Last week I attended the Social Innovation Summit, held in the Silicon Valley. The organizers, Landmark Ventures, describe it best: “A global convening of black swans and wayward thinkers. Those who are playing at the nexus of technology, investment, philanthropy, international development, and business come together to investigate solutions and catalyze inspired partnerships that are disrupting history. If we are obsessed with anything, it is great people. We convene the world’s most potent leaders, thinkers, and practitioners with an unwavering bias towards action and a push towards scale. Let’s be clear about one thing, we are not your average conference. Where most bring together luminaries to explore the next big idea, we bring together those hungry not just to talk about the next big thing, but to build it.”
It truly was an amazing two days. This fast paced convening was out of the box. While a book could be written about the great content, I did capture some nuggets:
- “We want to make globalization personal.” Premal Shah, CEO, Kiva “Purpose puts humanity back into the workplace.”
- “30% US households don’t have broadband. Need to solve this digital divide issue.” Bret Perkins, VP External and Governmental Affairs, Comcast
- “How many drugs can be replaced by bioelectronics? Probably a lot” Dr. Kevin Tracey, President Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
- “Innovative philanthropy is not leaving talent on the table. Donors are partners! Kate Roberts, SVP, Corporate Partnerships, PSI
- “Change happens at the speed of trust.”
- “For real change to happen, the rules have to change and that means internalizing externalized costs,” Rick Ridgeway, VP, Environmental Affairs, Patagonia “Consumption is the real elephant in the room in terms of sustainability.”
- “I don’t want to accept the things I can’t change, I want to change the things I can’t accept” Stephen Ritz, Founder, Green Bronx Machine
- “Globally, women work two thirds of hours, but earn a small fraction of wages.” Anne Rohosy, President, Americas, Levi Strauss & Co.
- “Once you have the proof points, then you can move towards broad based support of Shared Value in the company.” Lalitha Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, FSG
- “Youth multitasking: 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content daily is consumed in 7.5 hours.” Brian Goodwyn, CEO, Discovery Education
- “The future of sustainable brands is really the future of brands.” Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP
I stepped out of the main session to participate in the Civic Accelerator Investor Café. This was a fast paced, and fun, “speed dating” approach to talking with the Fall 2014 Cohort. These innovative social entrepreneurs made the case for their companies, both for profit and nonprofit to a group of angel investors and coaches. I was a coach and was fascinated by the seven minute exchanges. Hello Tractor, a for profit that supports African farmers through an innovative “Uber style” tractor co-sharing platform was my top pick. STE(A)M Truck and Library for All were great new nonprofits.
https://www.socinnovation.com/ehome/93458
http://www.pointsoflight.org/civic-incubator/civic-accelerator