Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Sette and Gail Cayetano.
Megan and Gail, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Gail: I founded a social enterprise; a women’s statement jewelry line, Cayetano Legacy Collection, with my two sisters to work with small communities of women artisans in the beautiful yet still third world country of the Philippines to handcraft each piece, enabling both the creation of jobs and economic growth in a part of the world where it is still most needed. When we started the company I don’t think I even realized that it would be considered a social enterprise, it was just a business we wanted to start because we saw the value to the Philippines in it. And when I realize there are so many other entrepreneurs out there doing what I’m doing, but in different parts of the world, or catering to other groups in need, I immediately wanted to swap stories and share resources. Knowing that Meg was very active in the social responsibility space with her agency, I asked her what industry conferences I should attend (this was about 3 years ago now) – I really wanted to learn from other companies that made it their mission to help the world through the businesses that they were running. After chatting with Meg we realized that there wasn’t a conference out there that had exactly what I was hoping for, so we decided to make one happen!
Meg: When Gail and I first met 5 years ago, we bonded instantly over the fact that we both worked in the impact space. I have my marketing consultancy, M Collaborative, focused on social impact campaigns for brands and orgs, and Gail is also in marketing with her agency Shop Talk LA, but also has the jewelry line with her sister. Gail called me out of the blue one day to ask if I knew of any good conferences to go to where she could meet people in the social good space. Based on what she described, and ideally the type of conference we’d like to attend, we noticed there was nothing out there! Gail really pitched the idea and asked me “what if we pooled our resources, contacts, and ideas to make something happen?” Both of us had prior experience in event planning (Gail previously worked in event marketing and I had planned a handful of political fundraising events featuring celebrities when I worked for Women’s Campaign Fund in DC). We also knew that we had a ton of great people that were within reach. We really only put out a couple of feelers, and Gail secured Laura Probst, Chief of Social Goodness at Jessica Alba’s company, Honest Co to be our opening keynote! And then we knew we were on to something, and it was on! We scrambled to make a website. Picking a name came organically, especially once we decided on doing it the week around Valentine’s Day. And then I threw a small local panel event on sustainable fashion, alongside a few colleagues, and we announced the conference.
Gail: Less than a few months later we held our first conference hosting about 150 people at that first event. And now here we are 4 years later, and already gearing up for our 5th anniversary event in February 2019!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Gail: The Heart Series brings together truly socially conscious companies; organizations that put social goodness at the forefront of their business model. There are conferences out there that cater to companies that have a corporate social responsibility division, but none that bring together the companies that live by their social responsibility, at least none like ours that are intimate and ‘retreat-like’. We wanted to fill that void and we wanted this to be a conference that ignites and unites the socially good business community.
Meg: It’s wild at how easy and organic this has been. I am constantly blown away by the people we secure to speak and partner with us, and the feedback we get from attendees. It’s incredible to see such a range of business types and industries exploring ways they can collaborate and make an impact. Gail and I start each year with a dream list of speakers, combined with the reality of who we had in our network. We’re proud that we’ve been fortune enough to have some truly incredible speakers every year, and for 2018 highlights include the head of CSR for Ben & Jerry’s, CMO for Pencils of Promise, the VP of Comms for Clif Bar, VP of Policy for Beautycounter, Head of Creative for Everlane, leadership from Team Rubicon and several more!
Gail: Selfishly, we invite people that I want to hear speak! 🙂 And then from there, we take a look at the holes in our schedule – topics that we know we should be bringing into the conference but haven’t secured speakers for yet. And then we discuss together what individuals we’d like to approach based on the topics needed, and then we tackle that list.
Meg: It’s true what they say, everyone in the world is only two phone calls away from everyone else in the world, or actually now I think they say 1.5 emails away. With less than 6 degrees of separation we are usually able to secure several amazing people to get involved.
