Every October, in the beautiful seaside village of Camden, Maine, at the height of the fall foliage season, there is a one-of-a-kind conference called Pop!Tech.

For the twelfth year, the Pop!Tech Conference will again convene a network of 600 remarkable thinkers, doers, leaders and global change agents in science, technology, social innovation, business, environmentalism, globalization, media, education, and many other fields for a four-day exploration of ideas shaping the future.

This year, we will pay particular attention to the 21st century dynamics between systems based on scarcity and those based on abundance, in areas ranging from digital social networks to environmentalism, from biology to business, from peacemaking to politics. We’ll chart the core scarcities that humanity will face in this century, and how a wealth of new innovations, new bottom-up approaches to collaboration, and new insights into collective wisdom might hold the key to addressing them.

As always, there will be incredible performances, jaw-dropping technology demonstrations, spirited discussions, formal debates and surprises throughout. We will leave Camden with an inspired sense of our challenges, our potential, and the dynamics of positive change. 

2008 registration

2008 overview

2008 speakers

Change the World.

Business-minded discipline.
Passion for social change.

We are pleased to announce the 2008 Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship will be held November 14 - 16, 2008.

This year’s event will focus on our three key themes of HEALTH LEADERSHIP, EDUCATION, and INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

The three-day conference is jointly hosted by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.  It will bring more than 150 practitioners and students together for a series of workshops, panel discussions, an exhibition, and more!

Our Opening Keynote Address will be presented by Marc Kielburger, CEO of Free the Children.  This event is open to the public, please see our registration page for details.  Our Gala Keynote Address will be Dr. Sue Horton, winner of the Copenhagen Consensus for her work with the global Micronutrient Initiative.

This year’s event will also feature a special one-day research component on the Saturday of the conference. Event participants are welcome to attend either the lectures and workshops of the annual conference, or the oral presentations and poster displays of the research component.

Please check back with us regularly for more information about the upcoming annual conference. If you are interested in attending, supporting or presenting at the conference, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Register as a delegate for the 2008 Annual Conference.

Register as an attendee at the Kielburger Opening Keynote Address.

Get involved in the Laurel Centre’s work.

The Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship exists to help address this problem, meeting the needs of those currently working towards change. Our focus is helping both current and potential social entrepreneurs to become more successful by helping them to unite professional business skills with their passion for social change. Our focus is on the connection and education of relevant areas in the various industries, while our conferences, lectures and other programming helps to educate the public on the need for, and opportunities available to, today’s social leaders.

We are a fully incorporated not-for-profit organization in Canada, and have enjoyed the support of a diverse number of organizations in helping us to meet our mandate.

The Fifth Annual Pace Pitch Contest will be held on Thursday evening, December 4th. The event will be held in the Schimmel Center, a 750-seat theatre on Pace’s main campus in downtown Manhattan (which is also home to James Lipton’s “Inside the Actors Studio”). Directions.

The Keynote Speaker will be Gurbaksh Chahal.
Gurbaksh, or “G”, started his first venture, ClickAgents, at the age of 16 and sold it two years later to ValueClick for $40 million. In 2004, he formed Blue Lithium, another Internet advertising network, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2007 for $300 million. His book, The Dream, will be released the week after the Pace Pitch Contest (we are hoping to get advanced copies for a book signing) and he will star on the new prime-time network show “Secret Millionaire” on Fox, which will premiere the night before the Pace Pitch Contest.

The Pace Pitch Contest is based on the Elevator Pitch concept, popular in the venture capital community. It is an extremely concise presentation of an entrepreneur's idea, business model, marketing strategy, competitive analysis, and financial plan, which is delivered to potential investors. The premise is that it could be made in a few minutes, should the entrepreneur spot a potential investor on an elevator and have the opportunity to pitch their idea during the brief ride.

At this year's Pace Pitch Contest, five finalists in the New Business Concept category and five finalists in the the Social Venture category will each have exactly three minutes to pitch their new venture idea to a distinguished panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience.

To Compete in the Social Venture or New Business Concept Category:
Those interested in entering the Pace Pitch Contest must complete a 350-400 word summary of their venture idea and a 150-200 word biography and submit both documents to bbachenheimer@pace.edu by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 21st, 2008.

