I am currently making my way to the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto bright and early this morning, for the second day of the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise. It seems that this is the second day in the row that I get to see the sun rise, although today looks like it will be mainly overcast with light rain. At least it is not snowing… yet.

In any case, to recap from yesterday, the “Business Skills for Social Enterprise ” workshop I attended was interesting and well structured, with a good mix of workshop presentations on marketing strategies, environmental scanning and analysis, financial forecasts and budgets, grass-roots marketing, as well as measuring performance indicators for social enterprise ventures. What was great about these presentations was the fact that they were mostly delivered by students enrolled in the business program at George Brown College. Of course, these young presenters got some help from Mark Simpson, the lead presenter of the workshop and director of the newly launched Centre for Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation at GBC.

Though I was already familiar with most of the information at hand, it was good to get a refresher on marketing research techniques as well as engage in a discussion around what constitutes measurement performance indicators for non-profits, for-profits and the blended value social enterprise; even the very definition of social enterprise was discussed, as is reflective of the broader dialogue taking place in the social entrepreneurship sphere right now.

The Use of Social Media in the Workplace

There was also some discussion around the (organizational) use of social media tools such as twitter, facebook, blogging, etc. and the value they bring to fostering a sense of community with customers and stakeholders alike. Some people in the workshop asked if there were any social media policies that their organization could adopt, and yes, there are certainly some guidelines, or at the very least recommendations, that exist out there. I would recommend reading this: Creating a Social Media Policy for your Nonprofit, Social Media Usage Guidelines as well as Your social media strategy won’t save you for some important insight into the use of social media in the workplace.

A section of the workshop yesterday also focused on hands-on skills and organizational assessment to determine how ready one is to adopt a social enterprise model, and there was certainly lots of time for unmoderated open discussions. The open discussions, were in my opinion, the most valuable aspect of the day as this allowed people in the room to create personal connections while discussing their respective organizations/projects, as well as ideas for potential social enterprise ventures.

Children’s Mental Health

On a more personal level, I may have had a shift in mindset after meeting a rather remarkable person working in the field of children’s mental health. Catherine Dyer works with an organization called The New Mentality based in Toronto, and after speaking with her for an extensive period of time, I now realize that I may have been limited in scope when it comes to my understanding of young people having the power and opportunities like never before to affect positive change in the world. I now realize that I have only ever considered “young people” to be those who are able-bodied physically and mentally, AND fully capable, without ever giving a thought about young people who are facing mental or physical challenges, and yet, are still fully capable in affecting positive change in the world. Not because I do not care, far from it. Rather, it is perhaps as a result of the context through which I live my life and not being exposed to this reality. We’ll see where this chance encounter takes me.

End of Day One

Following the full-day workshop session at GBC, we headed to the Centre for Social Innovation for the evening ‘networking’ event, where we heard from a number of speakers, including Julie McDowell of ClearlySo, who will be participating as an ‘Angel’ later today in the Social Enterprise Angels – Social Investing in Action session. Four social enterprises will have the opportunity to pitch and compete for $40,000 of seed funding from angel investors in a format similar to the popular tv show Dragon’s Den, but with a social enterprise twist to it. Tonya Surman and Sonya Pouyat, members of the Social Enterprise Council of Canada, also discussed how far the social enterprise sector has come along in Canada these past few years. However, what is clear is that much work still needs to be done in order to create the enabling governance policy framework that would allow a culture of social enterprise and social innovation to thrive in Canada, a topic that Paul Martin touched on as well.

To round off last night, I headed over to Sprout Up Toronto to meet up with some friends, as well as meet with other like-minded entrepreneur-type individuals. Matthew Corrin, founder of Freshii, was the keynote speaker at the event, and the quote of the night that really stuck with me is: “You have to create a killer culture, not a culture that kills your business“. Wise words.

Overall, Day 1 of the 3rd Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise went well, and I am looking forward to the Policy Forum for Day 2 & 3 of the conference, where we are looking to set a national agenda and policy framework for social enterprise and social finance in the country.

