Latest CSI News
Previous News Items
- Shergold and Kernot in the Griffith Review
- New CSI joint appointment
- PWC Transparency awards
- Shergold on the politics of participation
- Kernot analyses government funding in economic crisis
- Kernot talks social value on ABC
- Liffman appointment
- ASF scholarships
- Managing the downturn survey
- Social Entrepreneurs unite at World Forum
- Peter Shergold interviewed in Singapore
- AusAID regional program for NGOs
- Kernot to attend World Forum
- International memberships
- Australia's Diplomatic Deficit
- Leading in hard times: the latest Knowledge Connect
- Proposed national compact for third sector
- Payroll giving: the idea for the times
- Chair advertised
- AGSM scholarship winner
By Cheryl Kernot
April 8, 2009
The Skoll World Forum 2009, lived up to its reputation as the "Davos for Social Entrepreneurs" with its truly global representation (800 delegates) and leading edge thinking. This year's theme was Shifting Power Dynamics: exploring how social entrepreneurs access, navigate and influence power dynamics in their approach to change.
The Forum at Oxford University continues to connect prominent and emerging social entrepreneurs from all parts of the globe with essential partners and learning from the social, academic, finance, corporate and policy sectors - all working to accelerate sustainable social benefit.
Thematic sessions offered insights into the forces driving significant shifts in power, from capital markets in crisis to technology innovation, to corporate engagement in the social sector. Evergreen Sessions offered topics of perennial and practical interest to social entrepreneurs worldwide: leadership, finance, replication and scale, impact assessment. And there were numerous opportunities to learn from Innovators in Action: the world's most senior and celebrated social entrepreneurs. Always a highlight for me!
Some of the best sessions I attended included: Pathways to Scale: From prototyping to system change; Who Matters? Impact, Power and Accountability; State Power and Social Innovation; Innovations in Social Finance. Many of the session podcasts can be heard on the Skoll Forum website where this year's Skoll awardees are also listed.
And the Forum models its values in the provision of fair trade lunch items, locally sourced glass bottled water, and recycled paper napkins - all procured from social purpose businesses.
This is the only conference I would willingly queue for each year.
As Social Enterprise magazine reported, forum founder Jeff Skoll said in his closing address that the financial crisis might make social enterprise mainstream. He drew a parallel to the work of Charles Darwin and the debate that raged for many years around his theory of evolution until an "exogenous shot" - the discovery of the double-helix DNA structure in 1953 - proved him right and propelled his work to the mainstream.
"Now we have a new revolutionary, exogenous shot that may well propel social enterprise into the mainstream," Skoll said. "The economic crisis could consolidate social entrepreneurship as the most compelling model for social change."