iSPIRT’s Second Open House on Balloon Volunteering

We had our second Open House session on Balloon Volunteering on 14th December over Zoom Conference. Do watch the session video to decide if you would like to explore volunteering with iSPIRT.

Till recently, all our new volunteers (aka Balloon Volunteers) came in through referrals from existing volunteers. Eight weeks back, on 20th Sep, we experimented with an open process in the first Open House session (https://pn.ispirt.in/balloon-volunteering).

We explained the process of Balloon Volunteering and shared a few volunteer challenges. Dozens of people registered. We spoke to each of them and worked with them on the next steps. Three applicants have been accepted as Balloon Volunteers so far. This has given us the confidence to go further in opening up our Balloon Volunteering process.

As you know, iSPIRT is a mission-based non-profit technology think tank. In this second Open House session, we talk about this mission so that you can ask yourself if our cause and theory of change animates you. To understand what volunteers do and how they work, you can read our Volunteer Handbook and Playground Coda. Pointers to these documents are on our new Volunteering page https://volunteers.ispirt.in

If our mission motivates you and volunteering is your passion, see if one of the open volunteering challenges resonates with you. You can then apply using one of the forms on the webpage.

However, keep in mind, volunteering is not for everybody. So, don’t be disheartened if you aren’t able to become a Balloon Volunteer right now. All of us grow with time. Volunteering may be the right thing for you a few years down the line. iSPIRT sticks with hard problems for 20-30 years, so you can be sure that there will be many volunteer opportunities in the future!

Next Gear into ProductNation Summit

The journey is unstoppable. India has started building software products that the world recognizes… a far cry from the days when it was known only for software programmers and not for software. Through its successful Playbook RoundTables and Community platform, iSPIRT’s ProductNation initiative has touched the lives of hundreds of product entrepreneurs across India.

ProductNation thrives on the strengths of our Volunteer community who are people just like you. This community is proud to announce the ProductNation Summit coming this December in 2013. We will soon be on twitter, just follow us @Product_Nation and the #PNSummit hashtag.

#PNSummit is selflessly hand-crafted by Product folks, a Summit attended exclusively by Product folks. A lot is going to be talked about Customer Discovery and Growth Hacking. #PNSummit has lean forward and lean back sessions and is practitioner led with over 70% of the sessions being interactive. These sessions are no holds barred. They are practical, frank and maybe even brutal. It will be a gurukul, where teacher and taught share the same platform, only the roles are reversed. Yet there is no sage on stage, only like minded peers.

If this sounds like just what you are missing, we’ll be delighted to send you an invite. Just let us know a little more about you, so we can ensure the other folks in the room are also passionate Product folks. Seats are extremely limited and there is a marginal Attendee fee. What gets you in is not the fee, but your passion, i.e., what you do.

Once you’ve been there, you can take back a lot more that what you learn in 2 days. Insights from great like minded people like you, a platform to share and learn for 4-6 months after the summit, and friendships for a lifetime. Seats are extremely limited and open only for the first 100 who get invited.

Your current situation is not important. If you have the mindset, Invites for the lucky 100 will not remain available for long. Gates close on 30th September.