Since 10am this morning, employees here in Silver Spring have been working together to brainstorm, draft, cut, paste, build, edit and ultimately finalize a series of deliverables for 21 local nonprofit organizations in the Maryland, DC and Virginia areas. The collaboration is part of Discovery’s Creating Change marathon event, a pro bono initiative where employees come together to combine their creative forces for the benefit of the nonprofits, developing everything from websites to email marketing templates to communications plans.

While the 25 employee teams were busy putting their heads together, representative from all the organizations who had applied to be part of Creating Change – 100 representatives total – were invited to the Creating Change companion conference to attend a series of presentations, break out sessions and one-on-one meetings. David Leavy, Chief Communications Officer at Discovery Communications, kicked off the event by welcoming all those in attendance before guest speaker Aaron Sherinian, Vice President of Communications and Public Relations at the UN Foundation spoke to the group in the first session of the day. Sherinian, who helped create and grow #GivingTuesday, now a major national philanthropic movement celebrated annually the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, addressed how the UN Foundation was able to improve its messaging through the use of crowdsourcing, storytelling and social media. Also speaking with attendees over the course of the day, among others, were James Gilbey, Vice President and Group Creative Director of the Discovery Agency, Catherine Frymark, Senior Vice President of Communications at Discovery Communications and Dan Bragg, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Science Channel.

Employee teams will regroup one last time first thing tomorrow morning to finalize their work before meeting with their nonprofit organizations and presenting their concepts and deliverables shortly after.

To see what everyone involved had to say today and to follow the conversation as it picks up again tomorrow, visit www.discovery.com/ourimpact. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram users can also follow the Creating Change conversation through the #ourimpact hashtag.