Posted via email from Renjie Butalid

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Former Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin speaking at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto as part of the 3rd Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise.

Paul Martin touched on the topic of creating an enabling environment for social entrepreneurs, and coming from a government/policy background, he urges the Canadian government to provide the same incentives to social entrepreneurs it provides to business entrepreneurs as a way to level the playing field. This will only happen if we choose to act on pushing for governance policy changes to create the proper legal and taxation structures in order for social enterprises to thrive in Canada. This can be achieved through public policy advocacy at the federal and provincial levels.

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Download now or preview on posterous

CCSE3_ENfin_100109.pdf (1870 KB)

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Business Models Beyond Profit, is a slide deck that has been making the rounds within a number of social enterprise circles lately, incorporating critical elements of social and environmental impact, on top of the necessary condition of generating revenue in order to be self-sustaining. In other words, the essence of social enterprise.

If you would like to understand the relationship between social entrepreneurship, social enterprise and social innovation and how they all seemingly relate to one another, I would encourage you to read my previous blog post on this topic.

I have found the Business Model Canvas to be an extremely useful tool when thinking about some of the projects and ideas that I am currently working on. Hopefully, you will find it useful as well, especially if you have found yourself hitting a brick wall when it comes to developing a business model(s) for your own ideas/startup ventures.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Credit goes to Alex Osterwalder and his team over at Business Model Generation for their work in putting this resource together.

Continuing the discussion on social enterprise, I am also looking forward to attending the 3rd Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise, set to take place in Toronto November 18-20, 2009.

As part of the conference, a policy forum will be held November 19-20  for social enterprise practitioners, funders, government, academics and others interested in shaping policy that will help stimulate the social enterprise sector in Canada. In preparation for the policy forum, the organizers have set up a wiki and have asked for input to help craft a National Policy Agenda for Social Enterprise, founded on six pillars:

This should be interesting, and Im looking forward to the discussions and the action items that emerge from the conference.

Posted via email from Renjie Butalid

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via canada30,ca

June 8-9, 2009 – Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Digital momentum over the long haul: that’s what Canada 3.0 is about. The event itself provides a once-a-year opportunity for Canadians in digital media to come together to discuss the key issues and make the plans required to propel Canada to a leadership position in global digital media. But Canada 3.0 is greater than an event – it’s a shared idea that requires the energy and passion of inventors, academia, entrepreneurs, industry, and government to become reality. The Canada 3.0 Community provides the repository for collecting and sharing the information, discussion, and outcomes of our collaborations.

Canada 3.0 is a join effort of UW’s Stratford Institute and the Canadian Digital Media Network. In 2008, we recognized that Canada has existing expertise in many areas digital media. Though the industry was (and is) dispersed, our national know-how could be harnessed to create greater momentum for all areas of digital media. Canada 3.0 was born to start the discussion. To create critical connections and networks. And to determine – as a group – how we can position our nation to advantage as we move from the 2.0 world of information sharing, collaboration, interoperability, and user-centred design to 3.0: the next stage of digital – whatever it may look like.

Learn more

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My girlfriend Monika and I got caught up in the snowstorm debacle that hit the morning of Monday, March 2, since most flights out of Boston on Sunday evening, March 1, including ours, were canceled due to the impending storm. We would have been stranded in Boston, if not for the fact that there was one last Greyhound bus leaving Boston for Buffalo that evening at 830pm. Thank goodness! Long story short, we spent close to 13 hours overnight on a bus from Boston to Buffalo that did not have adequate heating, suffice to say, we were freezing cold the entire journey; and another couple of hours on the drive from Buffalo International Airport, where my car was parked, over the border and into Canada.

The journey home was definitely quite the experience.

After I wrote up ‘Part 1′ of the Harvard SEC Recap and began to sketch the outline of ‘Part 2′, somewhere in this process, it seemed that it was more important for me to focus this post on some of my observations regarding how many of these ‘change-the-world’ type events are designed and executed, including the Harvard SEC 2009, and how there seemed to be a missed opportunity in really capitalizing on the creative talents, networks and energies of the people attending these events. i.e social capital.

