Jeff Shinabarger
Founder, Plywood People
Creative Director, Catalyst
Atlanta, Georgia
Age: 31
The conference ideas—all shaped around community, good projects and sharing resources—seem to keep coming one after another from this young entrepreneur. This January, Jeff Shinabarger launched Suffered Enough Inc., a nonprofit organization advocating a cultural shift from “having unneeded desires to addressing issues of suffering and injustice throughout the world.” That’s in addition to Plywood People, which he founded in 2008, as a gathering of social innovators, whose slogan is, “We will be known by the problems we solve.” One-day conferences are billed as conversations for influencers, entrepreneurs, creatives and nonprofit executives, and there’s plenty of innovation on all levels, from giant sponsor posters with large QR codes promoting social action to collecting unused gift cards for people in need. In 2007, Shinabarger co-founded Q with Gabe Lyons to educate church and other leaders on their responsibility to restore cultures in new ways that “embody the Gospel in our post-Christian setting.” Events have been part of his life from a very young age; he often tagged along with his dad who was a pastor for John Maxwell. Shinabarger ran 23 events, including Catalyst, a conference for next generation leaders, before going out on his own. “I am passionate about Atlanta, our city and its needs,” he says. “I feel like we are making a difference. Right now, we are trying to create a model in Atlanta because it’s where we live, but we draw people from D.C., Nashville, Seattle and other cities.” —Christine Born
What inspires you about your job?
“I am constantly morphing what we do. The more I can get involved in with others, the more I can help them make it happen. When you see something broken and you find solutions—or you see beauty in the midst of it—that’s what inspires people to keep going. There’s hope; I feel a responsibility.”
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