A dozen or so experts on social innovation and sustainability gathered in Austin, TX, on Tuesday for the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, a yearly program that inspires social entrepreneurship all over the world. For the first time ever, there was a global audience watching along on a live stream and discussing it on Twitter. If you have a few hours free or are just looking for some informative background noise, the live stream links still have access to the entire discussion. But in case you don’t, we’ve decided to reenact it for you as we watched it online and got involved with Twitter. Enjoy.
@suzi_sosa begins #socinn Think Tank inviting others to help really define "Social Innovation" new.livestream.com/Dell/DSIC13 #DSIC13
— DellSocialInnovation (@DellSocialInnov) May 14, 2013
"The bravest person in the room is the first follower in #social #innovation," @jefenate @ideo.org #dsic13 twitter.com/ParkHowell/sta…
— Park Howell (@ParkHowell) May 14, 2013
@dianajue "We were encouraged to do something about it." essmart-global.com/news/blog/ #DSIC13
— Paige Bennett (@paigenomadgirl) May 14, 2013
Interesting point...RT @bradyhamed: @sethacohen33 "Touristpreneurs" #DSIC13
— Michele Glaze (@MicheleatDell) May 14, 2013
#dsic13 Social innovagtion doesn't have to be international. Maybe working in our own communities makes the most sense. Yes!
— Jana Schroeder (@JanaSchroeder) May 14, 2013
I like this ---"Perhaps it should be then "co-opetition"--@suzi_sosa #DSIC13
— Oné Musel-Gilley (@omgvisibly) May 14, 2013
@suzi_sosa: Can you teach Social Entrepreneurship? @dellsocialinnov#DSIC13
— tommy lynn (@tommylynn) May 14, 2013
@rtjohnson "Don't be locked up by the fear of failure." #DSIC13
— Sarah Covey (@SarahGCovey) May 14, 2013
Resilience in social/innovation Shackleton: An Entrepreneur of Survival HBS Working Knowledge hbswk.hbs.edu/item/3612.html #DSIC13
— Luis Peña (@Luis_P_O) May 14, 2013
The Twitter conversation made it all the way to Mexico and beyond. I even noticed some tweets in French. I never would have seen this article if someone a few thousand miles away hadn’t recommended it.
A huge "Mhhmm" rises from the crowd when a panelist says that one of the CORE competencies for social entrepreneurs is communication #DSIC13
— Khalil Fuller (@khalil_fuller) May 14, 2013
@rtjohnson "cross training" — find an expert to mentor you/someone more naive & mentor them/a peer w/the same passion — share ideas. #DSIC13
— Marisol Bustamante (@MarisolatDell) May 14, 2013
"Entrepreneurship is a way of being & the way u live your life" @suzi_sosa #dsic13 #delleir
— Ingrid Vanderveldt (@ontheroadwithiv) May 14, 2013
The closing thoughts were about the future of social innovation and what each panelist wishes to see. Marina Kim, co-founder and executive director of Ashoka U, had the most poignant and relevant thoughts. Her wish for “every university in the world to seize opportunities to set students up for social innovation success” rang true for everyone on the panel and all of us watching on our laptops.
Tonight, the winner of the Dell Social Innovation Challenge will be named and the competition will start anew. Until next year, reflect on how you can improve both your own ability to innovate and how you can help others to do the same.
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Published May 14, 2013 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT / 1am BST / 2am CEST