All the videos and slide show presentations from the recent WDI conference, “Third Sector Innovation: Sustainability and Social Impact” (TSISSI), are now available on the conference website. Click
here to watch the presentations and learn more about the conference.
Video presentations include talks by WDI Executive Director Robert Kennedy, Microsoft Executive Director Michael Levy, Brasilprev President Eduardo Bom Angelo, and Melvyn Levitsky, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil from 1994-98.
Also available are presentations on professionalism in the third sector, excellence in management, building social opportunities, and IT strategies for emerging markets, among other topics.
The conference, held in Sao Paolo, Brazil, was designed to shine a light on the valuable work of social enterprise leaders across Latin America as well as the broad range of business and organizational innovations that are occurring in the nonprofit sector in the region. About 150 members of more than 80 NGOs from Brazil, the U.S., Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Chile and Nicaragua attended the conference.
Kelly Janiga, who leads the Social Enterprise research initiative at WDI, said conference attendees told her they liked the content and how NGOs were involved.
At the conference, case studies in three areas were presented. The areas were:
- social enterprises, including proven strategies to build capacity.
- management tools, such as issues related to developing leadership in the third sector.
- IT innovation, including indicators and result of innovation initiatives.
The gathering was an opportunity for conference attendees to discuss new approaches and develop relationships with their global colleagues. It also highlighted some of the innovative models developed by WDI partners in Central and Eastern Europe and the United States.
During the conference, social enterprise leaders from around the world shared best practices and strategies for becoming:
- Increasingly self-sustainable (less donor dependent).
- More efficient by integrating appropriate management tools.
- More empowered by creating economic opportunity through IT.
- More independent through the creation of public-private partnerships.
Conference organizers designed the event to be highly interactive and to provide ample opportunity for sharing experiences individually. Conference attendees took advantage of the numerous opportunities for break-out sessions and small group discussions that allowed a deeper level of analysis.
Janiga also praised the support of conference sponsors Microsoft, healthcare giant Roche, financial analysis firm Serasa, Instituto C&A, and BR Petrobras.