The Social Entrepreneurship Summit was a great success!

The Social Entrepreneurship Summit was a great success!

With 250 people from a wide range of backgrounds and over 100 people on the waiting list (so sorry), I think that we have tapped into something powerful.

A recap for those who missed it! The Centre for Social Innovation, in partnership with MaRS, the Boston Consulting Group and the Toronto City Summit Alliance hosted the first Social Entrepreneurship Summit on Dec 3 and 4^t, 2007.

CSI opened the Summit with a Social Enterprise Think-In. Using open space and speed geeking, a group of 70 people from across the country explored 10 examples of social enterprise in action. This was a fast paced event that took people from model to model, hearing from people like Michel Labbe with Options for Homes (providing an innovative model for affordable housing) and Matt Wood, OAYEC, with his projects “Hire Prospects” and “Evidence” that are developing revenue streams out of their network of youth employment centres.

After hearing from 10 entrepreneurial projects, we then explored how we can create an enabling environment for social enterprise in Toronto. This was a feisty and interactive conversation that explored policy, technical assistance and other perspectives on what we need to do to support the emergence of social enterprises within the non profit sector in Ontario.

One of the most interesting things that we discovered in the Social Financing conversation is how critically important skills development and technical assistance is to spurring this movement. There was quite a bit of agreement that first, we needed to really focus on creating a culture of entrepreneurship, provide the support and skills development and then turn our heads to financing. Now, obviously, these work in tandem, but it was interesting to note that in Ontario at least, there were later stage financing options available but that there were virtually no early stage supports for social enterprise in the sector. This was certainly interesting…. But I digress.

After the Think-in, we headed over to MaRS for a delightful reception and an opportunity to reconnect with others and to discover a large number of new faces that see themselves as a part of this movement.

We got cracking on Tuesday morning with scoping presentations from David Pecaut, BCG and Michelle Giddens, Bridges in the UK. Both speakers painted a picture of both a long past and a possible future for social entrepreneurship. It was during these morning presentations that we began to get a sense of the breadth of the definition that we were working with. Definitions are hotly debated in this sector, but for the purposes of the summit, we were hoping to achieve a very broad and inclusive definition. Here is my definition:

Social entrepreneurship is a set of values and behaviours unleashed on the change that we want to see in the world.

Social entrepreneurs work to harness the power of the market to bring about the systems change that will make the world a better place.

Social entrepreneurship is as much about the process as the outcomes.

Again, I digress… in another blog I will share my presentation that provides an overview of how I see that we are all connected.

The highlight of the day was the morning panel. Here we had brought together a diverse and spectacular group of Canadian social entrepreneurs from all sectors to explore how they were scaling their organizations for impact. Bill Young of Social Capital Partners moderated Tzeporah Berman, Forest Ethics; Michel Labbe, Options for Homes; Tom Heinzman, Bull Group Power; and Scott Hughes of Van City. We heard a fantastic and honest exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of their models, the challenges that they face and how they were able to move forward in their work. This panel was insightful and delightful.

During lunch we heard from Rod Schwartz of the Catalyst Fund in the UK, who took us through a compelling journey of other examples of social enterprise from around the world. Very inspiring.

Finally, in the afternoon, Tim Brodhead of the McConnell Foundation chaired a panel around creating an enabling environment for social entrepreneurship in Canada. On this panel we had David LePage of Enterprising Non Profits speaking to policy; Tim Draimin of Tides Canada speaking to Social Financing; Ethel Cote of L’art du developmente speaking about technical assistance and yours truly speaking about building networks and community to support social entrepreneurship.

Naturally, I think that we spoke marvelously but it did feel like we were only touching the tip of the iceberg. It was clear that as we moved into table discussions that we were really only at the beginning of the conversation.

David Pecaut rounded out the agenda – pulling it all together and identifying some areas for future work.

So that provides an overview of the day, but here is what I think that we actually achieved:

There were so many new faces. This was the highlight for me. People from all walks of life saw themselves as social entrepreneurs. Yes, there were many more that should have been there – people that also need to be in the room – but wow! What a heck of a great breadth of people.

Everyone wants to be a part of it. Definitions aside, it is spectacular that so many people want to and are doing this work. This marks a huge shift in culture. This is a huge opportunity. Now we just have to figure out how to support them.

Shared language is developing. From Bay St to Queen St. charities to corporations, we are starting to speak the same language. Leaders from social purpose business could be caught complaining about the same things as non-profit social enterprise managers. This is so exciting. Finally, we are starting to speak the same language – or at least understand one another’s.

The Solution is the Answer. The Social Enterprise Spectrum map came up repeatedly in presentation after presentation. Why? Because we see ourselves as a part of the continuum of solutions. We are the people that are striving for alternatives, solutions, new products, new approaches. We are the people that are harnessing the power of the market to create solutions and bring about the change that we want to see in the world.

The process is the product. Out of the event, many people will be asking ‘what next’ and I am sure that there will be a what’s next, but in this case, the process is the product. The summit galvanized and connected a huge number of people working in this space. That, in and of itself, is the point. The rest will emerge as it should.

For me on a personal note, one of the highlights was to have the opportunity to work with such a stellar group of people. The speakers were all shining examples of dedication and commitment in this sector. The co-organizers were exceptional. To have the opportunity to build a relationship with the excellent people at MaRS, BCG and TCSA was truly an honour and a privilege. It is so delightful to feel that there are others who are as driven as we are at the Centre for Social Innovation to help to create the conditions for social entrepreneurship and social enterprise here in Toronto and Ontario. Yeah!!!

And kudos to Geoff Cape of Evergreen for being named Canada’s first Social Entrepreneur of the Year. Congratulations Geoff!