Social Enterprise Open Camp 2022

Tech for Change & Social Impact

Technology and innovation as drivers of social and environmental impact, including in rural, peri-urban and hinterland areas of Italy and beyond.

This will be the theme of the Social Enterprise Open Camp 2022.
Speakers and experts in social entrepreneurship from around the globe will lead four days of residential training. The experience will be made unique by the first-hand testimony of social entrepreneurs, but also by the ideas and inspiration of mentors, scholars, investors and key players in industry and finance, letting participants expand their field of action in a melting pot of knowledge and experience.

More specifically, this year the Social Enterprise Open Camp: Tech for Change & Social Impact will offer a close-up look at the power and role of technology, the digital transformation and digital innovation to:

facilitate access to products and services (IoT and AI as levers for the creation of new or updated products, services and processes)

improve the performance and/or value of socially-oriented cooperatives and businesses (client/customer interactions, digital marketing, big data analytics, etc.)

act as a bridge and find solutions to make up for varied structural shortcomings (e.g., telemedicine in places that lack certain types of healthcare facilities)

have real impact, even beyond metropolitan areas and large cities, and to revitalize rural or semi-rural areas

Why Tech for Change & Social Impact

The Covid-19 pandemic has been an important and disruptive wakeup call about the role of technology in our daily lives. It has permeated work, education, training and even the way we socialize. For a long period of time, just about every activity you could think of was possible exclusively through technology, which was inconceivable up to three years ago. A new normal that has redrawn the contours, shapes and habits of our social, cultural and professional lives (working from home, online education, delivery of primary goods, remote healthcare, agricultural technology, etc.).

However, this “sudden leap into the future” has expanded and highlighted the digital divide in various communities, particularly in peri-urban and rural landscapes. These two types of areas are increasingly at risk of ‘falling behind’ and thus being unable to take full advantage of the opportunities and advantages that citizens of metropolises have.

It’s a phenomenon that shouldn’t be ignored especially in light of migration: during the pandemic, people began moving from urban areas to the countryside. In other words, many have chosen to go back to their roots and repopulate the hinterland. That has created a need to outfit those often-rural areas with technology that will foster growth in local economies, allowing the needs of new citizens to be met and leading to a new societal model.

Format

Like previous years, the 2022 edition of the Social Enterprise Open Camp

Will have an international aspect.
While maintaining the format as animmersive, intensive residential camp.
Plenary sessions, keynote speeches, round tables and time to network will be scheduled along with 6 workshops in which participants will get in the game with case studies that focus on tech topics through active, participatory methodologies (e.g., design thinking).
In the workshops, six social enterprises/cooperatives coming from various parts of the world will act as case studies/platforms for learning for participants. Guided by two workshop leaders, knowledge advisors and entrepreneurs will discuss and reflect upon central topics that are essential to the creation and development of businesses that have real impact. In their role as case studies, the social enterprises and entrepreneurs at the Social Enterprise Open Camp will be those that have implemented processes aimed at sustainability, digital transformation/innovation, and/or those which use technology to meet people’s needs and truly bring about change.

GOALS

As in the past, the 2022 edition of the Social Enterprise Open Camp will be aimed at

creating an ecosystem of social enterprises that have real impact through training supported by speakers, workshop leaders, knowledge advisors and social entrepreneurs

fostering dialogue and expanding the network of businesses that work within the social economy to build the social enterprises of the future and bring innovation to those of today

allowing social enterprises and businesses to grow through engagement with key players in industry and finance

offering numerous networking opportunities to generate collaboration, implement new ideas and plans, and give rise to new synergies

WHEN and WHERE

The 2022 Social Enterprise Open Camp will take place in a unique setting: Matera, Italy, which was the European capital of culture in 2019. It’s a symbolic location, a real-life example of regeneration and rebirth. The opening plenary session will take place in nearby Bari, a port city that opens out to the eastern Mediterranean, another emblem of Italy as a crossroads of culture and knowledge.

21 – 24 October 2022

Opening in Bari starting at 2 p.m. Oct. 21, 2022.
More details to come soon
Transfer to Matera at the end of the day and check-in at assigned facilities

Conclusion in Matera at approximately 2 p.m. on October 24, 2022
More details to come soon

dove e quando

WHY BARI AND MATERA?

The decision to bring the Social Enterprise Open Camp to southern Italy, in the regions of Puglia and Basilicata, arose from the desire to put the business world in constructive south-south and north-south dialogue and from the decision to offer social enterprises and cooperatives from the south of Italy (and those in the tertiary sector in general) an opportunity to come together, engage, and share not only their experiences and strengths, but also the challenges, limits, complexities and issues they’re facing.

Moreover, it will be a chance for the social cooperatives of southern Italy to expand their network and to learn about and interact with other enterprises and business models coming from different corners of the world.

bari

matera

TARGET

Impactful entrepreneurs, aspiring innovators, leaders of social enterprises and co-ops, those working in international cooperation, investors, and representatives of institutions, universities and academies. Participants will be from Italy and abroad.