Not For Sale: Montara Circle

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Last week I had the absolute pleasure flying out from Nashville to shoot a private event for Not For Sale in San Francisco. Not For Sale is an amazing organization I’ve been involved with for a while now that is dedicated to stopping slavery. Despite popular opinion in the west, slavery didn’t end when the US freed black slaves. It isn’t a thing of the past. In fact, I believe the number of slaves in the States was around the civil war was something like 25,000 (going off of memory when I studied the issue years back) and now there’s some 27 million slaves around the world. An anti-slavery movement has never been more necessary.

The event was called the Montara Circle and it was at an amazing location overlooking the pacific at Half Moon Bay. They invited 50 of the greatest minds around to tackle human rights in a region of Peru. CEO’s, producers, director’s, lawyers, artists… This room was filled with some of the greatest minds in the nation and it was fascinating being able to be a part of the project. Hearing these people brainstorm was absolutely inspiring. These are busy, busy individuals and they put a stop to their schedule for a couple days to end slavery. So inspiring.

Setting up on day one.

The location. Not bad, right?

The awesome guys at Moniker did all the design/setup for the event. Killed it.

Dave Batstone. One of the founders of Not For Sale.

Mark Wexler. Another one of the founders of Not For Sale.

Kique Bazan. Another one of the founders of Not For Sale.

Setting up on day two.

Me with two of my dearest friends, Josh (shot with me), and Alli (Senior Director of Communications for Not For sale).

My favorite two people I met at this event. Producer/director, Aaron Boyd (on the left) and man of the century, Bob Goff. Aaron’s immediately cool because he’s a fellow BJ Penn fan :) and Bob Goff might be the most kind human being I’ve met in my lifetime.

Brilliant minds from all over the world hard at work. Inspiring.

This image sums up one of the things I absolutely love about Not For Sale. I’ve spent years in non-profit orgs and, unfortunately, the most generous people don’t always have the best minds when it comes to gameplanning. The goal of this event was to come up with real ideas that would be doable. It sounds so simple and obvious, but it’s often overlooked in non-profit (usually unknowingly).

Australian, Hugh Marquis, CEO of Network Neighborhood and founder of STOPStart enterprises, runs a factory in Cambodia (which many of you know is extremely close to my heart) where women who are freed from being sex slaves are able to work. It’s one thing to be freed — but it’s places like this that offer work that really keep the women free. The CEO of Levi’s was present and committed to buying jackets from their factory — an incredible thing to do in the fight against slavery.

The brains at C2, Greg Galle, orchestrating the mind mixing.

Different groups brainstorming their ideas to pitch for the one great idea of the event.

CNN was there doing interviews on the topic of slavery — here is, I believe, the CEO of Levi’s being interviewed.

Hugo, a main source of information on the seven villages in the Amazon that is the focus of aid, giving context on how the only way the local villagers will accept help is by us outsiders maintaining respect for their ways and their environment.

Everyone pitching their final ideas. The last image is one of the pitchers of the Giants (recent world series champs), Jeremy Affeldt.

In the end, I left this place amazed at what Not For Sale is doing. These days, now that I have a son, I don’t leave my family unless I’m being paid quite well or unless it’s for an amazing non-profit org that I believe in. Not For Sale definitely fits the bill in the second category :)

Bobby

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