Our Top Highlights from Social Innovation Summit 2024
This June, we had the honor of partnering with Landmark Ventures for our third consecutive year to lead social media and content strategy for their flagship event, Social Innovation Summit 2024 (SIS24) in our hometown Chicago. The conference was a dynamic gathering of thought leaders, philanthropists, global corporate executives, celebrity activists and social entrepreneurs dedicated to driving social impact and scaling change. We were thrilled to meet up with past 18 Coffees clients and Community Partners — it’s an event we look forward to each and every year.
Here were some of our team’s top 2024 highlights and insights:
1. Inspiring the next generation of girls to dream big
The Summit kicked off with a powerful keynote from Katya Echarazarreta, the first Mexican-born and youngest woman to travel to space, to set an inspiring tone for the event. She provided context on overcoming preconceived conceptions and limitations placed on her as a young girl: “The reaction to the words ‘one day I will go to space’ really depends on who the child is. When I said those words, the reaction was always a mix of laughter, ridicule. Simply wanting to be more, to be better, is going to be received very differently depending on who you are. To be a child who realizes that is very difficult. But I didn't care.’”
Since going to space, Katya has committed her career to expanding access for girls like her and prioritizing space exploration in Mexico sharing, “I’ve had access to something at the end of the day, to an opportunity that would allow me to get past this. I realize my mission wasn’t just going to space, it was to come back and do something to give more opportunities.” Katya’s keynote resonated deeply with the SIS24 conference audience, earning her the summit’s first standing ovation.
2. Mobilizing Community Action to Protect Health in Women and Girls
Dr. Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair of The Clinton Foundation, was a highlight for the entire 18 Coffees team. During her Q&A panel, she shared that she had a calling to “protect and promote public health, and to protect and promote women and girls,” and her passion was palpable.
As someone currently navigating my second year of reproductive health and infertility challenges and losses, access to reproductive healthcare is incredibly top of mind for me personally. Dr. Clinton shared how she and the Clinton Foundation are offering more resources to improve maternal mortality rates, supporting access to reproductive care and used the stage to remind us we have work to do:
“I’m a citizen and it’s an election year. I am really angry, actually, about what we’ve done to women in this country. I’m really angry that there are more than 30 million American women of reproductive age who live in states now where we no longer have the fundamental right to the healthcare that we and our healthcare providers believe that we should have… I’m going to do all that I can to try to help those of us who live in places like Illinois or New York to feel like we need to care about what’s happening to women who live in places like my home state of Arkansas.
Because the United States of America should not be just the flag that we cheer for at the summer’s Olympic games. It should be how we feel all connected to one another particularly in the solidarity of suffering that we are imposing on women and girls around our country. And I hope that all of us will feel at least a little bit of anger that I feel about the fact that we have made policy choices now to make childbirth dangerous – and for some women – a death sentence in 2024 in the richest country in human history.”
Dr. Clinton’s passion when she talked about fighting for the rights of women on stage was balanced only by how down to earth she was in real life. Caleb Gardner, managing partner at 18 Coffees, had the privilege of networking with her at lunch, and shared that she spent most of the time “asking thoughtful questions about my mother, who stocked shelves at our local Walmart for 30 years.”
Dr. Chelsea Clinton and Caleb Gardner smile for a photo at a Social Innovation Summit networking event in Chicago, Illinois.
3. Powering Narrative Change
“Our stories have not been valued. People often think Americans aren’t ready for the truth. But if there’s investment in telling these stories but in the right way, people will come to them.”
— Nikole Hannah-Jones,
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and domestic correspondent for The New York Times Magazine
Jess Ivetich, 18 Coffees account director, shared that her top summit highlight was the panel on Powering Narrative Change noting, “As someone who has followed the 1619 Project for years, it was all the more special to hear Nicole Hannah-Jones discuss its origins live”.
Nicole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and domestic correspondent for The New York Times Magazine was joined by Regina Miller, executive director of Array Alliance and Natalie Moore, columnist for Chicago Sun-Times on stage, sharing, “Our stories have not been valued. People often think Americans aren’t ready for the truth. But if there’s investment in telling these stories but in the right way, people will come to them”.
4. Interactive Workshops that Engaged Participants
Smaller, more intimate and interactive workshops were a hit, offering hands-on experiences and practical insights. Participants engaged in activities designed to foster collaboration and problem-solving over topics like GenAI in communications. Caleb Gardner, managing partner at 18 Coffees and workshop leader of Using GenAI to Enhance Communications had this to share, “The best workshops help participants learn from each other more than the facilitator. GenAI is such a complex topic, we had to meet everyone where they were at, and take advantage of the knowledge in the room”. Caleb led a packed room and walked participants through his sober but pragmatic approach to using tech in the workplace.
5. Closing Remarks that Inspired Future Action
Each day of the Social Innovation Summit concluded with a call to action, urging attendees to continue their efforts in driving social change.
“First of all, we're all here because we want to make an impact. What we try to do at the Obama Foundation is try to expand impact to scale, by cooperating with one another and partnering. This takes a much more holistic view of how we impact a community. How do we weave us all back together again? Take advantage of this incredible forum with whom you've never worked together. That is how impact happens. You can't take things to scale if you don't have that level of cooperation,” noted Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Barack Obama Foundation. Jarrett left the audience with a sense of urgency and optimism, emphasizing the power of individual and collective actions in shaping a better future.
18 Coffees was proud to have played a role in sharing the stories from this inspiring event. Stay tuned for more updates from our ongoing projects. Feel free to reach out to us for more information about our work or to discuss how we can help your organization amplify its impact through brand storytelling or social media content strategy.
