We developed-world types too often focus on how smartphones and apps driving mobile innovation. But what if we had access to neither like in the developing world?

Josh Nesbit is driving mobile innovation in the developing world through smart use of SMS and cheap feature phones.

During a trip to rural Malawi in southeastern Africa, Nesbit saw patients walk 50 miles or more just to see a doctor. He also noticed that his cellphone got better reception in the tiny village of Namitete than it did in California. That realization led to an idea that evolved into a social venture: Medic Mobile.

Since then, Nesbit has been using cheap mobile phones to connect the developing world's poor with remote medical professionals. He’s transforming the efficacy of decentralized rural public health by reinventing the role of community health workers. Medic Mobile supports a wide range of programs – from infectious disease surveillance in rural Malawi to emergency response after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti – in 15 countries across East and West Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

He drives dramatic innovation and change with the humble feature phone. For his efforts, he was recently named by Forbes as one of the world’s 30 Top Social Entrepreneurs and selected as an Ashoka Fellow.

Join us for an engaging conversation with Josh Nesbitt. Learn more about his innovative work. And see how innovations from the developing world can inspire us in our developed world.

This event is hosted in partnership with Ashoka Twin Cities.