Renewal Network Upcoming Events

Media That Matters 2012

Marisa Whitlock — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:10:29 -0800

Start: Feb 10 2012 - 9:00am

End: Feb 11 2012 - 5:00pm

This year’s theme, "Change for Good," focuses on how independent social change filmmakers can execute integrated campaigns that are strategic, action-oriented and have enduring impact. The conference features sessions, speakers, screenings and more, and is a project of the Center for Social Media and Arts Engine.

For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org

The Heart of Sustainability: Deepening Our Commitment to a Sustainable World

Marisa Whitlock — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:04:03 -0800

Start: Feb 16 2012 - 6:30pm

End: Feb 16 2012 - 9:30pm

The Heart of Sustainability: Deepening Our Commitment to a Sustainable World - UBC Continuing Studies Course

This course can be applied to the UBC Award of Achievement in Sustainability Management.

What drives and sustains our own pursuit of sustainability? Personal values and commitment are important as we engage our families, friends and colleagues in the creation of sustainable organizations and communities. Search and reflect on the deeper values, principles and connections with nature and each other that inspire us to seek change. In a supportive environment, connect deeply with your motivations for creating a better world while empowering you to engage in meaningful conversations in your personal and professional life. Guest speakers, readings, case studies, experiential exercises and reflective practices provide the tools and techniques you can use to nourish and strengthen your ability to make a difference in your community and workplace.

Standard Fee: $345

Available Sessions

Feb 16-Mar 15

5 sessions

6:30-9:30pm

UBC Robson Square

RootsCamp 2012

Marisa Whitlock — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:26:41 -0800

Start: Feb 18 2012 - 9:00am

End: Feb 19 2012 - 4:00pm

Welcome to RootsCamp!

This year marks the 6th anniversary of Rootscamp “Unconference” where organizers set the agenda, share lessons learned and drive the conversation about best practices in organizing.

RootsCamp is an “open space” unconference driven by the people who attend to share, debrief and celebrate the tremendous work organizers did in 2011, regardless if we won or lost. It’s also the place to start preparing for the work ahead of us in 2012.

What is the Agenda?
There is no pre-set agenda. We create a schedule (below) and you come ready with ideas. There are plenty of rooms in the building to accommodate a lot of sessions.

Who do I present with? What’s the format?
You can conduct a session alone, or with others. Formats may may vary – presentations of case studies, discussions, Q&A’s, demos or skill-share sessions, or a mix. The format is up to you, but we urge you to facilitate a session that is participatory and includes as many people in the room as possible. We discourage panels and dry, text-leave PPT’s.

When and where do I post my awesome session?
Some people are proposing session ideas ahead of time, but the schedule will be created at the event itself on what we lovingly call “The Wall”.

Please arrive before 10am on Saturday so we’re all on the same page about how the weekend will work – and you can identify others whose work intersects with your own.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Saturday, February 18
9:00 am – Doors open, coffee and registration
10:00 am – Opening Session
11:15 am – Session Block 1
12:00 pm - LUNCH
1:00 pm – Session Block 2
2:00 pm - Session Block 3
3:00 pm - Session Block 4
4:00 pm – Session Block 5

Sunday, February 19
9:30 am – Doors open, coffee is served
10:30 am – Opening Session
11:00 am – Session Block 1
12:00 pm – Session Block 2, Career Fair Begins
12:45 pm – LUNCH
1:45 pm – Session Block 3
2:00 pm – Career Fair Ends
2:45 pm – Session Block 4
3:45 pm – MVO Awards and Closing Session

The Rules of RootsCamp
1st Rule: You DO talk/tweet/email about RootsCamp. (#roots12)
2nd Rule: You DO blog about RootsCamp.
3rd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
4th Rule: Only three word intros.
5th Rule: As many presentations at a time as space allows for.
6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists. (But do start thinking about your session now)
7th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
8th Rule: If this is your first time at RootsCamp, you HAVE to present.
(Ok, you don’t really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with or suggest a session you want to participate in discussing.)

(by Tantek Çelik as parodied from The Rules of Fight Club.)

To register, please visit: http://rootscamp.eventbrite.com/

A Conversation on Leadership and Creating a Sustainable Future

Marisa Whitlock — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:51:13 -0800

Start: Feb 21 2012 - 7:00pm

End: Feb 21 2012 - 9:30pm

Join three inspiring thought leaders in an evening dialogue about one of the great challenges—and opportunities—of our time: creating a sustainable future.

The UBC Sustainability Initiative (USI) and Synapse Strategies are pleased to bring together leaders from The University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, along with an internationally recognized authority in leadership, to explore the great potential for transformational change in the context of universities and regions in Canada and Sweden.

Göran Carstedt of Gothenburg, Sweden will deliver a keynote address: Creating a Sustainable Future – the leadership challenge of our time, sharing perspectives on leadership gained through his work as a senior executive of IKEA and Volvo; advisor to businesses worldwide, senior leader with the Clinton Climate Initiative C40 Cities, the Society for Organizational Learning and The Natural Step International; and the present Chair of the City of Gothenburg’s 2021 Green City Committee.

