Giant, society-changing political movements need more than one perspective and approach to be successful. They need big, splashy displays and subtle, almost invisible actions. They need artists, organizers, marketers, software engineers, writers, unifiers, rabble-rousers. The Basic Income Create-a-thon, a production of the Universal Income Project over March 24–26 in San Francisco, was a weekend-long event that brought together all these voices and talents within the basic income movement, and provided a space for them to apply their talents toward furthering the cause.

“I came to this event because the basic income is the biggest idea we could possible work toward,” said Larry Cohen, founder of Build the Floor, which promotes the basic income in L.A. “UBI is the basic economic right to security, dignity and opportunity, and I can’t think of a better thing to spend my time on.”

The weekend’s projects featured the big and bold alongside the small and subtle. By big and bold, I refer not just to ideas, but also font size.

Filmmaker Ken Fisher (with camera), Larry Cohen (green shoes) and I (holding the boom mic) interviewed people in downtown San Francisco on how their lives would change if they had a basic income.

That’s a 9’x24’ banner hung outside of the highly trafficked Powell BART stop in downtown San Francisco. We interviewed passersby about how their lives would be different if they had a basic income. We spoke to homeless guys selling Street Spirit, art students, a man in a suit and tie on his way to work, and even someone who had committed a robbery in an attempt to feed his family.

That was just one project of many that started or continued this weekend. One group designed a cooperative board game that employs the basic income as a game device. Another project explored tracking sentiment on the basic income by demographics and region, and a fourth looked into what it would take to bring a UBI program to a U.S. city or county.

Some of the most exciting projects were already in motion prior to the Create-a-Thon and were able to recruit volunteers to advance their work. Max Ghenis recruited volunteers to work on the Basic Income Scorecard, a legislative scorecard that would rate legislation that provides grants and services to citizens on the bases of generosity, universality and unconditionality.

Group Income comes from a team, led by Greg Slepak, that has no interest in waiting for a government to enact a basic income. Instead, they are building a software platform through which people can form groups, each with their own constitution and parameters, and ensure that every member receives at least a minimum income of the group’s choosing. I love the idea of family members forming a group to make sure that everyone has basic needs covered. Another use case could be collectives of artists and freelancers, who receive income inconsistently.

We also saw strides in basic income media. One team created marketing assets for a documentary, Bootstraps, which will donate a basic income to a few people and follow their lives over the next year. The basic income podcast interviewed Create-a-thon participants, and did its first-ever video episode. Listen in to hear more about these projects on the latest episode.

“This event is think big, act small,” said Cohen. “Helping the Bootstrap UBI documentary get funding is a tangible thing. You can feel like you’re making an impact immediately. The spirit of this whole weekend is to find a project that is really meaningful and also find ways to connect and collaborate with other people.”

Giant, society-changing political movements need a powerful mix of coalitions and talents. They also need some carved out time and space for the movement to get to know itself and to work toward a better future. Finally, while maybe not a requirement, big ambitious movements should be fun, otherwise you’ll be tempted to stay home and watch Netflix. The Basic Income Create-a-thon was all of the above. If you’re in the Bay Area, check out the Universal Income Project — they put on great events and you’ll meet a lot of interesting people. If you’re not in the Bay, see if you can find your local basic income community, and if you can’t, think about starting one. Because, in addition to everything else, giant, society-changing movements need you.