Conferences

Three leading lights of sustainable local economies, Majora Carter, Charles Turner, and Michael Shuman will be speaking at the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures on October 27, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It's great to see that the Local Economy movement, of which the E.F. Shumacher Society has long been a supporter and think-tank, is making a strong connection with the greening social enterprise movement.

Majora, interviewed here on SERadio, Executive Director at Sustainable South Bronx, is one of the leaders in the "Green the Ghetto" movement that brings social enterprise into the green tech/clean tech wave of new industries. Carter also co-hosts Sundance Channel's "The Green," television's first regularly scheduled programming dedicated to the environment.

Michael Shuman, also interviewed for the SEReporter is a noted economist, attorney, author, entrepreneur, and vice president for Enterprise Development for the Training and Development Corporation. He is the author of "The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition" and "Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age."

Charles Turner is a Boston City Councilor and a leader at the Industrial Cooperative Association (now the ICA Group).

Tickets are 20 BerkShares or 20 dollars and 15 BerkShares/15 dollars for members/students/seniors. Register online at www.smallisbeautiful.org, by calling 413.528.1737.

David Korten, author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, delivered the opening address this morning at the Annual Conference of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. David provided the big picture, calling on the audience to define a new economy by building local supply chains, increasing local self-reliance and restoring a sense of place.

David challenged the performance of publicly-owned limited-liability corporations, whose charter is granted to serve the public purpose, not the economic purposes of a wealthy few. At a time of growing gaps in economic equality, with 50% of the world population owning 1% of the resources and 2% owning 51%, sustainability and equity are closely linked. David urged us to help move from a suicide to a partnership economy that nurtures healthy communities, with mutual caring as its primary currency, that reallocates resources, invests in social and environmental capital, ends poverty and heals the environment.

Judy Wicks, BALLE cofounder and owner of The White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia spoke about changing the measure of a successful economy from one based on hoarding to one based on sharing and caring, from spreading sustainable business models, not just your brand. Judy has been very active in building the local BALLE network and promoting a local food supply system and food security in the Philly region.

BALLE's "Local First" message has struck a chord with small businesses across the U.S., and has tripled in size in the last year, growing to 52 local networks with 15,000 business members. Local BALLE networks do reach out to nonprofits, primarily as community partners, rather than members.

One of the few nonprofit panelists, speaking on Oakland's Urban Green Revolution, was Ian Kim who works on the Reclaim the Future green job corps project at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. I will soon be posting the audio from this panel as a separate blog entry.

The local first message has always been a strong component of most community-based nonprofits and it seems that small businesses are now teaming up in large numbers to communicate their value to local stakeholders. Another sign of nonprofits and for-profits coming closer together in creating community-based enterprises.

Techsoup/CompuMentor's recent Netsquared conference used a venture capital format, with 21 entrepreneurs, nominated by popular vote, pitching their ventures to attendees at the two-day event held at the ultra-high tech Cisco Systems campus in San Jose, CA. Attendees I spoke with said the focused format was a big improvement over the first conference.

Each entrepreneur gave a short pitch on Economic Sustainability, Social Impact and Tech Innovation followed by a Q&A feedback session. You can read feedback session transcripts and listen to the venture pitches on the Netsquared conference site and blog.

The Economic Sustainability feedback session that I attended highlighted the problems and opportunities of earning income or generating revenue on the web. It's as much about the culture and vision as about fees or donations--charging fees on Freecycle.org?! While it's clear that sites like Freecycle and Miro with high web traffic are highly valued by their users, it struck me that few presented innovative or viable earned income strategies, with most relying on foundation support and the usual Google ads, subscriptions or consulting income.

What's an example of a successful social enterprise with significant earned income from innovative uses of the web? For a consumer or business to business model, take a look at Network for Good. They exemplify successful web-based social enterprises: starting with a blue-chip list of high-tech founding partners, including AOL, Cisco and Yahoo!, with significant philanthropic support (RSF, Case Foundation, Surdna, among others), as well as corporate partners like Google and Microsoft.

Or look at the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Agency Information Management System, another Netsquared innovator, for a great example of how a national nonprofit can use web-based technology to help its chapters get to scale. It was not quite as sexy as the top vote getters, but it had a strong economic sustainability component tied to a clear social impact.

I attended the Nonprofit Centers Network conference session last week on Ownership and Governance presented by Jonathan Spack of Third Sector New England in Boston, Mass.; Bob Weiss of The Meadows Foundation in Dallas, Tex.; Dmitri Belser of the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, Calif.; and Steve Oliver, with Oliver and Company in Richmond, Calif.

I was very impressed with the Meadows Foundation's work in restoring the 22-acre Wilson Historic District of Dallas where they provide rent-free space to 25 nonprofit agencies. They've spent millions of dollars to create a safe psychological place for neighborhood volunteers, and now have one of the lowest crime rates in the city. Their success, including the development of the Central Square park, has attracted visitors from around the city and real estate investors who are developing the area abutting the district.

This is just one example of how nonprofit multi-tenant centers are preserving neighborhoods and bringing new visibility and credibility to the nonprofit sector. I'll be posting articles to the SEReporter and hopefully some audio of the conference to the SEblog soon.

The Larta Institute is hosting the 13th Annual Venture Forum today and tomorrow in San Francisco. Described as the largest event of its kind in the world, the Forum was an interesting opportunity to see how an independent nonprofit is "uncovering the fruits of innovation and serving it up."

The Forum, whose tagline is "Access the best innovation pipeline on the planet", included exhibits by a variety of IT, energy, biotech, healthcare and media entrepreneurs looking for early-stage investing. Larta has developed a training and networking program for entrepreneurs, combined with a "translational competency" that helps investors understand the needs and opportunities of early-stage companies.

Larta started in 1993 as one of several State of California-legislated regional technology alliances devoted to developing innovative companies from federally-funded research. Larta has since morphed into an "incubator without walls" offering entrepreneurs commercialization assistance programs sponsored by clients including the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce.

I spoke with Jonathan Greenblatt, co-founder of Ethos Water, who was there to moderate a panel on social ventures with co-panelists from Globalgiving.com, Kiva.org. and Water Health International. Listen to my interview with Jonathan by clicking here.

The Gathering is wrapping up today and, in terms of attendance it's been the biggest yet with attendees from as far as East Asia and the UK. We've heard keynotes from Tony Deifell and Frances Hesselbein, and got to meet the incoming SEA CEO and President, Kris Prendergast. Common themes have echoed building trust, credibility and partnerships and there's a tangible sense that the movement has reached critical mass.

Kris spoke of her goals of offering a "tidal wave of solutions" for entrepreneurs who use market strategies to address social problems, to make social enterprise a more competitive and viable option and SEA the leading association for small to mature mission-based organizations. Kris will be establishing the SEA Headquarters in Washington D.C., in order to advance a public policy agenda, and will work to insure that non-profits and mission-based organizations are included in Federally-funded opportunities for small business. She'll also work to involve the DC foundation and investment community in social enterprise.

Kris shared a new phase in SEA's membership development and services--developing local member circles or chapters in order to provide a presence in the field and more support for local social entrepreneurs.

Lastly, Kris has outlined a strategy to increase educational opportunities, providing a virtual university and directory of social enterprise education and training.

I had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Hesselbein, Sally Reynolds of Social Firms UK, Robert Lang, Kevin Lynch and will be posting these interviews to the SEReporter web site soon.

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