the ideas. Two weeks later, we report back publicly on every one — done, moving, or stalled, and why.
The network starts with four pieces: a living directory, clear pathways in, active campaigns, and public reporting. Each table jams on the piece that matters most to the people sitting at it. Bring your own problem and we'll seat it at the right one.
Every Austin directory so far has gone stale the month after launch. What would make an organization keep its own entry current without being nagged?
Seed problem: a nonprofit's event calendar lives in three places and none of them match.
Most residents don't need a civic-engagement plan. They need one clear place to show up this week. What does that look like when it works?
Seed problem: a new arrival cares about a cause and can't find who's already working on it.
The launch campaign is a local business, a public mechanic, and a number anyone can verify. What's the second one, and what has to be public for it to be trusted?
Seed problem: a business wants to give back and has no way to show its customers it actually did.
Where participation is growing, where the gaps are, what's active. Which of that belongs in public, and which numbers would make a funder change a decision?
Seed problem: a foundation funds the same three neighborhoods because those are the ones it can see.
Bring it anyway. If two or more organizations share it, it gets its own table and a host. Real problems outrank the agenda.
The Jam is run with the founding sponsors and the launch-campaign partner, and the co-host list is still open. A co-host brings one thing the room needs: a venue, a table host, a real prompt, food, or the people who should be there.
A live listing in the directory, the contacts from your two tables, and a copy of the commitments the room made. Yours to take anywhere.
A host seat at a table, your name on the launch in the build log, and first say on which problems get worked. Not a logo on a banner.
Its first real entries, its first decisions made by members instead of for them, and a public list of who owns what next. Checkable by anyone.
Your email goes straight to Devin, not a shared inbox. You'll hear back within two business days. RSVPs get the date and venue the moment they're fixed. Co-hosts get a 20-minute call to work out what you're bringing.
Every one of these is an email to a person, with the questions we'd ask you already in it.
Come and work a problem. Residents, nonprofits, businesses, funders, builders. Bring the thing you're stuck on; we'll seat you at the table for it.
RSVP → Bring a promptHave a real, specific problem from your work? It can seed a table. Prompt-bringers get held seats and a host who's read it beforehand.
Send the problem → Co-hostBring a venue, a table host, food, or the people who should be there. Your name goes on the launch, in the build log, next to what you brought.
Talk about co-hosting → Fund itCover the room, the food, or the two weeks of follow-through after. Reported publicly, like every dollar on the network. Founding sponsorship counts too.
Start a conversation → Build afterThe ideas that get owners need hands in the two weeks that follow. Designers, developers, organizers, operators. Tell us what you can give.
Tell us what you do →Neither. Nobody pitches from a stage and nobody builds software in the room. It's a facilitated working session on real problems, and the output is a list of owned next steps, published the same day.
No. Residents who want to help are exactly who the pathways table is for. If you do represent one, it gets listed at the door.
Nothing to attend, nothing to be listed. Co-hosts contribute what they can in kind. Sponsors who fund the room or the follow-through are named publicly with what they covered.
Your listing links out to you and is exportable. Problems you bring are worked in the room, not published without you. We don't sell data, ever.
Because we're setting it with co-hosts rather than announcing one and hoping. It lands in mid-September; RSVPs hear first. If it looks quiet, ask us why.
The first entries on Austin's shared map, and the first decisions about how it works, get made in this room. Take a seat at it.
I read every one of these myself — usually within two business days.