Thus, ‘Part 2′  turned out to be less on the proceedings of the Harvard SEC, and more on how to make all of these ‘change-the-world’ type events more meaningful for everyone involved, including the participants as well as the speakers. The more I reflected and discussed my ideas, thoughts and observations with friends and colleagues, the more I realized that perhaps there needs to be a shift in mindset in how to really make use of the social capital in attendance at these events.

On a final note, I don’t pretend to have all the answers to some of the questions I posited below, but what I do hope is that I can spark some thinking and dialogue for those interested in social innovation and how change happens within society, as well as join the growing dialogues and conversations of the many people in the online community (yes, Im looking at you Ruby ) who are starting to realize that perhaps as a generation of young people, we are the change the we have been waiting for, and we can start in our own local communities.

The Harvard Social Enterprise Conference that took place at the beginning of March was certainly worthwhile and I am glad that I attended.

Looking over the speaker line-up as well as the outline of the agenda of the conference, you cannot help but be impressed by the work and the experience of the speakers and organizations taking part in the conference, as well as how far the social enterprise movement has come along in recent decades, as I alluded to in part 1.

Yet, at the end of the day, there was only so much that I was able to take in on a personal level following the conference.

Perhaps it had to do with the jam-packed schedule of an opening keynote in the morning, followed by two consecutive break-out sessions of eight different workshops to choose from for each session  (i.e 16 different workshops, all within a time frame of two and a half hours). An open lunch was scheduled soon after, and by open, I am assuming that the conference organizers were drawing inspiration from open space technology and were hoping that delegates would self-organize into groups and begin to discuss individual projects with one another, and find ways to collaborate.

However, the Pitch for Change competition took place at the same time as lunch, and it seemed that all the delegates went to watch the competition proceedings anyway, with their packed lunch in tow. The afternoon keynote panel, featuring one of my personal heroes Bill Drayton, came immediately following the ‘lunch’; meeting him in person was certainly one of the highlights of the Harvard SEC 2009. Another break-out session of eight different workshops came soon afterward, finally ending with the evening keynote to round off this one-day conference.

Whew, Im getting tired just writing a recap of the schedule. So this leads me to the question I have been thinking about and discussing with some of my friends for a while now:

Is there a better way to leverage the vast amount of social capital present at lectures, workshops and conferences around the topic of social change?

And by social capital, I mean the very people in attendance who are motivated by the notion that you can create a better world out there, people who are filled with ideas, passion and determination to make this a reality.

Don’t get me wrong, the conference organizers behind the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference did a great job and I would like to congratulate them for running a successful conference. The conference, after all, sold out and security was present throughout to ensure that only registered delegates were in attendance. Those that were not registered and tried to sneak into the conference, were asked to go home.

At the end of the day, there were over 900 people in attendance at the conference, and its safe to assume that the average age of everyone present was 25. Yet, given the tight schedule, if you were to ask me how many meaningful contacts and discussions I had with other like-minded individuals at the conference, I would say 2, maybe 3 people at most.

What I am trying to get at is that after having attended numerous lectures, workshops and conferences around the topic of social change this past year, in general, I find that the model of running these types of events are always the same: you have a speaker that talks for 30-45 minutes, followed by a question and answer period of maybe 15-30 minutes, and then everyone either moves on to the next session or goes home.

There certainly is interaction between the audience and the speakers during the Q&A period, and there is a lot of value to this standard model, but what about the interactions between audience members themselves?

In the latter case, the role of the speaker would be less of a ’speaker’ in the traditional sense, but instead, that of a ‘facilitator’, continuing to provide insight and learnings, but more importantly, helping the audience to build bridges with one another and perhaps, helping them to unpack the layers of complexity underlying the social issues they are trying to address.

After all, people are certainly inspired by role models, but are motivated by their peers.

Inspiration in this case, is akin to being moved by a call to action made by someone you respect and deeply admire, the definition of a role model; or perhaps even someone you randomly heard speak at a lecture, workshop or conference for instance. Motivation, on the other hand, is simply the sustained driving force that keeps you going, a support network of friends, peers and mentors who share similar values and passions as you.

