Here’s the round up for 2012…

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LN: How did you get involved with Lovenotes?

CC: For a number of years I’ve had the privilege of knowing Amanda Judd and am continually fascinated by her contribution to our world. She loves the environment, and contributes in the most modern, enthusiastic and innovative way.

When she launched Lovenotes I got it straight away, it was a no brainer for us to get involved and give some loving. In a day of fast media and online environments, there’s nothing more inspiring than swapping the keyboard for a Lovenotes notepad and working at a pace that encourages thought.

LN: Tell us about the YES Disability Resource Centre?

CC: The YES disability Resource Centre is a first stop shop for people with disabilities, their family / whanau and service providers. We provide the most up to date information that allows people to navigate through their lives, ultimately living it to the max!
As a centre driven by the significance of networking (the most powerful tool we have) we find ourselves at the centre of innovation for new services that connect people with disabilities to the lifestyle they desire.

LN: So let’s talk about the Really Big Kinda Massive Meetup…

CC: [It is] an epic networking event for young people, people with disabilities, family, whanau, service providers and generally cool people to ultimately expand everyone’s network to make a bigger world of difference.

Dubbed the Really Big Kinda Massive Meet Up, we are prepping this event to be one of inspiration, information, innovation and cohesion. This isn’t to be a network meeting where we sit in circles, but one where we select a series of presenters to celebrate what makes them awesome / what they do, capturing the minds of 60-80 people.

To keep this as a high energy event we are running it Pecha kucha style. Each presenter is required to deliver 20 slides of a PowerPoint presentation in 7 minutes (that’s 20 seconds per slide).

Ultimately we are wanting to form a cohesion between the silos within our sector by sharing the views of those who do not attend the more traditional network meetings facilitated by short-bread biscuits and home-spun jumpers. We live in 2012, it’s time to jazz up the way we interact and connect and form those bridges that allow us to expand our horizons. Facebook and other social media is great but we need to step back to face-to-face communication sometimes.

We select a variety of presenters for each event as a big part of the event is to positively raise awareness around disability, if we’re always talking to the same people and hearing the same thing then both our attitude, innovation and contribution as a whole society stands still.

LN: Did you receive any feedback about the Lovenotes products?

CC: We gave away Lovenotes in our goodie bags and people adored them. I’ve since gone into offices where I’ve seen Lovenotes and it’s like a fusion of art meets stationery. I would encourage as many people to become lovers of Lovenotes and make this service as habitual as rubbish, power, mortgages.

LN: Are you aware of how many sheets of paper you’ve saved?

CC: I’ve been told but I don’t have a connection to stats and numbers. I just like knowing I’m part of something bigger than my contribution.

LN: How did you get into what you are doing today?

CC: Through dreaming big. Hard work, believing in the Law of Attraction, passion and perseverance. Knowing that a life is only fully lived if we are making a contribution to the environment that surrounds us.

LN: Do you have any advice for people who are aspiring to make positive changes within their community?

CC: Just do it, but do it in the way that you want to do it. Don’t worry about what people may think or say and do all you can to merge it into a lifestyle, those who make the biggest difference become the brand. Live it, breath it, be it!

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Yesterday I met with the awesome Jenny Chu — this chic know’s how to walk the talk when it comes to making the world a better place! She’s like in, chat, yep-good-to-go, bam! A deal is done. After a massive ten minutes of conversation, we had both convinced ourselves that we had to do something together, and so we are: We’re excited to let the world know that our organisations be working alongside one another, Engineers Without Borders have partnered up with us for our Supercycling service.

Jenny’s problem was that she’d offered to make up the Attendee Packs for their upcoming conference (any of yo’ll engineers out there, you should check it), but noted the need to walk the talk and provide Conference Packs that were minimal, local, ethical, and of course… A little bit awesome!

The coolest part about this particular customer? — They are using their network of members to collectively gather their waste paper. Their smashing solution to finding and creating these local, ethical, awesome notepads for their Conference Packs, was simply that why would they just collect paper in their little office at Auckland Uni, when they could engage everyone!? Their network will be bringing together their waste paper, which we will turn into local, ethical, massively awesome notepads for them. And they will gladly place these little beauties in their Conference Packs.

I have to say, I love it. LOVE it. Just love that a bunch of energetic students will bind forces and make something happen, and that it only takes them ten minutes to cut all the crap, and say “Let’s go”!

Jenny grabbed her empty LOVEnotes Box and took off for family time after the shortest, sweetest, slickest meeting ever, and I couldn’t help but think, geepers creepers I hope there’s more Jenny’s in the world. Love your work Jenny and all the crew at EWB! Let’s crank this! Booooom!

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People galore I bumped into the awesome crew at SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise), the fabulous Betsy, Sarah & Rachel of SBN, John Stansfield who rocks out the epic campaigns for Oxfam, beautiful Clinty Minty from Rainbow Youth, my favorite cycle chic inspiration and role model Pippa Coom, and so many more of you. Inspiring conversations, emerging thoughts and ideas, new connections,  regenerating private sector and communities across Auckland, and even the fabulous Jacinda Ardern opted herself to speak at an upcoming event I’m running, on regenerating politics! Bring it all on.

The next two weeks are Fairtrade Fortnight. To me, this kaupapa spans every decision, of every chance to choose, every purchase, that we make every day. It’s not about a fortnight of doing good. It’s about a lifetime of it. It’s intelligent, it makes common sense, it makes business sense, it’s easy, and it’s actually the most awesome way to live – knowing that you’re giving life, prosperity, abundance and your humanity and love to other human beings of this world. It’s actually what you and I benefit from every single of our waking, privileged days that we get to spend in this beautiful country of Aotearoa. *Gratitude*

Rock on SBN, Kokako, Fairtrade and all of you who made a wicked event. Chur!

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