Fight Club and Flip Charts: A Social Entrepreneurs' (Un)conference

It is true to say that if you stick around in the social entrepreneurship world for any length of time, you will go to your fair share of conferences and events. Like me, therefore, you may find the words “final plenary” strikes fear into your heart; that you find yourself lost amidst a maze of exhibition stands; that you start giving other people someone else’s business card; that your eyes glaze at the 256th powerpoint slide; and that you wonder quite why you spent a day, and hard-earned cash, on getting away from the ever-growing to-do list back at work.

Three years ago, four organisations (Ashoka UK, The Hub, School for Social Entrepreneurs, UnLtd) that support social entrepreneurs in the UK sat down with similar thoughts, and agreed that conferences weren’t working for the people we were trying to help. Generally, they were too expensive, not practical or relevant, not at all interactive and, well, pretty boring.

The Shine Unconference was born, aiming to address all of those concerns: we cut the price, cut the powerpoints, cut the big plenary panels, allowed attendees to suggest and run sessions, scheduled lots of 1:1 sessions on relevant topics (investment, legal, marketing, impact measurement etc), and built networking into everything. And all based around the principle that ‘the talent and wisdom is in the room’. Other events like the excellent Oxford Jam (aka “the Skoll World Forum fringe”) have recently been run along similar lines.

Last weekend was the 3rd Shine and the most successful yet. 300+ social entrepreneurs at all stages of growth; 1:1 sessions with experts in marketing, investors, consultants, pitching, measurement and more; social investment speed dating; flip chart business plans; free videos made on the spot; workshops on everything from ‘how to clone myself’ to ‘diversifying income streams’. All in an amazing venue with a huge variety of spaces and places to work, chat and connect; the type of place where you walk round a corner to find six people sitting on cushions discussing what the election means for social entrepreneurs, then into a room where 30 people are filling out a storyboard of how their project makes change (see photos on Flickr or search the hashtag #shine_2010 to check out the tweets)

The highlight was undoubtedly ‘Fink Club’, though. In a boxing ring, in the middle of the venue, four social entrepreneurs defended a different point of view (their corner) about the movement. It was Fight Club meets poetry slam, with boxing gloves (kindly loaned by the great social enterprise Fight For Peace) and people from the crowd entering the ring to get involved…in the debate that is. There was the punch and counter-punch of ideas, traditional nicknames (Rod “The Brooklyn Bruiser” Schwartz sticks in the memory), a whole lot of laughs, and, as you can see in the picture, a worthy winner in Bradford’s own Saeeda Ahmed.

So what are the take-aways? Social entrepreneurs learn best from each other, and in relation to their actual work. Accessibility builds diversity and critical mass (and richer networks). Events can be entrepreneurial too: take risks and responsibility. Fun, like profit, is not a dirty word. Mixing formats and venues keeps it fresh. And the talent and wisdom really is in the room.

Oh, and no-one misses the powerpoints.

Photo credit: KWDesigns