Jewish Federation of St. Louis is looking to get the community’s creative juices flowing through its first Idea Slam Workshop. Community members, innovators and entrepreneurs are invited to come share their ideas for building and improving our community. Using the power of the group, the Idea Slam will generate a high volume of ideas and crowd-source the strongest ones. This is an opportunity to explore one’s potential as a social entrepreneur and an introduction to the JFACE PresenTense Accelerator.

The Idea Slam will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Venture Café, 4240 Duncan Ave. #200 in the Cortex Innovation District (networking reception from 5:45 to 6:30 p.m.).

Modeled broadly after contemporary poetry slams in which poets come together to extemporize verse in competition with one another, the Idea Slam focuses more on cooperation than competition, but takes advantage of the energy of a poetry slam and its ability to inspire its participants on the spot. Event organizer Ben Fox described the Idea Slam as “an opportunity for creative-minded Jews to address challenges their communities are facing. I’m hoping we can make St. Louis an even more innovative Jewish community.”

He said the slam process has a basis in contemporary social thought and is derived from the concept of design thinking developed at Stanford University.

JFACE is the Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ innovation program. This year, JFACE is collaborating with PresenTense — a Jerusalem-based organization that provides training in social entrepreneurship — to help turn ideas into reality through the potential funding of fellowships and initiatives that would provide the resources needed to bring them to life.  

JFACE is inviting a diverse group to the Idea Slam: young adults, professionals, students and others, in order to engage with one another to generate, exchange and develop ways to make our community better. Open to the community.  Contact Ben Fox with questions at [email protected].