Renewed Vision at Social Enterprise Conference

Social Enterprise Newsletter, Spring 2003

When student organizers named this year's fourth annual Social Enterprise Conference "The Exchange," they had a vision in mind. "We wanted the day to serve as a catalyst for an exchange of ideas on the issues participants feel most passionate about," explains conference cochair Amanda Merryman (HBS '03).

The vision turned to reality in February as a record 550 participants and panelists-including students, practitioners, and academic leaders-met on the HBS campus to discuss and debate solutions to issues from diverse viewpoints.

The annual conference seeks to promote the perspective that today's leaders in social enterprise must be able to integrate the best of both public and private approaches to reform. Says conference cochair Katie Cunningham (HBS '03), "There are so many ways that people can play a role in addressing social change-as nonprofit leaders, board members, and volunteers, and through their corporate activities. We created a venue to address these broad interests, to bring more people into the fold."

Organized by 35 HBS and Kennedy School of Government students and presented by the HBS Social Enterprise Club and KSG, the conference created additional opportunities for exchange by adding a second keynote speaker and increasing the number of panel discussions from nine to twelve.

The featured speakers included William K. Reilly, president and CEO of Aqua International Partners, chairman of the World Wildlife Fund, and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator; and Eli Segal, founding CEO of AmeriCorps and the Welfare-to-Work Partnership. Both discussed their career paths, which spanned the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. The dozen panelists focused on issues such as performance management in nonprofits, technology in education, challenges in venture philanthropy, and corporate social investment.

Says Cunningham of her role in the conference, "As I was finding my own way to contribute to HBS and to the field of social enterprise, I found that there are lots of people who want to find ways to contribute." Adds Merryman, "It's fulfilling to hear participants who have been struggling with what they want to do say that 'The Exchange' inspired them and helped inform their decision-making."