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Interview with Cecily Sommers
Cecily is the Founder and President of The Push Institute, a non-profit futures think-tank based in Minneapolis, MN. Interviewed by Michael Feagans on 10.29.06.
4npo: Tell me about Push the Future. How did it get started?
Cecily: I began really taking a look at what was needed for people to engage in real strategic conversations.  It was my sense that what they needed was not what they were getting. They needed to step outside of their lives and industry to get a wider view of what's happening in the world. It was very important to at least once a year take a broad look at the world before being able to make decisions about where you're going to go and what the opportunities were in emerging markets, technologies and to be truly strategic about the future you're going to create.
4npo: What do you mean by "strategic conversations"?
Cecily: Strategy is simply, "Who are you?" and "Where are you going?" My work in the past of doing brand strategy as a consultant for companies I found that those were two questions that had not really been engaged very deeply. Most people in organizations haven't spent the time to ask themselves, "Who are we?" and "What are we here to do?" from a sense of real purpose. And, "Where are we going?" What does that vision look like?" They are to often caught up in day-to-day execution or quarter-to-quarter profits and reacting to whatever is happening in the marketplace now. Instead of being reactive be proactive and thoughtful about what is the territory that we can own as a proprietary advantage that no matter what is happening out there we still can carry that forward. That's something that we will always own and nobody can compete with it.
4npo: Push the Future is also called the Push Institute. How is that different from the conference that you hold each year?
Cecily: The Push Institute is a non-profit organization that does a number of projects and largely functions as a think tank for looking at those things that are pushing the future in new directions. The Push conference happens once a year and is a public forum where people participate in those conversations over the course of three days.
4npo: How many years have you been doing this?
Cecily: Four years we're planning our fifth now.
4npo: A lot of these conferences are held on the east or west coast. How is that going having people travel from the coasts to Minneapolis each year?
Cecily: Well it's mixed. Some people have been to Minneapolis and they love it so they trust that this is a happening place. We have some of the biggest companies who are influential like, 3M, Best Buy, Target, Metronic, Boston Scientific, really big innovators that are here. So some people are already acquainted with that. For others they come and what I've been hearing is that they fall in love with it. We're here in June in Minneapolis it's just beautiful and it's really a great city. It's an urban setting that's very hospitable and very beautiful as well. So it's a nice place to hold it and I'm committed to doing it here. I'm committed to celebrating the kind of thought leadership that the Twin Cities is known for and elevating that national standing and we bring in people from all over the world as well.
4npo: How does it benefit the community of Minneapolis?
Cecily: There's always the in-my-backyard syndrome. I think we have a stronger reputation nationally than we do locally. It takes a while for it to get traction here. Those who know about it and like it are very proud that it's here and are really behind it. But we're still working at making sure that people locally do know about it.
4npo: Talking with some of the people who live in Camden, Maine it's the same thing with PopTech.
Cecily: I think it's the same thing everywhere. I think in most industries it's almost like you have to prove yourself someplace else before locally you get the same recognition. The same dynamic that people outside of your family are going to find you more credible than your family members will. I think there's something about proximity that's harder to overcome.
4npo: When you started Push how did you go about finding funding?
Cecily: I just really charged at it. I didn't look for funding initially. I put together a conference and went for ticket sales. I had in-kind sponsors initially for media partnerships and some products on site and things like that but we didn't have any money in that first year. In doing this, being the founder and coming into this without any corporate backing or strong name recognition I found that I've had to prove the product first to attract the partnerships and funds.
4npo: Do you think there was more freedom as a result of not having corporate sponsorship that first year?
Cecily: I don't know that corporate sponsorship would have hindered me. To my experience to date it hasn't. We've had really good partners and I'm very grateful for that. Creating relationships with organizations takes time. They are busy, they have a lot of people asking for things, so they want to know that's it's worth investing in. That's what I mean when I say you have to prove the product first. That comes largely through the force of the experience and people being super enthusiatic about it.
4npo: Did you have a staff when you first started?
Cecily: No the very first year was like the little rascals saying "let's put on a show." I did start to attract people who were excited by it and became an ad hoc team of people just helping out. But that first year was just going at it.
4npo: Did you have volunteers?
Cecily: Yes, again in more of an ad hoc manner. And some of it came through our partners. Some of it professional organizations saying, "I like what you're doing I want to help."
4npo: Do you have a staff now?
Cecily: I have two part-time employees and the rest are volunteers.
4npo: Why did you want Push to be a non-profit organization?
Cecily: I think the first part was recognizing, just for the sake of the conference initially, that in order to get the kind of support we needed it was pretty much a requirement. If you're doing it for your own interest people are not really that committed to supporting you. Part of it was practical, that it was going to be easier to get sponsorship and to get the word out and create real partnerships for something bigger to happen. And that was the other reason, that this was about something that was bigger it really is about a mission. It's about a mission to help people think and see differently in such a way that they can create the future. They can choose the future they want to live in also. And that's what's required when we want to start to tackle issues in foreign policy, education, healthcare, politics, business models. Anywhere you look, currently, at the models that have been used aren't really working anymore. And we have to step way back and ask fresh questions before we start to throw resources at them. That's really the bigger mission.
