Improving the World… One Weekend at a Time

What can be done to improve the world in a single weekend?  A whole lot more than you probably think.

The world is full of big, important problems.  Issues of sustainability, pollution, community, unemployment, etc.  The 50 attendees of #SocEnt Weekend: Next 50 spent last weekend with the goal of solving some of these problems, while learning about social enterprise and having fun doing it.

Friday night, the event was once again kicked off by Seattle Mayor, Mike McGinn.  And, once again, Mayor McGinn not only inspired the audience, but pitched out the first few ideas of the evening.  Afterwards, 35 other ideas were pitched to the crowd, resulting in 11 teams moving forward through Sunday to take those ideas and turn them into viable, validated business plans.

Sunday night, these 11 organizations presented live, on-stage, at the Playhouse/Intiman Theater at Seattle Center, in a public event as part of the Next 50 celebration of commerce and innovation.

While all participants at #SocEnt Weekend benefit from the experience, the event is run as a business plan contest, and the three winners were:

• Most Innovative: Neighbors on Purpose, training and supporting 3×3 block micro-neighborhood “listeners” to help strengthen local communities
• Most Impactful: Serve Smart, providing cultural competency training to Americans before they embark on overseas missions
• Best #SocEnt and People’s Prize: Brown Box, cleaning the Indian environment by turning human poo into renewable power

Other plans of the weekend include: Mission EDU 2015, Game It Forward, Tethered Towers, GhostTruck, Simply Good Shopping, Zakayo, Bjibe, and Made Right Here.

Video of the presentations will be available here in a few days.