If the goal is to build bridges and foster a real sense of community among people who are looking to have a social impact and create change in the world, perhaps a more practical question should be:

Is there a way to map out who will be attending an event prior to it taking place, as well as a platform to continue these conversations long after the event in question has passed?

In other words, can these ‘change the world’ type events be designed in such a way that before an event takes place,

1. You already know who will be in attendance – the best example of putting this into practice that I have come across is PodCamp Toronto and how they set up their registration page, allowing the participants themselves to put up as much (or as little) information as they want (in case you’re interested, I am registrant 212)
2. With this advanced knowledge and if you take a proactive approach, you now have the opportunity to make the connection beforehand, to begin conversations and share ideas via blogs/email/Twitter
3. Once you do meet in person at the event, the connection made is more meaningful given the online connections that were established beforehand, and there is a lot more motivation to stay connected online in the future.
4. The event itself should provide the space and opportunity for people to engage in open dialogues, building on the open space technology framework that I mentioned earlier, as well as the opportunity to hear from the speakers who are there in the dual speaker/facilitator role of sharing knowledge with and building knowledge among audience members.
   

These observations are based on the assumptions that ultimately, people do want to connect with like-minded individuals who share the same passion and values, and are working with organizations and on projects where the possibilities for collaboration are limitless.

Online Community vs. Local Community, not necessarily mutually exclusive

There is certainly no shortage of ‘online communities’ to join, including Twitter (which  I am currently in a love/hate relationship at the moment – will explain in a future post), the vast number of facebook groups and pages, blogging communities (I would recommend 20 Something Blogger) as well as social networks designed specifically for social entrepreneurs and social changemakers such as FutureShifters and Zoombala; but at the end of the day, where I feel I get the most energy and motivation from, are the people that I surround myself with everyday, my colleagues and friends that I see on a daily basis, as well as the organizations that I work with or volunteer for every now and then. In other words, the local community of people and social networks that live here in Waterloo Region.

Don’t get me wrong, it is certainly great to be able to connect with people from all over the world online through social media technology, in order to get ongoing feedback and support, as well as be directed to useful information which you otherwise would not have found or come across online by yourself. And over the years, I have met many great people this way, and suffice to say, I now call many of them my friends, even though we may have never met in person but do share a lot in common.

When all is said and done however, it certainly is a bonus if people that you are connecting with online, live and work in the same geographical area as you do.

Perhaps where all of these thoughts and observations are really coming from, is from something I read on Twitter around two weeks ago that really got me thinking:

On Twitter, there is a lot of chatter but not enough conversations.

(Im sorry, I forgot who said this so if the following looks familiar to you, please let me know and I will attribute it accordingly)

What I get out of the quote above, is that perhaps there are a lot of people who are online talking, blogging, tweeting, etc. about wanting to change the world on a grand scale – the chatter - but may not necessarily realize that they can have an impact right in their own local communities, by connecting with people and organizations that exist right in their own backyard – the conversations.

I could be totally way off mark with some of these observations, but I figured that it would be best to put it out there and see what other people have to say about this topic.

Thank you for reading.

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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Forbes.com recently named the Harvard SEC 2009 one of the big 12 conferences of 2009, the only student-run conference to make it on that list along with TED2009 and the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, to name a few.

Linda Rottenberg of Endeavor kicked off this year’s conference with an opening keynote that helped to paint the picture of where the movement of social enterprise has been, highlighting the people who helped to bring the movement to the mainstream, discussing the times we are living in now where innovative solutions to intractable social problems are needed more than ever, as well as the opportunities and threats that social entrepreneurs face when trying to deliver some of these innovative solutions – solutions that sometimes draw on (limited) resources, yet have the potential to impact hundreds of millions of lives in a positive way, most especially in the developing world.

To highlight some of the challenges that social entrepreneurs have faced in the past, Rottenberg told the story of sitting on a panel with Pamela Hartigan, Muhammad Yunus and Bill Drayton at the World Economic Forum in early 2000. Nowadays, each of these people are familiar names in the world of social enterprise and social change. However, back then, they were ‘unwelcome’ and were treated as ‘gate-crashers’ to the party, with no one showing any interest in their business solutions to development for the world’s poor.

