A social entrepreneurship week in Barcelona
The Euromediterranean Youth Meeting 2013 took place last March (11th -15th) in Barcelona.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Family of the Government of Catalonia with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship as a social transformation tool, facilitate the networking between the Euromediterranean countries, boost creativity and innovation and empower the youth debate for a human and social development within the Euromediterranean region.
30 projects out of 120 were selected and the event gathered 30 young social entrepreneurs coming from different countries of the Euromediterranean region who had the chance to attend workshops on social innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship and to share their projects. The countries involved were: Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Tunis, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, France, Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Catalonia. Bridge For Good was one of the selected project.
The meeting was an important networking opportunity for all the young entrepreneurs involved in the social transformation projects and a chance to better understand the social entrepreneurship context in the different Euromediterranean countries.
Toni Reig, General Director for Youth of the Government of Catalonia, and the entrepreneurs Carlos González and BorjaVilaseca opened the inaugural conference with an inspiring discussion about the motivations behind the personal and professional development and the necessity of a new education framework.
During the week the young entrepreneurs attended several trainings on social transformation, innovation, creativity, social entrepreneurship and development followed by open discussions and transfer knowledge debates. The participants have different backgrounds like education, art, corporate social responsibility, international cooperation, development, etc. and this gave them the chance to link their different experiences to the challenges that most of the entrepreneurs have to face.
During the roundtable on Social Entrepreneurship the Euromed participants met several Spanish and international entrepreneurs. ASHOKA, Olivera.org, IES-Med, BarcelonaActua, Coop57 and Changellors, were the projects shared during the roundtable. The debate regarded the challenges related to social entrepreneurship, like the initial lack of resources, support and investments, but also the opportunities represented by this new way of thinking and working. During the discussion different point of views were given, based on the individual experiences of the entrepreneurs.
Presentation Bridge For Good project
Peter Matjasic, President of the European Youth Forum, closed the meeting with an interesting speech on the importance of giving voice to the youth movement across the European organizations.
As a conclusion of the Euromed meeting the 30 participants asked for more continuity of the activities organized by the public organizations and for a better collaboration between the entrepreneurs of the Euromediterranean region.
Sometimes cultural and political barriers represent a limit for a smooth collaboration between the Euromediterranean countries, but the new technologies and the social media can overcome such limitations and introduce a new way of collaboration and of working together.
Talking about new technologies an initiative that came out of the event regards the creation of a Euromed platform that will give visibility to the 30 projects shared during the event in Barcelona and to future ones. Aina Pujol (background: Art & Creativity) and Veronica Recanati (background: CSR and Sustainable Development) are working on the project and will launch the new platform soon. This tool will be a new instrument aimed to enhance the collaboration, participation and transparency across the Euromediterranean countries while enhancing social entrepreneurship and international cooperation. It is necessary to listen to the young entrepreneurs, support their projects and provide them with the right tools for sharing ideas and best practices. The new Euromed Platform could represent a first step toward the social change these entrepreneurs would like to make.
After a week of social innovation, entrepreneurship and cooperation, which are the conclusions?
It is quite clear Social entrepreneurship doesn’t still have a precise definition, according to wikipedia the description is “identifying or recognizing a social problem and using entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a social venture to achieve a desired social change”.
The main difference between the “traditional business” and the social entrepreneurship lays on the reasons why doing business: it is just for making money or for solving a social problem? And how to integrate sustainability and social transformation in the traditional way of doing business?
Maybe more than a definition social entrepreneurship could be the answer and the chance of changing some ineffective processes, could be the opportunity to overcome to the current crisis, could be the opportunity to create new way of business based on collaboration, co-working, co-creation, co-operation, it could be the way to integrate sustainability into the business processes and a new way of doing business in a more ethic and sustainable way.
Comments Off on A social entrepreneurship week in Barcelona /
11 Apr 2013
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Veronica Recanati
IMSD /
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