Commonwealth Club

Region: San Francisco
Time: 7/11/12 Wed (6:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
Location: Commonwealth Club (SF)
Street Address: 595 Market Street (2nd floor)
City: San Francisco
Contact: Karen Keefer
Email: rpcvk2@gmail.com

Expeditions into Extreme Affordability with James M. Patell

DATE: Wed, July 11, 2012
TIME: 6:00 PM

James M. Patell, Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Professor Patell will discuss lessons learned in the development of Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, an interdisciplinary project course taught at the Stanford d-school in which graduate students spend spring break in a third world country doing hands-on market research, like hauling water barefoot through rice fields alongside an indigenous worker. Then they apply design, engineering and business skills to create comprehensive solutions for challenges faced by the world's poor. His course eschews the altruistic projects and gadgetry that plague poor populations and leave people grumbling about the efficacy of charity. For example, the solar-powered ovens distributed by the Peace Corps that didn't work for farmers who are up before dawn and come home after dark or who lived in regions with months-long rainy seasons.

Now in its ninth year, the course has partnered with 22 organizations in 14 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Projects have ranged from irrigation systems to solar-rechargeable lights to incubators for low birth-weight infants. Last year's Shriver Award winner, Sam Goldman, was one of Patell's students who with Ned Tozun developed the solar-rechargeable lights at extremely affordable prices.

Come here how other students have helped design products that help the world's disenfranchised people.

Location: SF Club Office, 595 Market Street (2nd floor) @ Second St. (BART Montgomery St. stop), San Francisco
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 standard, $7 for students (with valid ID), $8 members including NorCal PCA members

Registration: NorCal PCA members--go to http://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2012-07-11/james-m-patell-expeditions-extreme-affordability and enter Code: sfforpatell. (Keep in mind that the coupon code is case sensitive and is only available for one ticket per transaction.) If there is any trouble redeeming the coupon, it can also be used by calling the Club's automated ticket line at 415-597-6705.

Program Organizer: Karen Keefer, RPCV/Nigeria & Liberia, X-Staff/HQ