We have a great meeting space at the Silicon Valley Pad, thanks to Stine Jewett and Scott Krinsky. Their website is here.

Our recent Meetups have been great discussion groups, comprised of a diverse array of talents and interests. We are trying out Google Wave for the Group cadres that will be working on projects, fundraising and specific topics. Participants will be receiving invitations as soon as I can work it out.

Last June and July we lost some of our San Francisco members to the Menlo Park "trek," but we're considering a first Tuesday Group490 Meetup in The City... So, please, those who are interested, let it be known! In the meantime, our Silicon Valley Pad group is building, and we're having some great discussions in our fascinating and diverse group.

In May we were lucky to have Gunter Pauli stop by for an informal chat (Google him for an interesting read). In April Leo and Ryan presented their thesis projects for restaurant waste recycling and homeless people, respectively, and we had a great discussion about how that applies to the Designfluence mission.

We use the Meetup system for collaborative projects and networking amongst industrial/product designers and cultural creatives interested in raising people out of poverty through product design. "490" comes from "FOR the other 90 percent," also referring to Paul Polak's work (google him too if you don't know him) and his wish to turn around the fact that 90% of designers work for the richest 10%.

We invite designers, inventors, engineers, scientists and other interested individuals and groups like Project H to join our group.

To better know what we support, visit the Designfluence web pages.