Between June 8-12, 2009 Social Innovation Generation (SiG@MaRS) played host for Net Change Week at the MaRS Discovery District. 12 events were held at the 101 College St building in Toronto’s downtown core, while 2 partners decided to fly the Net Change flag from the historic Gladstone Hotel.

Net Change Week was an extension of the very successful Social Tech Training held for the first time in 2008. Given the explosion of social technology over the last 5 years, there are many social change organizations and traditional charities that need a hand understanding this terrain. In addition to the training components, the Net Change team thought it important to include events where professionals working online in digital design and interactive spaces could meet change-makers. This bridging of the digital divide was designed to introduce, to inspire and to discover potential synergies that would not otherwise have had the chance to flourish.

There were many highlights for Net Change Week and also many take-aways that will inform an even bigger - even better Net Change Week in 2010.

Thank you for joining us for our inaugural Net Change Week. Between June 8-12, over 1800 people came through the MaRS Collaboration Center attending one or more of the 14 events we had on offer. Now that the dust is settled, we would love to hear about your experience of Net Change. We have generated a survey available through the link below which should take between 5-10 minutes to complete. Your answers are strictly confidential so please be as detailed as possible. We would love to improve on this event by incorporating your suggestions into a program for 2010.

Thanks in advance!

I’ll do the Net Change survey now!

The Skills Exchange was an event designed to show what an interactive agency could do when presented with a unique problem. On May 25th, we paired up 3 agencies with 3 non-profits and gave the agency their challenge. They had 2 weeks to come up with a presentation on what their solution would be.

The Pairings:

Idea Couture + Social Purchasing Portal

Idea Couture – http://www.ideacouture.com
Idea Couture is a strategic innovation and experience design firm. We partner with clients to uncover uncommon ideas that will advance business goals, create shareholder value and leverage social technologies to transform enterprises. We bring together the analytical capability and financial competency of a strategic consultancy, the customer empathy of a research and design firm, and the creativity and technological capability of an interactive agency.

Social Purchasing Portal - http://www.sppwaterlooregion.org/
The Social Purchasing Portal facilitates the targeting of existing everyday business purchasing to suppliers of goods and services to blend business and social values. The Social Purchasing Portal (SPP) is an innovative and effective tool helping to build healthy communities.

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The Movement + Grassroots Youth Collaborative

The Movement - http://www.thmvmnt.com
The Movement is a Change Agency focused on using design for progress, change, and engaging experience for social good. Managed by Patrick Keenan and Alan Smith

Grassroots Youth Collaborative - http://www.grassrootsyouth.ca
The Grassroots Youth Collaborative (GYC) was formed in May 2004 to advocate for policies that empower young people to have a voice and contribute to their communities. GYC is a collective of culturally and racially diverse youth-led organizations that work in underserved, lower-income, at-risk communities where violence, especially youth violence, is regularly in the media spotlight. The programs delivered by GYC members reach out and engage young people who are typically missed by more mainstream youth programming.

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Polar Unlimited + 211 Toronto

Polar Unlimited - http://www.polarunlimited.com
We are a digital relationship agency that helps you create meaningful relationships with your customers and prospects. We believe that with the web as a hub, digital brand strategies and tools can engage a larger audience more efficiently and effectively than traditional media.

211 Toronto - http://www.211toronto.ca
Since 2002, Findhelp Information Services has operated 211Ontario.ca as a portal to specialized provincial information and referral databases. In 2007/2008, community-based information and referral providers will collectively work toward realizing their long-standing vision for 211Ontario.ca – to coordinate and web-enable local data to create a fully searchable, bilingual point of access to over 60,000 community, social, health and related government programs and services in Ontario.

The presentations by Polar Unlimited and Idea Couture are posted as slide shows. For The Movement, they did something entirely different. Those in the agency world are never asked to give a pitch presentation in 10 minutes. Usually they have at least an hour. So, the team decided to present 6 presentations all at once. While it’s hard to re-create this here, we have posted their presentations in video form. If you’d like a better idea of how we saw it at MaRS, visit their webpage.

While it may have seemed crazy to many of her colleagues, Net Change lead organizer, Lisa Torjman decided to act on instinct and with the same delightful passion that built Net Change Week from two training sessions to a week-long exploration of social tech and social change, she curated an art show three days shy of the Net Change kick-off.

The art show was meant to greet all Net Change participants, as well as MaRS tenants and passers-by, to help make concrete the notion of social technology. In the collaborative spirit of Net Change week, Lisa opened the art show to the online community by posting a 24hr competition to get more submissions. The winner, Andrew Mallis, had his piece displayed as part of the show, in the MaRS atrium for the entirety of the week.

We believe that everyone’s a visual learner! View the Net Change Art Show here!

