As we mentioned, September has been a busy and exciting month for us at Beyond Profit! On the immediate horizon, as in tomorrow, is Leadership for a Better World, and we couldn’t be more pleased to participate. Make sure to find Zara Khan (zarakhan10 (at) gmail (dot) com), our newest team member and our Washington DC representative, at the venue. She’ll be blogging, tweeting, and generally adding to the conversation.
Leadership for a Better World has been organized around the idea of bringing together a cross-sector audience (business, nonprofit, policy, and academia) for a series of discussions on how to create, lead, and sustain organizations for social impact. The one-day forum is organized by the Center for Social Value Creation and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. The conference also marks the official launch of the Smith School’s Center for Social Value Creation, which has the mission of developing leaders with a deep sense of individual responsibility and the knowledge to use business as a vehicle for social change.
The ultimate driver of the forum is collaboration: attendees, regardless of the type of organization they work for, will leave with ideas on working with each other across boundaries to create solutions for the social and environmental issues facing us. A diverse, cross-sector audience of business leaders, academics, nonprofit executives and policy makers will be attending to join in the discussion, share new perspectives and broaden their networks. As such, the lineup of speakers–and the attendee list–is a great blend of sectors, ideas, and approaches. Some of the topics being covered include:
- The struggles and rewards of running a mission-based for-profit business and the value of an authentic brand
- The role of public-private partnerships in addressing environmental and health issues that span national borders
- Institutions and policies needed to mitigate climate change
- Strategies for scaling social enterprise
- How technology and innovation are accelerating and shaping the landscape of corporate engagement in social impact
- Unique takes on social innovation and social entrepreneurship
As is evident, the content spans a number of broad topics and will allow for some in-depth discussions. Several of the panels and breakouts will be interactive, giving attendees plenty of time to network with each other and with the speakers. The full agenda (including the lineup of speakers and their affiliations) is online
Make sure not to miss Leadership for a Better World on Twitter – @CreatingValue. There will be a live stream of conference updates, so make sure to follow along at @CreatingValue or with the hashtag #betterworld09. You can also follow us on Twitter at @BeyondProfit — we’ll be using #betterworld09
