By Angus Nelson and the Catalyst Companies Team

It was a sunny Saturday morning, the air scented with french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, and pastries. Champagne corks popped as business professionals gathered with the sounds of laughter and smooth jazz in the background.

This was our SXSW Mimosa Brunch Meetup held on Saturday morning of the SXSW at the Edelman offices on Congress Ave, our host. The event was our very first to invite other large brands, outside of our Membership. Truly, the caliber of individuals that gathered could not have made us more proud… and grateful.

Even more exciting, our Members Panel shared what their companies are doing to lead the way on large companies entering the collaborative economy – the first adopters.

We first heard from Natayna Anderson of Whole Foods and their work with Instacart, delivering groceries straight to your door.

Todd O’Brien of Dell:

Justing DeGraaf of Coca-Cola:

Then we heard from Mary Putman of Hallmark, how they’ve held internal makers faires – 5 products that have been launched as a result. Hallmark is fully embracing the maker movement for collaboration and creation.

Don Schindler of Dairy Management Inc:

Stephanie Naegeli of Nestle:

And lastly, we heard from Mason Nelder of Verizon regarding their work on Auto Share – embracing connectivity and empowering corporate fleets, rental vehicles, and more. The ultimate in mobility convenience without the headaches of car ownership all through a mobile app, on demand. See their work in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gwoLjYIeIw

One surprise to our attendees was the connection we facilitated between Verizon and a non-profit that 3d prints prosthetic limbs for people around the world, E-Nable. The Verizon legal team generously served this organization with the pro-bono work necessary to launch this great effort.

We also shared our Honeycomb 2.0 with all participants.

Blake Cahill of Phillips:

Todd Moning of US Bank:

Finally, we had one more surprise for everyone. We gave copies of Paul Vigna’s new book to each attendee.

Devin Becker of USAA:

In all, it was a tremendous event we could not have accomplished with the support of all involved. A sincere thanks to the Edelman team: David Armano, Jackie Hopkins, and Jermaine Calvin. Also, our to our volunteers, thank you for your generous assistance: Ryon Harms and Tristan Every.

In closing, thank you all who attended and took time out from your many SXSW activity options to be with us. We are so excited to have met many of you for the first time and hope we’ll have many opportunities in the future to reunite. Especially our newest Members – US Bank and Fidelity!
Note: Here’s a blog post by one of the attendees, Don Schindler, capturing the event through the eyes of one of our guests. And the Edelman team created a short video.