Gail: And our partners are always incredible too from our food partners like Deep River Snacks that has donated tens of thousands of bags of chips to charitable events every year, to our plateware, napkins and utensils which have been provided by Cheeky Home: Cheeky® creates modern mealtime solutions with a witty spirit to help end hunger in the U.S. Cheeky tableware is available exclusively at Target stores and Target.com. We’re truly a socially conscious event inside and out.
Meg: Now the challenge is figuring out how we offer this to more people, in other cities, and exploring what growth will look like for this even beyond an annual gathering in LA.
Please tell us about The Heart Series Conference.
Gail: THS isn’t mine or Meg’s full time jobs; it’s more of a passion project for us both! In my career I am a partnership marketing consultant, where I work with brands to partner them with other brands that share a similar target demographic (clients include Hasbro, SoulPancake, FabFitFun, Sony Pictures Entertainment, etc). Additionally my family has a socially conscious jewelry line (Cayetano Legacy Collection) where we work with small communities of women artisans in the beautiful yet still third world country of the Philippines, to source and handcraft each product, enabling both the creation of jobs and economic growth there. This endeavor has really opened my eyes to strive to be an upstanding socially responsible business.
Meg: I started consulting about five years ago – after 10 years in the nonprofit sector- and so much of what I do helps brands, companies and orgs strategize and build community around their social impact effort. I’ve worked with everything from nonprofits run by the LA Chamber, to tech startups and emerging eco brands, to big corporate entities. When companies like TOMS emerged into the market about 10 years, they innovated on the concept of corporate social responsibility, and then I noticed a ton of folks starting conscious companies around that time – many aimed to “do good” in some way. And whether you agreed with TOMS business model or not, they definitely started something different, and blended business and mission. Not too long after the economy crashed and there was a real need to reinvent old brands, and nonprofits started to think about sustainable growth models and recurring revenue beyond donors and grants I realized the time was ripe to support these entities with new ideas, so after a few years of studying the trends in this, I left my job, and here I am 5 years later. The conference was a natural extension of my work. Creating a platform to unite all of these types of entities under one roof to discuss best practices for business x bettering the world, couldn’t be a better fit! I love hearing directly from the “doers” and the folks on the ground regarding what works, what doesn’t, and where were going in the future. This is interesting to me personally, and also something informative I can share with the clients I work with – it keeps me relevant and in-the-know so I can offer clients observations and ideas that work in real-time.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Meg: It’s not necessarily one specific event, but I was always my happiest when I was on stage performing. I went to an elementary school for the performing arts, called Westover Magnet, starting at age 5 – to this day I have so many incredible memories from that place! I remember every teacher (Mr. Moody was really one of the first people, besides my parents, to believe in me and tell me I was a great performer). We had drama, dance, music, art and problem solving classes every day – yes problem solving is an art! I can’t imagine where and who I would be had I not been selected by random lottery to go there. I really miss that place!
Gail: Every summer my family and I would drive to Virginia Beach from my home state of New Jersey to visit my dad’s side of the family. We’d take our pretty terrible looking brown conversion van – the kind that had the couch in the back that folded down into a bed (I don’t think they sell these kinds of vans anymore, on account of they are creepy) – and we’d do the 7 hour drive across different states, crammed in the van together. I hated it growing up, but now reminisce about our usual pitstops that we enjoyed going to along the way (like the bakeshop with the best chocolate chip cookies found in Delaware, or the rest stop before we crossed over the Chesapeake Bridge). And being in the closed, confined space with my parents and sisters made for some great memories (I’m sure there was a ton of fighting too – but as an adult I seem to only remember the good thing.
Pricing:
- Tickets are still on sale on until they sell out. Current ticket price is $679 until January 31.
- We are also still accepting partners and sponsors.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theheartseries.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: theheartseries
- Facebook: facebook.com/theheartseriesconf
- Twitter: theheartseries
Image Credit:
All photo credit Paper Ban Photography www.paperbanstudios.com
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