Click for more information on how to enter.
Fifth Annual Pace Pitch Contest
December 4th, 2008
Schimmel Center, 1 Pace Plaza
New York, NY 10038

To enter, you must meet at least one of the following two criteria:

• Full or part-time student currently enrolled in any accredited college or university
• Recent college graduate (graduated within the past 5 years)

AND if you have already launched the venture, it must have been in business for less than 2 years and received less than $100,000 in funding.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
FROM SPIRITUAL VALUES TO EFFECTIVE ACTION
A weekend workshop at Esalen with
John Marks and Susan Collin Marks
November 28-30, 2008
Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

To Register, go to www.esalen.org


There is a growing longing in many of us to do something that will have an impact on the state of the world – to be a change agent. We envision infusing our spiritual values into the world’s political, economic, and social life, transforming existing systems to create a kind and dignified world for all. We want to be social entrepreneurs.

This workshop will offer the accumulated experience of Search for Common Ground (Search), which grew out of meetings at Esalen in the early 1980's into the world's largest nongovernmental organization working in conflict transformation.  Search now has over 350 staff working in 18 countries on four continents.  The keys to Search’s growth have been creativity and nimbleness, both reflected in the range of its work, which includes TV and radio soap operas in 11 countries reaching millions of people, a project to stop the use of child soldiers, multi-ethnic kindergartens in the Balkans, a Common Ground News Service in the Middle East, the use of sports and the arts to bridge enmities throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and consensus building among polarized communities in the United States.
 
Search founder and president John Marks and senior vice president Susan Collin Marks have both been awarded prestigious Skoll Fellowships for Social Entrepreneurship.

John and Susan will guide you in focusing and defining your own vision of social entrepreneurship.  They will present the Principles of Social Entrepreneurship and, drawing on their profound experience as social entrepreneurs, offer you individual coaching, as well as drawing on the wisdom of the group.  They will lead you through the many possibilities that arise when you commit to your inner vision of social change. You will leave inspired to follow the call of your heart!

Each year, Echoing Green awards 20 two-year fellowships to entrepreneurs creating new social change organizations. Fellows receive up to $90,000 in seed funding and technical support to turn their innovative ideas into sustainable organizations.

The 2009 Echoing Green Fellowship application is now open. Apply away! The application deadline is December 1, 2008. Fellows receive up to $90,000 and plenty of support to help them launch their bold idea. Interested? Here's what you can do:

• Watch the video
• Find out if you qualify
• Read our application tips
• Apply (of course)

Last year, we selected nineteen fellow organizations from a record pool of more than 1,450 applications from eighty-three countries around the world. Read about their breakthrough ideas for social change.

Since 1987, Echoing Green has provided seed funding and support to more than 450 social entrepreneurs with bold ideas for social change in order to launch groundbreaking organizations around the world.

Project 10¹⁰⁰(pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Why this project?

Here's how to join in.   1. Send us your idea by October 20th.
Simply fill out the submission form giving us the gist of your idea. You can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.

2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th.
We'll post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. Send me a reminder to vote.

3. We'll help bring these ideas to life.
Google is committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible. So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing.

Good luck, and may those who help the most win.

Submit your idea

Remember, the deadline is
October 20th, 2008

Guidelines
Our goal is to set as few rules as possible. However, we ask that you put your idea into one of the following categories and consider the evaluation criteria below.  FAQ

Categories:

• Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
• Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
• Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
• Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
• Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
• Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
• Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
• Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don't fit into any category at all.

Criteria:

• Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
• Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
• Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
• Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
• Longevity: How long will the idea's impact last?

Global Entrepreneurship Week representatives today announced that 75 countries have pledged their support and participation in the Week. This inaugural event, co-founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the United States and the United Kingdom’s Make Your Mark campaign, is expected to involve tens of millions of young people around the world.
 
The global event, Nov. 17-23, 2008, will encourage participants to pursue entrepreneurial thinking and opportunities through activities supported by entrepreneurs, government officials, non-profit leaders and educators.

“Entrepreneurship is fundamental to the advancement of any society,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. “Our hope is that Global Entrepreneurship Week will start a ripple effect that will be felt around the world. As young people are inspired to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things, they will create improvements in their local economies and, therefore, in the global economy.”
 
