The fifth annual Forum for Social Entrepreneurs hosted by the TIE Social Enterprise special interest group and the MIT Sloan Business Club was held at MIT on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011.  Titled “Make it happen – Idea to Enterprise” the one-day conference focused on providing social entrepreneurs information and connections to take their idea or enterprise to the next level.

Sally Susnowitz, director of the Public Service Center at MIT opened the conference with a short welcome address.   Una Ryan, CEO of Diagnostics for All presented the opening keynote address. She emphasized the need for not focusing on charity but rather using innovative technology and business models to build sustainable solutions that can address the needs of a broad spectrum of society. Brilliant innovations like the postage stamp sized easy tests for a variety of diseases that can be manufactured at very low cost are part of the portfolio of Diagnostics For All.

Three tracks focused on technology, global heath and urban mechanics featured social entrepreneurs who are impacting these spaces in a variety of ways From creating solutions for sanitation in slums to using social media tools to impact the social media space, a variety of topics were touched on in the different panels. The fourth track was the very popular how- to track that highlighted several local incubators for startups and funds that supported social innovators.  Social entrepreneurs had a chance to interact with funders to understand their requirements and needs.  Another panel focused on newly launched, student run,  social enterprises from a number of local universities including MIT, Harvard, Northeastern and UMASS Lowell.

The afternoon session opened with a keynote by Andrew Yang, the dynamic founder of Venture for America (VFA), an enterprise modeled along the Teach for America organization. VFA hires high potential college graduates and places them with start-ups around the country in an attempt to jump start entrepreneurship in America. “ Top graduates from schools like Harvard go into careers in Finance and Law. Very few become entrepreneurs. We hope that providing the right resources and connections VFA can encourage more students to become entrepreneurs ” said Yang.

Following the keynote a pitch contest for early stage social entrepreneurs was held.  Saathi. CareShare and Gyani won the first second and third place, respectively.  Judges, Raj Sharma, Subu Kota, Praveen Chaturvedi, Laura Sampath, Vikas Mehta and Ravi Angadi provided in depth feedback to all the finalists that was much valued. Subu Kota (The Boston Group ) and Davis Malm and D’Agostine P.C were the grand sponsors for the Pitch Contest. Geeta and Kamesh Iyer also provided support for the contest.

 The crowning glory for the day was the inspiring keynote by SELCO India Founder Harish Hande who had recently won the Magasaysay prize, known as the Asian Nobel Prize. “I have a fundamental disagreement with Dr. C.K. Prahalad who looked at the poor as customers – or product consumers. To me the poor are product creators who with the right support can contribute in a very positive way to the society. ”  He received a standing ovation at the end of his talk.

The Sloan Business Club, the Public Service Center at MIT and Lantham and Watkins LLP were conference sponsors.  Au Bon Pain, Equal Exchange and Prosperity Candle provided in kind contribution to the event.

The conference received rave reviews from attendees.  The hard work put in the by the MIT organizers Arun Saigal and Latif Alam from the Sloan Business Club, Kate Myty from Global Challenge, Laura Sampath from the International Development Initiative along with Anu Yadav , Ranjani Saigal, Vithal Deshpande and Raj Melville from the TIE-SE SIG and the logistical support provided by  Vanita Shastri , the executive director of TIE, clearly paid off as social  entrepreneurs felt they had gained something that would help them pursue their goals.

To learn more Tie Boston, please check out their website at http://boston.tie.org.

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