John Holmberg, Vice President of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and Sweden's first UNESCO Chair in Education for Sustainable Development will present Partnerships for a Sustainable Future - Chalmers University of Technology and the City of Gothenburg on the transformative initiatives underway at his university and in western Sweden.

John Robinson, Executive Director of the UBC Sustainability Initiative and co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore in 2007, will reflect on the Swedish perspectives and bring to the discussion his passion for the critical role universities can play as societal test-beds for sustainability and the steps UBC is taking to accelerate sustainability.

This exceptional evening includes an extended conversation with our guests and the audience and takes place in North America’s greenest building, the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus (cirs.ubc.ca).

Registration is required for this free event. Click here to register.

Wisdom 2.0 Conference

Marisa Whitlock — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:36:52 -0800

Start: Feb 23 2012 - 9:00am

End: Feb 26 2012 - 5:00pm

The Wisdom 2.0 Conference is a one-of-a-kind event in Silicon Valley that brings together people from a variety of disciplines, including technology leaders, Zen teachers, neuroscientists, and academics, to explore how we can live with deeper meaning and wisdom in our technology-rich age.

The conference addresses the great challenge of our age: to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world. More conferences like it are currently in development.

Tickets are limited, please visit: http://wisdom2conference.com/Register to register

Social Enterprise Conference

Marisa Whitlock — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:03:06 -0800

Start: Feb 25 2012 - 11:00am

End: Feb 26 2012 - 6:00pm

The Social Enterprise Conference is one of the world’s leading forums to engage in dialogue, debate, and expression around social enterprise. Over time, the Conference has become an arena to explore innovative ideas that challenge the status quo and inspire a call to action.

The Conference is entirely student-run, jointly hosted by students from the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The following are key reasons why we’re excited to organize the conference:

To showcase innovative ideas, trends, and people within social enterprise to encourage better solutions to the world’s most pressing social problems;
To expand participants’ understanding of various disciplines and models within social enterprise, with an emphasis on sharing knowledge and increasing collaboration among conference participants; and
To provide a forum for practitioners to receive feedback so that they continually evolve their models to solving global social problems.

Conference Theme

The 2012 Harvard Social Enterprise Conference is themed Innovation, Inclusion, & Impact. These three elements are the key ingredients of successful social enterprises.

Innovation is essential to social enterprise as a pioneering field. Across geographies, large-scale organizations have yet to address staggering economic and social inequalities in sectors such as health, education and urbanization. This inaction leaves fertile territory for social enterprises to conceive and test new cutting-edge solutions.

Inclusion is core to our definition of social enterprise. Ventures that expand the boundaries of economic markets to include otherwise marginalized populations – such as small African businesses without access to credit, or uninsured American patients without access to healthcare – will provide both an increased quality of life for stakeholders, and a sustainable route to overall economic growth.

Perhaps the most compelling dimension of any social enterprise, however, is Impact. Scale has been elusive to the lion’s share of social enterprises – there are only a handful of such initiatives that have managed to engage more than a million customers or producers to positive effect. Select microfinance institutions have expanded from scratch, as have certain agricultural sourcing initiatives. Still, most under-takings have struggled to grow while maintaining the integrity of their social mission.

SECON 2012 will encourage debate and action around these three fundamentals, infused throughout our panels, workshops and keynotes. Participants will gain the insights and tools to examine their own initiatives and agendas through these lenses. By focusing the dialogue at our conference, we believe we can drive a more potent and influential social enterprise sector as a burgeoning source of positive change.

To register, please visit: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2493953482?ref=eweb

TED 2012

Marisa Whitlock — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:34:59 -0800

Start: Feb 28 2012 - 9:00am

End: Mar 2 2012 - 5:00pm

From dazzling technology and leading-edge science to the richest veins of human creativity and interconnection, TED 2012 will display remarkable speakers, new uses of music, extravagant use of underused senses, intricate choreography between speaker and screen, new ways of involving the audience, breakthroughs in animation, intense, campfire-style storytelling and some “spectacular surprises.”

PROGRAM

Depending on the speaker and the topic, there could be: blizzards of images, new uses of music, extravagant use of under-used senses, intricate choreography between speaker and screen, new ways of involving the audience, breakthroughs in animation, and intense, campfire-style storytelling ... There will be a good number of talks and presentations shorter than our 18-minute trademark standard, more chances for audience participation, and some spectacular surprises.

TED's impact stems from a unique contract between speakers and audience -- the latter granting focused attention to what's happening on stage, and the speakers investing time, energy and passion to ensure that every moment of that attention is rewarded. It is this unique contract that allows us now to go Full Spectrum.

But the term covers more than just form and format. Content will span the full spectrum of knowledge TED stands for, from dazzling technology and leading-edge science to the richest veins of human creativity and interconnection.