Organizations, ranging from large non-governmental to small community-based groups, are developing activities. The roster of participating countries and partner organizations continues to grow, including many countries with severe economic challenges, suggesting a worldwide understanding of the value of entrepreneurship.
 
“The list of developing nations who have elected to participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week is both astonishing and encouraging,“ said Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global Entrepreneurship Week. “We’re seeing strong determination in unstable economies to improve themselves even while facing daily struggles of poverty, disease, corruption and personal security.”
 
The Week is open to all those who are willing to embrace it. The activities planned, whether online or face-to-face, are limited only by the imaginations of the partners and participants. While global in scope, at its heart, Global Entrepreneurship Week is a local initiative that reflects the customs and entrepreneurial culture of each community.
 
Global Entrepreneurship Week will feature two signature activities. Unleash It! will be an online community that allows entrepreneurs to post challenges and links them to enterprising problem-solvers. Speednetwork the Globe will offer face-to-face networking sessions around the world that enable young people to sharpen their networking skills and talk with local entrepreneurs and leaders.
 
About Global Entrepreneurship Week
With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big, to turn their ideas into reality, and to make their mark. From Nov. 17-23, 2008, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Thousands of activities are being planned in more than 70 countries around the world. Global Entrepreneurship Week is: founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign; sponsored by NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young; and, supported by JA Worldwide, Endeavor, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, DECA, YPO-WPO, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Young Americas Business Trust, Lisbon Council, YES - European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs. To view a complete list of participating countries and organizations or to learn more, visit www.unleashingideas.org.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time: environmental sustainability, health, tolerance and human rights, institutional responsibility, economic and social equity, and peace and security. These issues are at the heart of the foundation’s vision of empowering people to create a peaceful, prosperous, sustainable world. Within these issues, we are particularly interested in applications from social entrepreneurs working in five critical sub-issue areas that threaten the survival of humanity – climate change, nuclear proliferation, global pandemics, conflict in the Middle East and water scarcity.

Skoll social entrepreneurs are innovators who have tested and proved their approach, are poised to replicate or scale up their work to create equilibrium change and engage others with a message that resonates with individuals whose resources are crucial to advancing these solutions. The Skoll Awards are designed for leaders who contribute value to a peer network committed to continuous learning. By telling their stories, they join in the foundation’s ongoing celebration of the power of social entrepreneurs.

The Skoll Awards provide later-stage, or mezzanine, funding, which is generally structured as a $1 million award paid out over three years, subject to payment limitations described below under Budget Guidance. In most cases, the grant is provided for core support to help organizations expand their programs and capacity to deliver long-term, sustainable equilibrium change. The Skoll Awards are not intended for new or early-stage programs or initiatives. Programs submitted for consideration should have a track record of no less than three years. In addition to core support, the Skoll Foundation supports the participation of Award recipients in the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

Deadline for Applying:
Applications are accepted and reviewed on a year-round basis, with successful applicants receiving initial funding installments shortly after decisions are made. Regular deadlines (listed below and updated regularly) assist us in managing the internal review process for these applications, a process that takes a minimum of six months to be completed. Awards will be presented publicly at a ceremony at the Skoll World Forum, which occurs at the end of every March in Oxford, England.

Please note the following application deadlines:

• November 4, 2008
• February 10, 2009

Click here to read the award guidelines, or download them in PDF format.


Eligibility Criteria
How to Apply
Eligibility Quiz
Online Application and Instructions

The Skoll Foundation’s mission is to advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs are proven leaders whose approaches and solutions to social problems are helping to better the lives and circumstances of countless underserved or disadvantaged individuals. By identifying the people and programs already bringing positive changes to communities throughout the world, the Skoll Foundation empowers them to extend their reach, deepen their impact and fundamentally improve society.

Each year, the Acumen Fund Fellows Program provides extraordinary young professionals with a unique opportunity to use their skills to effect real social change with our portfolio organizations in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, India and Pakistan, and to build lasting relationships with other like-minded individuals.

Who Becomes a Fellow?

