Shifting Power at the Skoll Forum - Day One

A shot from the morning pre-forum education plenary (courtesy of Make Good)

After the first official day of the Skoll World Forum, my main takeaway is that I'm excited to see the general conversation is proceeding as it must: asking the questions of how social entrepreneurship learns from the current economic crisis and contributes to a more just and sustainable global capitalism, and how to better understand the relationship of power between and among individuals and institutions that give shape to our social and economic systems.

The economic crisis is, of course, at the forefront of the conversation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a resigned optimism and silver-lining ethos among most of the people here. The two arguements that seem to be being advanced for the upside of this down turn are: first that the conversation about a more just, creative, and sustainable capitalism has moved from peripheral to central and second that in some ways, a dearth of resources makes us even more creative and focused on responding to real needs.

That said, I'm still interested in hearing more about what people thing it means to move conversation about the social, environmental, and financial health, sustainability and prosperity of our institutions and communities to the center of the economic conversation. I want to hear more about what people view as the role for government and where they see the proper place of mega corporations. With dozens of panels, there will hopefully be a lot more time for this.

It's also interesting to note that Dr. Paul Farmer's loyal admonishment of the field to recognize the dangers of its own orthodoxy and to sometimes understand its work in terms of access to human rights (as opposed to new markets for commodities and services) seems to have seeped in.

The theme for the event this year is "Shifting Power Dynamics." Some of this is about simply the changing structure of society, but it definitely seems as though there's also a conscious attempt to reject the temptation to have this event become simpy a social entrepreneurship booster club and instead facilitate the tough conversations that we all need to be successful.

Of course the people I've met so far have been phenomenal. Innovation incubation in Estonia and Canada, base of the pyramid venture capital, social enteprise food products and a global movement for peace, and innovative nonprofit consulting and venture philanthropy are some of the types of work represented in only one quick day of conversations.

The next few posts will have short interviews with a few of the folks here as well as some of the remarks from the opening session.