4npo: You come from the corporate world. How is running a non-profit different from what you did there?
Cecily: There are many ways in which it's just the same, kind of the physics of business are the same. In that you have something that people want, they have to want to buy it. I would describe myself as being entrepreneurial and that's been an asset. Being scrappy, understanding marketing, and having a long-view of how to leverage certain talents and relationships has been beneficial. What's different is the structure of the organization. When it's a public or private business you are accountable to yourselves or your shareholders. In a non-profit having a board and being accountable to the public is just a different way to organize yourself.
4npo: How do you use technology in your organization?
Cecily: The Web site, and I guess this is true for so many businesses, that really becomes who you are 365 days. We also use the Web site for marketing, registration, sales and all of the things that support the conference. At the conference we use it to create community through onsite wikis, and photographs to capture the experience. We had something similar to the artifact project that PopTech did this year where we were capturing photos, printing them out in little books. I've really being trying to use technology to add value to experience and bring efficiency to wherever we can. If we can do all of the registrations online that helps.
4npo: Is your board made up of local people?
Cecily: The board is local but the advisory group is from a broader area.
4npo: Do you use technology to communicate with your board and advisory group?
Cecily: Certainly, telephones, Skype, email.
4npo: Do you have a wiki to be used by the board and advisory group?
Cecily: We are just trying that out now. I haven't released it yet but we're looking at egroupware.org. It's an open source system where you can share files, calendars, databases, project management. We're just testing that now. I think having a central space like that will be useful and I'm looking forward to it. It will hopefully get us past the email hump where we're trying to schedule meetings, share documents and update them and do all of that stuff that just starts to clog systems. We want to look for greater efficiency in those areas.
4npo: How are you going to teach your board and advisory group to use a wiki?
Cecily: There are two ways to do that. One is to have an onsite orientation program at a meeting. For most people, especially anyone older than 25, you need to have someone just show you how to do it initially. Sometimes it's difficult to keep-up because we're all so busy. The other way to do it would be in a virtual meeting where in a conference call and realtime show people on computers and walk them through it. I think the human learning mechanism is still the same, you have to take people by the hand and show them how to do it.
4npo: The reason I ask that question is because many smaller non-profits have difficulty getting people associated with organizations to make a donation on the Web let alone use a wiki. Many people don't use a wiki because they don't understand how they are organized and they just don't feel like taking the time to figure it out.
Cecily: Well wikis are not pretty. And, I think that's one of the big obstacles is that graphically, until you can see information organized clearly on a page it takes to much to wade through. That's something that this tool egroupware seems to have done well.
4npo: What are some of the things that didn't work when you tried to integrate technology into the conference?
Cecily: The first year or so of using the wiki didn't work very well. Again, it's that thing of being able to show people what to do, how to do it, and its value. Typically what happens on wikis is that people who are already tech savvy and are accustomed to doing everything on a keyboard are the ones that use it. That's something that I always thought is important that you want to provide a learning environment for all the ways in which people learn. Some people love pen and paper it's just really how they capture thinking best. Some are doing it through their fingertips more, and others are recording. One year we did a collage wall, in which we had all kinds of drawing equipment and magazines for people to write and express the themes and images that were occuring to them as a result of the conversations we were having.
4npo: What did the drawing wall look like?
Cecily: We do this at the Walker Art Center and there's a space that we take over that they call their art lab. There they have a big wall where we have even bigger pieces of paper on it with all of the tools there. It was a kind of conversation wall. What I discovered in doing that experiment is that it didn't take as well as I thought it would. That's because people don't want to work. Unless you're in a workshop environment and they understand that's the expectation and you're able to be there and guide them through it. What's happening is that there attending a conference, sitting in a seat, hearing new ideas, liking it not liking it, and when their on break they want to be on break. They want to meet new people, catch up with old acquaintances, make phone calls, check up on emails and do those type of things. So that was a learning experience. I do think there's a place for that and I keep playing with it to try and figure that one out. Ultimately, I think what we will do is add a half-day which will be focused on that kind of work.
4npo: When you were setting up this organization what was one major hurdle you had to overcome?
Cecily: It's probably the ones that are very familiar to a lot of small businesses and non-profits, it's resources. All of my problems could go away with a lot more money. I could hire more staff, organize a team. I do depend a lot on volunteers. Managing these teams requires a lot of energy. If you could pay people and hold them accountable that's a different dynamic. I continue to direct all of our efforts toward building that. I think we'll be able to that but we're just not there yet.
4npo: Where do you see Push going in the next five years?
Cecily: We have a couple of really exciting projects underway. One that will be released in 2007 and one in 2008. Each of the conferences is really the platform for launching new community, new ideas, new programs. Ultimately, we'll be linking up with a global community and keeping these conversations going through the year and that will be launched in 2007. And we're also developing some tools for people to practice strategy in the form of games and other products. Beyond that I have a two-year curriculum in mind that would be one year training and teaching methodologies. Followed by a year of laboratory setting, where people get to invent solutions, new products, new business models and play things out in a safe environment.
4npo: Cecily thanks for taking the time to do this interview.
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