Last Wednesday, we hosted the first-ever Ignite Waterloo at the Waterloo Regional Children’s Museum in downtown Kitchener. It was certainly a great night, and from the numerous tweets, photos and blog posts that emerged following the event, it seems to have gone over well with the community in attendance.
For those of you who missed it, we’ve put together a three-minute video (see above) that I hope captures the spirit of Ignite Waterloo.
A slide deck of all the Ignite Waterloo presentations can be found below.
I often come across the question “So, what do you do?” when I am at an event and meeting people for the first time, or catching up with old friends from high school or university.
More often than not, I find myself having to explain the work that I do from the very beginning. It usually begins with providing a basic overview of the terms social innovation and social entrepreneurship, both from the Social Innovation Generation perspective, complemented with the emerging definitions of the terms.
I have also heard the argument that there will come a point in time where the word ’social’ will no longer be needed in front of the word ‘entrepreneur’ to define ’social entrepreneur’, as the very definition of ‘entrepreneur’ in itself would have evolved to encompass the ideals and values of a social entrepreneur: an individual focused on social and environmental impact, while maintaining net positive financial returns as well. (Again, this is a very broad definition of social entrepreneurship).
Figure 4 explains on which scale the above-defined three concepts introduce innovation. Whereas social entrepreneurship focuses on an individual and social enterprise addresses organizations, social innovation strives to change the way a system operates. Consequently, social entrepreneurship and social enterprise operate within the larger framework of “wider trends of thought and practice” (Westall, 2007, p. 2). Therefore, Leadbeater (2007) suggests, the policy on social enterprise should be developed within the boundaries of a wider strategy on social innovation.
However, we still have a long way to go before the terms social innovation and social entrepreneurship, enters into mainstream vocabulary.
That being said, the following video is certainly a great primer if you are not too familiar with social innovation, or if the field of social change has recently piqued your interest.
Above is my colleague Lisa Torjman from SiG@MaRS, delivering a 5-minute talk on social innovation at Ignite Toronto a couple of months ago. This short video highlights what social innovators are interested in. From convergence and complexity theory, to social-ecological resilience and systems design, Lisa does a great job of condensing the complex elements surrounding social innovation, into the Ignite presentation format of only 20 presentation slides, with only 15 seconds allocated to each slide.
If you enjoyed Lisa’s presentation above, you will certainly enjoy the roster of exciting speakers and topics that we have lined up for Ignite Waterloo. The Ignite Waterloo presentation that I am personally looking forward to is Simon Clark’s Hacking the ‘hood – Simple ways to turn a neighborhood into a community.
Have you ever wanted to live in a really great neighborhood? One where everybody knows each other, where you can’t walk down the street without meeting fifteen people you know? You could move to such a place, but why not create it where you already live? Learn some simple tricks to turn your neighborhood into a community to cherish.
About Ignite Waterloo
Ignite Waterloo captures the best of Waterloo Region’s geek culture in a series of five-minute speed presentations on topics ranging from The Best Way to Buy a Car to Hacking Chocolate. Imagine that you’re on stage in front of an audience of hundreds of people, doing a five-minute presentation using a slide deck that auto-forwards every 15 seconds, whether you’re ready or not. What would you do? What would you say? Could you stand the pressure?
I am a 20-something young person keenly interested in learning how transformative social change happens, and passionate about building resilient communities. I also have a strong background in student and youth engagement, and I am convinced that young people have the power and opportunities like never before to affect positive change in the world.