Acumen Fund Fellows are drawn from a pool of talented individuals from all geographies, sectors, backgrounds, religions, and ages. Ideal fellows include those who have already decided on a career in venture philanthropy, those who are seeking a career at the highest levels in the corporate world but want to better understand and impact problems of global poverty, and budding social entrepreneurs who want to learn about managing organizations in the most demanding settings. Learn about previous fellows and their experiences here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Click here for detailed answers to frequently asked questions about the Fellows Program and about the selection process.

The Application Process

The application process takes place each fall for the Fellows class of the following year. Applications for the Class of 2009 have closed. Fellows applying for the Class of 2010 will begin the training program in New York in September 2009 and complete the program in September 2010.

The new online application for the Fellows Class of 2010 opens on September 1, 2008 and closes at noon on October 20, 2008.

Join us in identifying and supporting innovative ways young people are making positive change in their communites. Enter to receive feedback, find supporters, win prizes, and even secure up to US$1,000 in funding to advance your project. Open to all young individuals between 12-24.

• Submit your entries by October 15, 2008 6:00 pm EST (21:00 GMT)

• Read all 57 entries received from 21 countries
• Discuss this competition
  (98 discussion comments)
• Nominate your favorite innovation!
• View nominations

The “Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition” sponsored by Staples, Ashoka’s Changemakers and Youth Venture aims to identify and support innovative ways young people are making life easier for others.

For more information on entering, the online review, and voting please view the competition criteria and timeline below or contact us at staplesyv@changemakers.net

Eligibility Criteria

The competition is open to all young individuals between the ages of 12-24 and all previously awarded Youth Venture teams. We consider all entries – ideas OR projects – that meet the following criteria:

• Idea or project reflects the theme of the competition: “Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition.” The goal of the competition is to identify innovative solutions that young people are using to make life easier for others. Entries are accepted from young people in all countries.
• Ideas show strong potential for significant or meaningful impact. Projects show potential as well as demonstrated impact.
• Entry form is completed and submitted before the deadline.
• Entries are submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese or French.

Assessment Criteria

The winners of this Changemakers Collaborative Competition will be those entries that best meet the following criteria:

• Innovation: This is the knock-out test; the idea or project must introduce creative elements or methods to positively impact the community in order for judges to give it a high ranking. For example, the project might use a new approach to tackle a challenge, creative methods to raise awareness of a problem, or innovative strategies to raise funds or engage volunteers.
• Social Impact: It is important that the idea or project has or will have significant impact on the issues it addresses. Some innovations will have proven success at a small level (or are still at the very beginning), while others will have scaled to engage hundreds or thousands of people. Judges will take into consideration how you plan to grow, replicate, and reach big goals.
• Sustainability: For a project to be truly effective it must have a plan for how it will acquire financial and other bases of support for the long-term. In other words it has a good strategy for creating ongoing positive change in the community and engaging partners, as well as a sound plan for transitioning leadership and recruiting team members or volunteers.

Competition Deadlines, Procedures, and Rules

Online competition submissions are accepted until October 15th, 2008 at 6pm, U.S. Eastern Daylight Time. Any time before this deadline, competition participants can revise their entries based on questions and insights that they receive in the Changemakers discussion. Participation in the discussion enhances one's prospects in the competition and gives the community and the judges an opportunity to understand one's project more completely. Posting and discussion are encouraged because the exchange of ideas helps social entrepreneurs develop and improve methods to create positive change in the communities in which we live.

There are four main phases in the competition:

• Entry Stage, August 20th – October 15, 2008:Entries can be submitted until 6 pm Eastern US time on October 15th, 2008, and anyone can participate in an online idea review discussion with the entrants.
• Online Review and Judging, October 16 – October 29, 2008: Online review and discussion continues. Simultaneously, a panel of judges who are well-versed in the topic and a group of Ashoka’s Youth Venture staff select the competition finalists.
• Voting October 30th – November 11, 2008:The Changemakers community votes online to select the Global Grand Prize winner.
• Announcement of Winners – November 12, 2008: All winners and potential winners in all categories are announced or contacted.

Staples Prize - Trip to Boston, USA and/or $5,000 of products Judges will choose two entries from USA and two entries from France to be finalists for the Staples Prize. 


Global Prize - Trip to USA to attend the next Youth Venture Summit One entrant will receive a free trip to attend the next Youth Venture Summit in 2009 to present as well as network with other young changemakers. 


