The Global Shift to ‘Entrepreneuring’

“We may not all be entrepreneurs, but we can certainly all be ‘entrepreneuring’,” a social enterprise conference in Melbourne will be told by the international keynote speaker tonight.

Pamela Hartigan, the Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and the first managing director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship will deliver her keynote address ‘The Evolution of Social Enterprise’ at the RMIT Global Shift conference in Melbourne.

The event brings together thought leaders in social enterprise for a three day conference on how to create a movement and how to measure an impact.

Speakers will include Daniel Almagor from Small Giants ,the founder of Barefoot College, Bunker Roy and Dr Saamdu Chetri from the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan among others.

“We are moving away from a phase where everyone thinks he or she should be an entrepreneur,” Hartigan will say in her keynote address.

“And let’s celebrate that, for I truly think we should all go mad if everyone ran around setting up his or her own organisation to change the world.

“We are evolving to a more realistic appreciation of the role of the entrepreneur and the importance of a supportive team and ecosystem that allows their vision to flourish.”

Hartigan differentiated between the the noun ‘entrepreneur’ and the verb ‘entrepreneuring’.

“All of us, from wherever we are, can engage in “entrepreneuring” – whether you are in government, the commercial sector or charities,” she said.

“Social entrepreneurship is not a specialised field. Would Muhammad Yunus have envisaged the Grameen Bank if he had gotten a degree in social entrepreneurship rather than in economics? Would Bunker Roy have founded the Barefoot College if he had specialized in social entrepreneurship? The answer is – highly unlikely.

“We all have the capacity to be entrepreneuring – and it is in living up to that capacity that we will together create more sustainable livelihoods and communities.”

Global Shifts 2012: Social Enterprise Conference is bringing together change-makers, entrepreneurs and high-profile leaders from Australia and overseas to look at ways to push the boundaries of existing business models is contributing to positive social and environmental change.

Organisers says the conference aims to bring together those people who are involved in activities that are helping to transform communities.

The conference at RMIT in Melbourne is taking place from 12-14 December.