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The hunt is on for inspiring social entrepreneurs
On the go: Participants write down their ideas during the Makers of More Summitâs interactive workshop in London
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On the go:: Participants write down their ideas during the Makers of More Summitâs interactive workshop in London. (JP/Stevie Emilia) (JP/Stevie Emilia)
On the go: Participants write down their ideas during the Makers of More Summit's interactive workshop in London. (JP/Stevie Emilia)
'How can we reach out to customers to increase the use of our natural products and in turn, achieve a greater impact to improve farmers' livelihoods?'
The question was raised by Nadya Fadila Saib of the Wangsa Jelita social enterprise from Indonesia during one of the interactive workshops organized during the Makers of More Summit held at the Oval Space, East London.
Her session, involving some 15 participants, aimed to collectively solve a specific challenge facing a social entrepreneur.
Armed with colorful stick-on notes and ballpoint pens, the participants voiced their ideas -- from simple ones like improving promotion, networking and customer services to out-of-the-box ideas, such as by involving top celebrities like Beyonce as the brand's ambassador, to holding a selfie campaign to lure new customers.
They then wrote their ideas down and placed them on black paper boards.
Within two hours, dozens of ideas had turned the boards colorful.
'The ideas are all good and doable,' Nadya said happily after the workshop, while carefully collecting the notes to bring back home with her.
More than 300 social entrepreneurs gathered at the event, which aimed to discuss and develop solutions to the world's most pressing social and environmental problems.
The summit's main spotlight featured talks from inspiring social entrepreneurs: Alexander McLean, the founder of the Africa Prisons Projects in Uganda, Pamela Chng of Bettr Barista in Singapore; Nadya of Wangsa Jelita in Indonesia, Ken Banks of kiwanja.net and FrontlineSMS in the UK, and Joan Webley of Nanook Enterprises in Jamaica.
The summit also marked the launch of the Arthur Guinness Projects (AGF) and the Ashoka Changemakers' Makers of More International Challenge for Social Entrepreneurs, which comes with prizes worth ¤50,000 (US$62,241).
The challenge marked another step in the two organizations' four-year partnership.
With its three-decade history, Ashoka is the largest network of social entrepreneurs, with nearly 3,000 fellows ' known as the changemakers ' in 70 countries.
The network puts their system-changing ideas into practice, providing start-up financing, professional support services and connections to a global network across the business and social sectors.
AGF, a global nonprofit initiative from Guinness, was launched in 2009 to celebrate innovation and creativity in communities by supporting social innovation. In its initial year, AGF awarded more than ¤4 million to support programs in the US, Ireland, Nigeria, Indonesia and Ghana.
Carol Montgomery of AGF said they were looking forward to supporting fantastic and inspiring ideas from social entrepreneurs.
'By supporting those who have passion and enthusiasm, with genuinely innovative ideas, we are continuing to play a role in helping to facilitate positive change in communities around the world,' she says.
AGF is helping to facilitate and inspire positive change with established projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe and the Caribbean, and partnerships in place with Ashoka, the British Council and Virgin Unite.
The four-year partnership between AGF and Ashoka has touched the lives of some 20 million people through the work of 30 dedicated social entrepreneurs in 12 countries.
Diana Wells, president of Ashoka, said the challenge was a unique opportunity for all community changemakers to apply for funding to help them launch or sustain their innovative ideas.
'Together with the Arthur Guinness Projects, we are taking another big leap toward realizing an 'Everyone a Changemaker' world,' she said.
In Indonesia, AGF and the British Council have collaborated since 2010 to undertake the annual Community Entrepreneurs Challenges (CEC).
The CEC provides capacity-building to representatives of more than 300 selected communities and identified 23 best practices of community enterprises from across Indonesia that have received total seed funding of up to £120,000, touching the lives of some 25,000 people.
Dendy Borman of AGF Indonesia said many of its champions had developed to become successful enterprises and in terms of quality, it is happy to see more involvement of social-enterprise actors, especially women.
This year, he said it would hold a social-entrepreneurship competition that would focus more on creative sectors in partnership with the British Council and the involvement of the Tourism Ministry.
He said social entrepreneurship in Indonesia was growing rapidly, with more institutions, both private and non-governmental organizations involved.
But the growth, he said, needed more involvement from the government to leverage the growth with adequate policies, especially in investment, financing and a broader network.
The newly launched Makers of More online challenge, he said, was an opportunity for Indonesian social enterprises to meet and compete.
Since the challenge was launched mid-October, at least three entries ' titled See the Traffic Project, Nano World Indonesia and Rumah Inspirasi Anak Muda (Youth Inspiration Home) ' have entered from Indonesia.
Dendy pointed out at least two problems ' insufficient Internet infrastructure, especially for those living in eastern Indonesia and inadequate mastery of English, key in writing the proposal ' as the main challenges to joining the competition.
'If Indonesian participants can work on those two issues, then the chance to win is wide open,' Dendy says.
' JP/Stevie Emilia
