On Monday January 27, The Bold Italic and Getty Images teamed up to host a panel at Public Works about the future of collaborative consumption. The event was co-presented by General Assembly with the help of media sponsor Shareable. TechCrunch writer Ryan Lawler was our moderator, and he asked panelists their thoughts on how collaborative consumption should be regulated, whether sharing economies are actually good for their participants, and how changing our consumption habits also changes our relationships with products. Panelists included Jessica Scorpio, Founder and Director of Marketing at the popular peer-to-peer ride sharing company Getaround; Natalie Foster, Executive Director and Co-founder of Peers.org, an organization dedicated to growing and supporting the sharing economy movement; Kanyi Maqubela, Venture Partner at Collaborative Fund, an investment fund that focuses on the collaborative economy; and James Reinhart, the CEO of online consignment store, thredUP.
Given all the recent headlines about ride share services, much of the discussion centered around regulation and responsibility. The panelists, which of course included a ride share expert, came to the agreement that companies will ultimately need to learn to thrive under a mix of self regulation and government regulation. Natalie Foster was quick to explain that city halls have been figuring out the problems happening in this industry on a local level fairly well, meaning our favorite share-based startups aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
Before the panel, guests mingled and ate delicious Vietnamese tacos from Powered by Pork. If you missed the fun, you can recreate the experience with the video above (you’ll have to make your own tacos). You can also buy tickets to our next panel on online dating happening Monday, February 10 here.