But things have changed, and Rottenberg, weaving the story of the social entrepreneurship movement with Endeavor’s own story as an organization, posited three key developments that collectively, were the tipping point for the movement to enter into the mainstream. She calls this the ‘Great Man’ theory of social entrepreneurship.

1. In early 2006, Bono launched Product (RED) and in the process, he morphed from rock star to social entrepreneur. All of a sudden, social marketing and social entrepreneurship became cool.

   

2. In late 2006, Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Grameen Bank and the field of micro-credit. The movement now had a leader recognizable on the world stage.
3. And finally, in January 2008, Bill Gates used the Davos forum to launch his vision for creative capitalism, “where business and non-profits work together to create a market system that eases the world’s inequities”. Gates also used this opportunity to announce his decision to step down from Microsoft in order to devote himself full-time to global health, development and education through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Because of these developments, it seems to Rottenberg that we have moved beyond having to explain what social entrepreneurship is to the general public.

However, I still find myself having to explain what social entrepreneurship is, and this includes social innovation and systems thinking as well, whenever I explain to a friend what it is that I do as a profession. And even then, I find that there are still many, many different definitions of social enterprise out there used by people from markedly different perspectives and backgrounds.

One thing to note however, is that at the heart of the social enterprise movement, are people driven by the vision of a world that is better than the one that already exists – harnessing the full potential of human capital, if you will. It seems to be that social entrepreneurs are problem-solvers and not idealists; are driven by innovation and not charity; and do not believe in hand-outs but rather, use entrepreneurial strategies to achieve social change.

***

Download You can download and read the full text of Linda Rottenberg’s speech here.

Coming soon Harvard SEC 2009 – Part 2 – Recap of breakout panel discussions on micro-finance, building capital markets in the developing world, and social media that matters, as well as the 10th anniversary keynote panel.

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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How do you get good judgment? Experience.

How do you get experience? Bad judgment.

Either way, all I know is that this coming year presents an endless stream of possibilities once again. I am looking forward to having a bit of a break in the next couple of weeks. I know that as soon as I get back in the new year, work will begin to pile up.

***

To briefly recap from this past Monday, the Social Innovation & Community Change Forum held at CIGI saw over 100 community members from across Waterloo Region gather to share stories, research and strategies on how to tackle the challenges of rapid change that are sure to be part of our future.

Audio recordings from the forum will be available online shortly as well as proceedings in written and visual format.

From the evaluations forms, it seems that there is certainly a market for creating a space for people to gather and discuss ideas and collaborate on projects designed for lasting impact within the community.

We are currently working on a follow-up event(s). Watch this space for more details.

***

January 2009

Studio Earth takes place the second week of January, which means that as soon as I get back from the holidays, logistics and registering more students (and anyone else who would like to attend) will remain a top priority – that is, if we don’t sell out the event by the end of the month.

We’re currently working on a more interactive website for Studio Earth right now, we hope to launch it first week of January.

So far, things are looking good. Im really looking forward to hearing Severn Suzuki speak, as well as attending the workshops on social finance, social tech and policy advocacy.

February 2009

I plan on attending PodCamp Toronto in February (Feb 21-22, 2009 at the Rogers Communications Centre, Ryerson University, Toronto). This event is an “unconference” for all those interested in all things podcasting, blogging and new media.

The best part is that it is FREE to attend, but you have to register though.

Should be a great place to meet a lot of interesting people doing amazing things in the field of social media technology.

Anyone else plan on attending?

March 2009

And finally, Im planning a trip to Boston at the end of February/beginning of March, to visit some friends as well as to attend the upcoming Harvard Social Enterprise Conference 2009 hosted by the Harvard Business School and the JFK School of Government. It takes place on March 1, 2009.

There is no information on this year’s conference yet, but their registration page is up.

Jeff Henry and I with Stephen Lewis at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference 2008.

***

Yes, its looking like a great start to an amazing year already.

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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