Seed Grants - Up to US$1,000 As many as 25 youth can receive seed grants of up to US$1,000 to implement creative ideas for change. 


Nike Awards - US$1,000 Nike wishes to recognize the best ideas or ventures that combine sports and social change. Tell us how your passion for sports can make the world a better place. Up to five ideas or projects will win a US$1,000 grant.


MTV International - Documentary Profile MTV International is teaming up with Ashoka's Youth Venture to support and recognize the best environmental projects. MTV and Youth Venture will select four or five best environmental projects from its joint campaign to feature in a documentary to air on MTV International channels globally. All environmental entries in this competition will be eligible for consideration. 

We'd love to invite you to attend "The Feast" on October 16th in NYC which will gather 150 of the world's leading creative mavericks, entrepreneurs, revolutionaries, radicals, and innovators together to inspire action to change the world.

Our mothers always told us "there's good in everything" so we've curated a series of inspiring, mind-expanding, and innovative talks that will showcase a look at social innovation from all angles. From design to business to science, our speakers will share a deep look at changing the DNA of their respective industries by harnessing the power of creativity to propel social change. Some confirmed speakers include Dale Jones of PlayPumps International and Tom Szaky of TerraCycle.

Being progressively minded, we felt you would value the experience and relationships to be garnered from this event and wanted to offer you the first of the few 130 seats available before we begin larger marketing efforts.

Whether you're a social entrepreneur or socially conscious at heart, "The Feast" will provide you with an excellent platform for inspiration, connection, and action. Our hope is to leave you high on possibilities with a new menu of connections to get it all done. We hope you will support us in bringing the best and brightest minds together to make the world a better place. For more information and tickets, visit http://www.thefeastconference.com

With the Call for Cases 2009 oikos and Ashoka (www.ashoka.org)  join forces to promote the creation of high quality teaching cases on Corporate Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship (sponsored by Ashoka). The competition welcomes entries from all parts of the world. Submitted case studies should be suitable for use in management education and should be related to managerial issues faced by organisations and individuals. Written short feedbacks are given to each case contributor.

Social entrepreneurship cases should illustrate entrepreneurial initiatives that use business principles to address social and environmental challenges.  Corporate sustainability cases should illustrate sustainability-related strategies and change processes in established medium and large organisations.

We have created a new track on Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Ashoka - we target MBAs and innovative faculty at management schools and are convinced that this competition might be interesting for the Social Edge community too. 

Deadline for submissions:

November 30, 2008 (case@dont-want-spam.oikosinternational.org)

Please find further information at http://www.oikos-international.org/projects/cwc.html

Now in its second year, Members Project is your chance to join a community that's passionate about making a positive change in the world. You can submit your own ideas for projects. Then  American Express members vote on which projects get $2.5 million in American Express® funding. The possibilities are endless. The decision is yours. Last year, the winning project received $2 million in funding from American Express. The project was to bring clean drinking water to millions of children across the developing world.

American Express is looking for projects that will make a difference. Think about what inspires you -- whether you want to make a difference in your neighborhood or across the globe. Submit a project in the following categories: Arts & Culture, Community Development, Education, Environment & Wildlife, and Health. The project should address a specific problem or issue, be achievable, innovative, and have a positive impact that touches the lives of people in a significant way.

Submit projects from July 22 - August 19, 2008. During this time, sign in at membersproject.com and click on the "Submit a Project" button in the upper right corner. Then, follow the simple submission steps. You will receive an e-mail if your project is approved. If your project is rejected, you can revise and resubmit it.

Then you can discuss the projects and campaign for your favorites. There are many ways to promote a project, and you can find several promotion ideas on membersproject.com. For instance, you can send an e-mail to friends, family, and colleagues. If you have a website, blog, or belong to another social network site, such as Facebook or MySpace, there are other options. Consider posting a widget that directs friends and family to membersproject.com to support your favorite project. For more information on spreading the word, click here.

Awards:

• $1,500,000 for the winning project
• $500,000 for the 2nd place project
• $300,000 for the 3rd place project
• $100,000 each for the two remaining finalist projects

09/09/08 Update:  Top 25 selected including:

Here are a few of the submitted projects that mention social entrepreneurship and agents of change: