Friday, October 1, 2010

Social Innovation and the Nonprofit Sector

Last week, Bob Wright and I had a chance to present at the Texas Nonprofit Summit LINK in Austin, Texas. Our Texas Social Innovation collaborators One Star Foundation co-hosted the event with Greenlights Austin. The theme of the event was “Igniting a Nonprofit Revolution” and the keynote and presentations inspired just that. The energy was palpable as nonprofit leaders showed up to do things differently…to innovate.

Bob and I had two tracks, and in typical yin-yang fashion, each of us took the lead on the presentation style and agenda. I think the highlight of our time was meeting all the super cool nonprofit leaders who want to lead the charge on this revolution and explore new ideas. Plus, we got in trouble for having such a rowdy session each time. A success in both of our minds!

Highlights of our 90 minute sessions included:

Speed Networking - as refined through our informal network @SparkClub
Best thing about Speed Networking is how it (1) provides a structure for those who do not feel comfortable flitting about an event networking; and (2) forces unlikely connections among the "jeans and the suits"

Social Media Discussion - How web-based tools cannot be ignored in the world of giving and action. Plus, they offer a way to stay connected after an awesome speed networking experience.
After a quick review of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, we showed a cool social media “Conversation Prism” that shows myriad of tools and networks available.

Finally we shared how Dallas Social Venture Partners is working to help spark a social innovation ecosytem in North Texas through our efforts with the Texas Social Innovation Initiative and bigBANG! See the presentation.

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