The time has come to find out whether a career can be out of being a social entrepreneur! For those of you still unsure of what a social entrepreneur is Andrew Mawson sums it up very eloquently. Those individuals that are:
commited to applying business principles to social issues.
I’m really excited as tomorrow I will be voluntering for SOCAP09.
SoCap09 will bring together a unique mix of the world’s top social innovators, investors, donors, entrepreneurs, and thought-leaders, today’s leading catalysts of change from across the globe.
SOCAP09 appears to have attracted some of the biggest players in the social entrepreneur and social enterprise space so my mission for this conference is to find out if we, the gen y and z’s, can make a career out of this type of business!
Personally I have been on the social entrepreneur path for a bit over 12 months and loving every moment. Every morning I wake up to work with some of the brightest, passionate and enthusiastic people I know, enter DayEight. I’ve also found that when I talk to other young people about what I do they can’t help but want to get involved in some way. However, living in the social enterprise world does have it’s limitations and I’m sure many in my position can vouch for this: NO MONEY! The simple reason being, private investors can make investments with higher returns and governments don’t want to invest in businesses that appear to be making profits! So how can I do this for the rest of my life?!
To give you an idea…just to get to SOCAP09 I’ve been lucky enough to get a FREE plane ticket, FREE accomodation in SF and a volunteer position (photographer) at SOCAP09 so I could afford the ticket. Yet the YOUNG people should make up the majority of the crowd at SOCAP09 as they’re going to be the generations where the investments need to be made. The Gen Y and Z’s are the ones who need to be trained up and mentored on how approach those with the capital, baby boomers!
So for now…I’m going to listen and learn what it’s going to take before the private and government sectors start investing in the future of social entrepreneurship. Stay tuned for some great pictures!
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I really like the point you made about Gen Y&Z’s being largely absent from the event; this is the demographic that needs to participate in the dialogue and outcomes if there is to be any sustainable movement in social enterprise!
Boomers can sew the seeds, but this generation needs to understand and the beginning of their careers that technically any business can be a social enterprise, and it’s really not a big leap to make.