Tag Archives: Conference

ForSE 2009 Pitch Contest – Pitching SE: How Good Leaders Sell Smart Ideas

Posted on October 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

For the first time ForSE 2009: Forum for Social Entrepreneurs, will have a pitch contest for aspiring social entrepreneurs. If you have an idea with significant social impact, here is your chance to pitch it and to wow a panel of expert judges and win a prize. Send in a short summary of your idea to pitch@tie-se.org

Complete details on the contest are below.

Pitching SE: How Good Leaders Sell Smart Ideas

Cutting through the clutter to get the attention of foundations and other social investors is not easy. To win donor support, SE leaders must sell clear and compelling stories that differentiate them from other organizations.

Pitching SE is your opportunity to refine your pitch, focus your ideas and wow a panel of seasoned judges. A panel of experienced non-profit and social investors will evaluate your pitch, and provide feedback and constructive advice.

Eligibility

You don’t need a business plan – just a business idea with significant social impact.

Your idea can be for a non-profit or for-profit or any combination.

It needs to be early stage/less than a year old – operations started after September 1, 2008.

How to apply

Applicants should be a registered attendee for ForSE 2009.

Applicants should mail the following information to pitch@tie-se.org by 11.59 pm October 14, 2009.

Name of organization.
Names of team members.
School affiliation (if applicable).
A two page (1000 word) Executive Summary of the business idea.
Brief bios (1-2 para) of team members. This will not be counted towards the 2 pg limitation.

Selection process

Entries received will be evaluated by a team consisting of ForSE 2009 organization committee members and judged on the following criteria

Social Impact
Innovation
Feasibility of idea
Sustainable business model

The top FIVE entries will be notified by October 17^th and will be asked to present to the panel of judges at ForSE 2009 on October 23^rd at 3 pm. All other entries will be eligible for the Wild Card selection which will happen live during the Pitching SE session on the day of the conference. The panel of judges at the Pitching SE session will, at their discretion and time permitting, select up to two additional entries to pitch.

Final Pitching SE Session

The selected finalists will have two minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges and the conference audience. Following their presentations, the panel of judges will ask clarifying questions of the finalist. The judges will score the presenters on the following criteria:

Innovation
Potential Social Impact
Feasibility
Sustainability of model
Presentation clarity and persuasiveness

After the five finalists have completed their presentations, the judges, at their discretion, will select up to two additional Wild Card entries to pitch. Entrants need to be present to qualify. These Wild Card entries will also be evaluated on the same criteria and will be eligible for the awards. All the presentation scores will be tallied and a winner identified by the end of the Pitching SE Session.

Awards

The winning finalist will be eligible for a combination of monetary and in kind consulting award.

ForSE 2009: Forum for Social Entrepreneurs on Oct 23 at Babson College

Posted on October 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

Once again we are holding our annual conference on Social Entrepreneurship – ForSE 2009: Forum for Social Entrepreneurs on Friday October 23. This time we are working together with Babson College’s Net Impact Undergrad organization to host it at Olin Hall on Babson College’s lovely Wellesley campus.

We also have a number of interesting panels and speakers and, for the first time, a Pitch contest that will allow emerging social entrepreneurs to wow a panel of seasoned judges.

The forum brings together social innovators, leading business professionals, investors, donors, academics, and students to help share new technology and business ideas that have significant social impact.

If you are interested in meeting emerging social entrepreneurs, hearing of innovative ideas for social impact and supporting young innovators as they launch their concepts, this is the event to attend. If you are an aspiring social entrepreneur, this is your chance to pitch your idea at the pitch contest and to wow a panel of seasoned judges.

This years keynoters will include Pamela Hawley who was a co-founder of Volunteer Match, one of the earliest online volunteer matching sites, and who later founded and currently runs UniveralGiving.org, an online site that channels donations and volunteer hours to non-profits around the world; Leonard Schlesinger, President of Babson College, one of the leaders in entrepreneurship; Andre Porter, Executive Director of Massachusetts’ Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship; and Carol Cone, Founder and Chairperson of Cone LLC, an innovator in Cause Branding and CSR programs for corporations.

We have tried to keep ForSE very affordable for our attendees, many of whom are students or starting non-profits and social entrepreneurs. The registration fee for attendees is nominal ($20 for students /$35 for affiliates of BU and TIE /$/75 for all others) for a full day conference including meals. However these discounted fees will only be available only until October 19^th.

I urge you to sign up as soon as possible as the past two years we sold out days before the event and many were disappointed. We try to make the event as interactive and intimate as possible and keep total attendance capped to 250. If you are interested in attending I would encourage you to register soon. The fees will go up substantially after October 19th.

Click here for more info and to register.

TIECON Social Enterprise Track Provides New Perspective

Posted on June 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

For the first time TIECON EAST – TiE Boston’s annual conference on entrepreneurship and innovation – had a dedicated track on Social Enterprise. The three panels in the track – ‘Healthcare Innovation in a Global Village’, ‘IT & Communications for the Developing World’ and ‘Feeding 9 Billion people’ – were all well attended and engaged the attentive audience with the incisive discussions. Here are some excerpts from an article I wrote for Lokvani about the sessions. Continue reading →

Bill Drayton – Social Entrepreneurship’s Rock Star

Posted on March 4, 2009 | 1 comment

I was lucky to attend the HBS SE Conf 10^th Anniversary Keynote Panel. The panel consisted of Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka and granddaddy of social entrepreneurship, David Gergen, presidential advisor emeritus and ubiquitous political commentator, Jon Greenblatt, founder of Ethos water, and Clara Miller, CEO of Nonprofit fund. More on the panel in a later post.

The hall was packed. Over a thousand people filled the room, lined the wall and crowded the passageways. It was great to see the energy behind this. Continue reading →

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Posted in Conference, international development, non-profit, Philanthropy, Politics, Service, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainability, venture philanthropy

Tagged Bill Drayton, Boston, Conference, David Gergen, ecosystem, Harvard, Philanthropy, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, sustainability, Sustainable ventures

HBS SE Conference Keynote by Linda Rottenberg of Endeavor

Posted on March 4, 2009 | 5 comments

The opening keynote to the 10^th annual HBS Social Enterprise Conference was a truly inspirational presentation by Linda Rottenberg from Endeavor, Inc. Endeavor helps mentor and grow entrepreneurs in developing countries. It has screened over 18000 candidates and selected 400 entrepreneurs, who have generated over 86,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in revenue.

Linda traced the arc of social entrepreneurship as it accelerated over the past decade from an idea to formally becoming a key movement. Here are some of my notes from the session.

She pointed out that the long path was facilitated with three key developments.

When Bono became the symbol for AIDS in Africa with his RED Campaign, he made social activism cool
When Prof Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace prize, he instantly became the visible leader from within the field.
When Bill Gates went beyond establishing his foundation and stepped down from Microsoft to focus exclusively on his philanthropic work and presented his vision of Creative Capitalism, he made social entrepreneurship mainstream.

It is clear that government cannot solve all social problems. Businesses on the other hand are not always there to fill in the gaps. This is where social entrepreneurs come in. Continue reading →

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Posted in Conference, international development, Micro-enterprises, non-profit, Philanthropy, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainability, venture philanthropy