Because amidst the quest to propel forward the art of live presentation, we won't forget the most important things that bring us all back every year: Inspiration. Wonder. Authenticity. A hunger to learn.

ubizo

Marisa Whitlock — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:39:37 -0800

Start: Feb 29 2012 - 9:30am

End: Feb 29 2012 - 4:30pm

ubizo (oo-bee-zoh), meaning “a calling” in Xhosa from South Africa, is an annual one-day business development think-tank designed for values-based small business owners and green & social entrepreneurs.

ubizo is a place to come together and work through your most challenging business problems, learn new strategies from high-level mentors & peers and generate invaluable & long-lasting business connections.

ubizo is designed to get you to think outside-of-the-box by creating innovative strategies and meeting people dedicated to helping you succeed so you can do more good in the world.

You should attend this super-charged day if you:
•    are passionate about your business and want to take it to the next level
•    love to connect with other mission driven entrepreneurs
•    need expert advice from the best mentors http://www.changemakerstoolbox.com/ubizo/mentor/
•    know that business success happens when you stay inspired and get out of your comfort zone

Do you want to be a case study? It is an incredible opportunity to get expert advice and profile your business.

Early bird tickets are on sale until December 15th.

Social Enterprise Dragons Event

Marisa Whitlock — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:28:32 -0800

Start: Mar 8 2012 - 5:00pm

End: Mar 8 2012 - 8:00pm

The Social Enterprise Dragons event is designed to assist social enterprises address a defined and critical business challenge or opportunity by awarding financial support or provide in-kind consulting services. The social enterprise might be in need of strengthening and improving their business operational systems, enhancing their marketing strategy and brand, exploring new products or services, or improving their financial reporting and analysis.

The event date is set for March 8, 2012, so put in your calendar! The actual event is an entertaining and informative evening that celebrates the role of social enterprise in our communities. Come witness the finalists make their "pitches" to the Social Enterprise Dragons and watch the judges' decisions to allocate the financial and consulting support!

More Details:

How you can submit a Letter of Interest to participate as a social enterprise
How you can have a spot in the social enterprise market place
Purchase your ticket online: http://www.gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1670&EID=10957

The last two years sold out, so be sure to get on our mailing list to get the details as they roll out. Contact Kim@enterprisingnonprofits.ca to be added.

Background
Social enterprises are businesses operated by non-profit organizations for the blended purpose of generating income through sales and providing a community service.

Social enterprises operate in the full range of businesses: retail, wholesale, manufacturing, business-to-business services like catering and janitorial, recycling, arts, etc. They meet important community needs including employment for youth-at-risk, employment for persons with disabilities, performing arts and galleries, environmental causes, home care services for seniors, etc.

As businesses operating in the market place social enterprises face the same issues that every business deals with: financing, production systems, customer service, marketing, human resources, etc.

SXSW

Marisa Whitlock — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:20:45 -0800

Start: Mar 9 2012 - 9:00am

End: Mar 18 2012 - 6:00pm

Our History

The first South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW) was held in 1987 in Austin, Texas. Despite the fact that Austin was not a Top 20 major market at the time, the background and character of the city made it a perfect location for the conference. Austin was considered a fairly cosmopolitan town for its size because of the University of Texas, which draws people from all over the world. As home to the state government and Texas Legislature it has also always been a popular party town, with a reputation that goes back to the 19th century when numerous nightspots and bars were populated by General Custer's troops after the Civil War. These nightspots are located in the same areas where the 6th Street and 4th Street club and bar scenes now exist.

Austin's eclectic music scene goes back to early in the city's history (from Mexican, German and colonial origins) and encompasses a wide variety of music including country, folk, jazz, blues and rock. Central Austin boasts more original music nightclubs in a concentrated area than any other city in the world.

The classic problem facing Austin musicians was being isolated from the rest of the world here in the middle of Texas. SXSW was a way to reach out to the rest of the world, and bring them here to do business. To do that successfully, SXSW needed to appeal to people other than local artists whether they were from Austin, Ft. Worth, Chicago, Toronto, Munich or Tokyo.

National interest in SXSW was immediate. For years, music businesses on both coasts had been intrigued by what was going on in Austin. The cosmic cowboy, blues, punk and other scenes had already proven that Austin was a receptive place for bands to be creative. With SXSW, music industry executives gained a good excuse to visit.

International interest in SXSW began the second year due to many Austin and American bands finding their first success in Europe. Conversely, there was a lot of interest from SXSW registrants in the international bands who came to perform. SXSW now has offices in Ireland, Germany, Australia and Japan who help bring SXSW registrants to Austin.

The music event has grown from 700 registrants in 1987 to over 16,000 registrants. As Austin has grown and diversified, film companies and high-tech companies have played a major role in the Austin and the Texas economies. In 1994, SXSW added a film and interactive component to accommodate these growth industries. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events together attract approximately 32,000 registrants to Austin every March.

SXSW's original goal was to create an event that would act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas. That continues to be the goal today whether it is music, film or the internet. And Austin continues to be the perfect location.

To register, please visit: http://sxsw.com/attend