Erfan Daliri, Director of Newkind Conference, Author of Raising Humanity and all round social change advocate, chats to Humanitix on his journey, sustainability practices, and the importance of creating authentic connection through live events.

Tell us about yourself and Newkind:

Newkind is a conference for social change, designed to inspire and empower change-makers, entrepreneurs, service providers, activists and social justice advocates to effectively address the social, environmental and economic issues we face as a global society. Newkind was launched in 2016 as a way further the conversation on how to create true social change instead of dealing with symptomatic and surface-level issues.

The world needs us at our best, and social change requires more from us than just passion and energy; it requires clarity, focus, experience and wisdom, social change requires collaborations, systems-thinking, cross-pollination and a service-based approach. That’s what Newkind is.

What was your path to where you are now?

Being raised by Baha’i parents who themselves we refugees in the 80’s had a massive impact on my life. They were both very much service orientated in their approach to life and as a Baha’i, concepts of social justice and community development, service to humanity are very much integrated into most decisions.

From being involved in youth groups, volunteering with community organisations as a teenager, to working with remote Indigenous communities in self-determination and NGOs in the service provision sector, my life has been a constant flow in the direction of understanding humanity, human beings, and social justice. Eventually, I moved into event management in the community arts and culture area again driven by a strong social change motivation, until eventually enrolling in a Masters in Communication for Social Change, writing a few books, and launching Newkind back in 2016.

It seems as I evolved myself, the world around began to require more of me.

The recent social justice movements of #MeToo, climate action, marriage equality, the Indigenous sovereignty movement, and more recently the movement for economic justice, have all informed, influenced, and shaped my decisions and actions. As I get older I realise it is less about what I want to achieve in life and more about what life requires of us.

Why are events at the heart of what you do?

I find that events are a powerful and effective way of connecting and inspiring people. The ability to curate peoples experience over a number of hours or days gives you the opportunity to create a world they enter into. Whether it is a conference, a festival or a concert, the curation of an event gives you the opportunity to create a visceral response in attendees. Used intentionally to effect change and as a part of a repertoire of mechanisms, events can be a very influential tool for social change.

What are your favourite ways to connect and engage with your audience?

As a spoken word artist and an event curator, I find one of the most effective ways of connecting with audiences is the use of space. And in the context of a spoken word performance or a conference, what I mean by space is silence, stillness or openness in the programme. Nothing captures the attention of an audience like standing perfectly still on a stage in complete silence making eye contact with the audience. And nothing helps conference attendees truly connect with the content or with each other, quite like open space and even stillness included in the event choreography.

What are a few tips for organisers to improve their sustainability measures?

Sustainability is something I am really passionate about, and I could speak on this single theme for days on end. But to keep it short and to the point, I would advise event organisers to truly mean it. Minimising plastic use or recycling a million aluminium cans is not sustainability, it’s greenwashing. Events should be designed from a place of genuine concern and care for the environment.

Consider the fundamentals of where your power is coming from, how to purchase goods that do not have packaging at all, and how to avoid generating tonnes of empty containers and bottles that require even more energy and resources to recycle; only then will we be edging towards sustainability.

Anything short of systemic and fundamental change is greenwashing platitudes. Moving towards a sustainable and regenerative society is going to require us being uncomfortable for a minute. If it isn’t difficult, then it’s not enough.

Why is the Humanitix model important to you?

The Humanitix model is important to me because I am a firm believer in economic reform and economic justice for all.

The world is not here for us to profit from it, but rather for us all to find a way to serve.

And Humanitix is a part of a broad global movement away from private profiteering towards service-orientated social enterprise. Every human deserves to earn a fair wage and live a safe and comfortable life, and in order to make that a reality for the majority of the world’s population, we need to experiment with and give more energy to businesses and enterprises that are trying things differently. Just like as in nature, what you give energy to will grow and prosper, and that’s why it’s important to me to make sure all of my events and all of my friend’s events are hosted on the Humanitix platform.

- Written by James Humpherson, General Manager at Humanitix

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