The NASF expedition with Edna Pasher. Picture by @lola_vicente

I have just spent one very rewarding week in Israel. Between the 23rd and the 30th of November I have been part of a group of 9 entrepreneurs. The trip was organized and paid by ourselves. It was not a funded or sponsored travel.

I talkedMost important thing new connections and friends

But we came here to learn from the phenomenal energy of entrepreneurship and innovation in Israel. And we learnt a couple of things and above all, were inspired by Israeli entrepreneurship spirit.

Whatever we have learnt was shared with a community of over 400 entrepreneurs that are part of the #NASF community. During our stay in Israel they followed us on social networks (Twitter #NASF and the blog http://nasf.es).  Once in Navarra we are meeting up to tell them our experience first hand.

About the #NASF community

In November 2010 a group of 15 entrepreneurs from Navarra (a small province of Northern Spain of 500.000 inhabitants) travelled to Silicon Valley. The trip was called #NASF (Navarra-San Francisco). They had met on Twitter. Behind #NASF there was not the Chamber of Commerce, not a company, organization or institution. Exclusively entrepreneurs that wanted to learn first hand what entrepreneurship meant in San Francisco. They said no to public and private subventions.

The #NASF guys were so active on social networks that over 400 entrepreneurs joined their community. #NASF (http://nasf.es) became a community of people that  promote entrepreneurship and creative attitudes that issue from civil action.

#NASF people ACT a lot and DEBATE very little. Whoever proposes any new initiative to the community, has to lead it themselves. If you are a #NASF you may not say “Why don’t we do this?”, you just say “I am doing this, will you join me?”.

They meet up quite often and carry out several activities connected with entrepreneurship in their region. But #NASF is not an association. #NASF people define their movement as an attitude, a SPIRIT (their TWITTER id is @EspirituNASF “NASF SPIRIT”. There are only a few rules  they follow:

1)    It is about creativity and entrepreneurship

2)    People act always as individuals, not as organizations. Behind #NASF there is not any company, organization or institution.

3)    Just Lead!, don’t say “shall we do?”

4)    They don’t accept any kind of public money or private donations or sponsors.

A Feedback Conf is an event organized by NASF, a non profit group that carries out actions supporting entrepeneurship, mostly in our home region Navarre.

A Feedback Conf is a gathering of people who will share knowledge. People present business projects to an audience that is willing to help by giving feedback. It is therefore a form of crowd sourcing, a way to benefit from the wisdom of many.

It all was concieved during the trip of the founding NASF parents from Navarre to San Francisco in december 2010. NASF actually stands for NAvarre-San Francisco. I wanted to tell my fellow travellers about the entrepreneurship projects in which Marque is involved, so that I could make the most of the wisdom and generous attitude of my fellow travellers. It was eventually imposible to find the neccessary time to get together and have one hour.  I was suggested to do it when back in Navarre. An so did I. I presented FeedBack Conf to an audience of 200 people at the first official meeting of NASF on December the 21^st

We are making confs regularly on the last Thursday of every mont. On the 31^st of March we are gathering for the 3^rd FeedBack Conf. The experience of the previous confs, my word, was extremely positive. See posts about our first conf and the second feedback conf.

Win-win

What I find most appealling of the Feedback confs is the fact that it is a win-win event.

Personally, I firmly believe that being open about  your innovations is much more beneficial than to keep it in the bottom of your heart so that nobody steals it from you. I act accordingly and find unvaluable feedback and profitable connections about everywhere.

As for the Feedback Conf – Feeders (the ones presenting their business projects) they benefit obviously from the feedback, they learn to present their projects in public, find some business collaborations (investors, suppliers, partners, employees, employers) and make public the “ownership” of their projects. I mean “let the world now that I am the one working on that”.

As for the feedbackers (the audience giving feedback), we learn from the new projects, we learn to develop analytical skills and to speak in public, and we obviously learn from the enriching suggestions of the fellow feedbackers.

There is also beneficial networking for both Feedbackers and Feeders.

Incidentally, for those of you who are not close to Pamplona during the events, there are streamed live from Feedbackconf.com