Social Innovation Conference at The University of Toronto

The first pan-university gathering around social innovation at UofT conclusion report was published this week, here some facts and highlights:

What type of social are you:

SOCIAL INNOVATION An activity that profoundly changes social relations or interactions, deeply challenges or shifts our existing paradigms, and significantly changes resource flows within an existing social system (Demming, 2016)

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organisations, which are either set up as not-for-profits or companies. (The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship)

SOCIAL INTRAPRENEURSHIP People within a large corporation who take direct initiative for innovations that address social or environmental challenges while also creating commercial value for the company. (Forbes)

Conference Goals

• Help students navigate the social innovation landscape at UofT and outside in the world 
• Creating awareness of what individuals and organizations are doing within the field
• Provide a platform at UofT for collaboration and exchange
• Strengthen commitment for social innovation and entrepreneurship

Feedback:

• It was my first exposure to a conference on the concept of social innovation and I was blown away by the encouragement, access to resources and motivation I felt!
• Excellent forum for like-minded individuals to connect, learn from each other, inspire and share ideas. An accessible conference open to all kinds of audiences
  
• It was very enlightening and gives you that little push of confidence you need to start the projects you've always wanted to.
  
• It's one of those rare opportunities to have cross-discipline exchange of ideas and new findings and perspective on social innovation.
  
• Very informative session and great crowd! Learned a lot from just listening to the people's stories.
  
• Great interactive conference with a wide range of attendees. Generates fresh thinking.
  
• I think that information is powerful in a field that is constantly changing. I think that increasing exposure and connections are important.

Speakers at the conference:

Ilse Treurnicht, CEO MaRS Discovery District
Zahra Ebrahim, Co-lead Doblin/Deloitte
Josh Folkema, World Vision

Conference sponsored by: Hart House, University of Toronto Mississauga, Institute for Global Health Equity & Innovation, Dalla Lana School of Pubic Health, Student Life, School of Graduate Studies, New College , Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Conference facilitators: Alex Jadad, Andrew Do, Angela Chen, Hannah Girdler, Helen Kontozopoulos, Igor Samardzic, Jenifer Newcombe, Jon Bray, Julia Smeed, Liam O'Leary, Linzi Manicom, Lisa Lalande, Renee Devereaux, Richard McAloney, Shauna Brail, Ushnish Sengupta Conference team: Aditya Patel, Angela Chen, Cindy Ross Pedersen, Claudia McKoy, Cristina Goncalves, Donna Heslin, Edwin White Chacon, Hazem Danny Al Nakib, Igor Samardzic, Jesse Han, Jon Bray, Julia Smeed, Keita Demming, Lissette RosadoFerrari, Nikki Sigurdson, Paula Paunic, Quinn Underwood, Sam Dumcum, Yara Abuhudra, Zainab Abbasi

For more information see: 
www.theagencyuoft.ca
Contact: Keita Demming keita@theagencyuoft.ca, Cindy Ross Pedersen cindy@theagencyuoft.ca

Full report here: http://theagencyuoft.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TheAgency_Its-Time-to-be-Bold_Final_12072016.pdf