As Net Change leaps over hump day, Lisa Torjman heads down to the CP24 studio to tell Homepage what it’s all about.

The Net Change Team has gathered a fabulous list of partners for its inaugural event in 2009. One such partner is MetoWe Style. Every Net Change team member and all of our terrific volunteers have been sporting MetoWe Style t-shirts that read, “Be the Change.” As our week continues to delve into social change concepts and techniques through the power of social technology, we thought it was a fitting message for people to see throughout our venues.

For a full list of MetoWe Style tshirts and to learn more about their mission, visit their website at www.metowestyle.com MetoWe have also kindly offered a 20% discount to any Net Change participant. If you came along to any Net Change events, the code to quote is NET20 when purchasing from the site.

Net Change lead, Lisa Torjman is on the beat for the Innovation Parkour.

For attendees of Tuesday evening’s “Cocktails and Inspiration” session at Net Change Week, the experience can only be described as magic. Recently retired Dupont CEO and MaRS Board Member, WIlliam White sat down in conversation with Ric Young, President of E.Y.E. Social Projects Studio. The conversation was introduced by MaRS Director, Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, who spoke to the significance of social innovation at MaRS and in the community at large. Dr. Treurnicht then introduced Ric Young by way of a video presentation, which is posted below.

Ric Young’s work over the last 30 years is an inspiration to all. He has been at the helm of countless social projects including Participaction, Right to Play, True Sport, Living Lessons and an extensive project with Dupont Canada that led to the establishment of Social Innovation Generation as we know it today. William White was the perfect interviewer for Ric, leading the audience from Ric’s early investigations into social innovation, up to the present day. With humor and the right dose of introspection, Ric Young lit the fire in the Net Change audience, challenging them to greater change making heights.

As Ric has discovered over the course of his career, working on profound change is immensely complex, and the barriers can feel insurmountable. However, his successes have shown that, “What seems impossible looking forward can sometimes seem inevitable looking back.” It is imperative that we persist in looking for solutions and work towards the change alongside Ric and the Social Projects Studio. Ric should know at the very least, he has a few hundred more committed people alongside him today, thanks to his insights last night.

By: Allyson Hewitt, Director SiG@MaRS

The Mobile Mondays at MaRS, affectionately known as #MoMoTo featured two applications of interest to not-for-profit organizations: Calliflower http://www.calliflower.com/ by Alec Saunders and XMGive, from the group that brought you admeris, http://www.admeris.com/ by Simon Law.

This special evening was held in conjunction with Net Change Week (www.netchangeweek.ca ) and we thank Jim Brown and the organizers for working with us on this great event.

Calliflower offers “free conference calls & flat rate pricing for unlimited global meetings with local dial in numbers & document sharing”. That flat rate is currently $50/month for FP’s and a planned $20/month for NFPs. This service is still planned and they are working with TechSoup Canada (http://www.techsoupcanada.ca/) to make it available to not-for-profits. The testimonials from the group were very positive and if you do a lot of conference calls, or webinars, it may be well worth looking into. They have a 14-day free trial option.

XMGive is also a start up and they are able to accept mobile donations at the door or at events. Since we know giving is in response to being asked and that it is often spontaneous, this device sounds terrific. They will take a small fee to cover their costs. Although they provide all the services for secure online donations, I would still suggest they work with CanadaHelps.org (http://www.canadahelps.org/) who have the relationships, read trust, with the not-for-profit sector.

Although both apps are available for the iPhone, a quick survey of this highly “mobile literate” room showed that about 12 had iPhones, everyone else had a Blackberry.

The panel summed up their advice to not-for-profit organizations as follows: when using mobile technology, grab the low hanging fruit, examine the ROI instead of just grabbing the shiny new toys, do your homework to ensure what you are doing is consistent with your goals.

It was heartening to hear these start ups, who are struggling with finding their market and facing all the other struggles of start-ups, take the time to modify their product for charities. They both genuinely seemed interested in making their product available to help charities that they know can’t generally afford to buy it or have the sophistication to develop it. More power to them and I’m sure there are many more entrepreneurs like them out there, it would be nice to meet you

NET CHANGE ART SHOW
24HR ART COMPETITION - CALL OUT FOR SUBMISSIONS!!

When you think of social technology, what comes to mind?…Show us!

You’re mission: You have 24hrs to find or create an image that exemplifies what is meant by social technology and send it to us!

The best photos will be chosen to be part of an exhibit, displayed at MaRS during Net Change week.

Requirements: These photos will be made to measure – on 2ft x 3ft boards. Sooo, we’re looking for high resolution .pdfs, .psds or .eps.

Submissions must be received by 6pm EST Wednesday June 3, 2009

Email submission to info@netchangeweek.com