I love to get involved in personal development projects that are a bit atypical and have something that has not been tried before. I’m a member of the Impact HUB Community since it started in Bucharest and currently I run a project that connects young people with top Romanian athletes and explorers in an outdoor environment. The intent is for the participants to have access to these great influential people and to learn from them, their experiences and life stories.
I guess the main common thread I found with EdgeRyders (as I understand the community through what I read) is the desire to expose the people I work with, wether they are clients, suppliers, partners etc to valuable & interesting experiences and people through which they can grow as people and professionals.
I do this by organising outdoor experiences in the Wild Thing project, in house happenings 12connections or personal challenge to prove that the once perceived impossible deed is possible The Challenge.
One of the challenges is the people’s skepticism in getting involved in something different compared to what they are used to but also the flood of “average” projects that bombard you from all directions. I learned that if you wait for everything to be perfect before you start doing something, you’ll never start. Getting your hands dirty, finding ways to better target your audience and above all do quality work that recommends you … are the main levers I use in passing those challenges.
Some really cool projects / people that are trying to make a change in the communities around them are: Teach For Romania, Adventure Diplomacy and Impact HUB Bucharest. I know them so it’s easy to contact them through me no matter how the community connector job lands.
Hi Paul, congrats for making the first move and introducing yourself, very nice to meet you!
Looking at your websites and projects which look very clean and concise in a way, I think Edgeryders looks pretty alien in its design and several threads of activities - people talking about a number of things at the same time. It’s because, like you said, it will probably never be perfect because people take it in different directions.
There’s really no audience for this project. This is what I think is most challenging when it comes to the different projects people are flooded with, like you rightfully say - making a case that engaging with each other is meaningful in itself because it leads to bigger things that they get to do together in their own fields.
I have a very good friend teaching in Teach for Romania, and the story that is interesting for me, for example, is not so much about the initiative itself - which seems already on a great path, quite resourceful and drawing media attention (maybe I’m wrong) - but her story of being young and ambitious, and making a HUGE compromise to go into teaching in one of the poorest communities in Romania. That is a personal project, one could say, and deserves more credibility than it’s receiving because it tells us something about the new generation of teachers needing so much more support.
Anyway, can’t go into too much right now, but if you’re interested to know Edgeryders better there’s a community call tomorrow at 11 (12 Ro time). In the meantime, happy browsing
A member of the original Edgeryders project team, back in the day, was @albertomz, one of the global ImpactHub founders (at the time it was simply called The Hub).
A lot of Hubbers (Hubsters? Hubbitts?) were found by Alberto and the rest of us to be “face to face perople”, quite reluctant to engage online in the same way that most people on Edgeryders do. I am curious: what is your perception of the Bucharest crowd? The same? Different?
