01-20-12
#SenseCamp – Berlin – One day to go.
Yoho, christian speaking here live from berlin.
Le Gang is in Berlin. Gangsters from London, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin and even San Francisco are meeting together @ the Sensecamp. A barcamp for Social Business prepared by the berlin crew, knowable, better world network and hosted by the super uber cool Social Impact lab. 130 people already registered. We don’t know what will be the content of the days as it is a BARCAMP format . We just know that cool people with cool projects in Social Business or Social Entrepreneurship are coming and that there will be some makesense gangsta vibes and post-its available Follow the sensecamp live on twitter ( #sensecamp ) and if you can’t make it during the day, at least join us for the no-sense party ( no twitter hashtag for that ) 
The Gang in Berlin
Ismail
Lele
Playground : Berlin / Super power: loads of positive energy and the ability to motivate people
I am Leonie, 26 years old and from snowy Austria. I´ve studied Business with the focus on Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing at the University of Innsbruck. I moved to Berlin two years ago and worked as a production assistant for several movie productions, which was great fun, but I was always looking for a chance to build up a social business. In 2010 I started to work for EMDESK.com, a project management platform for scientific projects funded by the European Union as a freelancer and founded the social business Better World Network.org with two friends. The main goal of Better World Network is bringing qualified people to NGOs, so we developed two programmes. The first one is the Better World Network Funding Programme; companies can donate the job of a professional working for a NGO via our platform. The second programme ist the Better World Network Social Sabbatical; companies can send their own employees to NGOs for a couple of months. In summer 2011 I met Ismail and got really excited about makesense. I love meeting and connecting people, sharing ideas and facing challenges. I am looking forward to bringing in my energy, my knowledge, my contacts and my ideas. I really believe in our generation and I´m ready to
make a difference.
Eskinder
Playground: Ethiopia/Germany
Superpower: super c-walk skillsHey guys. I’m Eskinder and I’m from Ethiopia currently living in Germany. Since I’m majoring in management and I’ve been working on projects concerning human rights, fair trade and education, I see a great opportunity in Social Business to combine my studies with my social commitment. I believe in making sense in our life by exchanging ideas with all the inspiring social gangsters around the world.
Cheers
Daniel
Daniel is a third culture kid born in south korea and raised between the US and germany. he blogs about anything ecosocial (http://blog.projecthires.com), organizes the silent climate parade (climateparade.de), and currently works in the WASH sector on the sanitation crisis where he develops social intrapreneurship models & communication 2.0 strategies. daniel has experience in organizing (live music) events, managing volunteer groups, advising on sustainability & communications, and working in the carbon market. he’s afraid of the geopolitical consequences of climate change, and is very interested in social entrepreneurship, post-growth models, storytelling and contemporary (behavior change) communication. daniel’s a culture/music/art junkie, loves to travel, enjoys spending time sailing, and tries to be a vegetarian most of the time.
01-17-12
Shanghai, Jan 18 – Seabuckthorn Hold-up @ Xindanwei Property
How to promote the health benefits of seabuckthorn?
Time: Wednesday, Jan 18 at 19:00
Venue: Xindanwei Property, Lane No.47 Shaoxing Road, Bld 3#, near Shanxi South Road
See you there!
WHY SEABUCKTHORN?
The social impact of my project is based on the great advantages of seabuckthorn. But it is an underutilized plant, only known in some regions of China and some European countries.
- Rich in nutrition: Seabuckthorn is great nutrition supplement for heath, berry to make juice, cocktaile,leaves to make tea, extracts from the seeds and pulp are very valuable and good raw material for medicine and cosmetics.
- Seabuckthorn is useful for the greening of non-arable land and deserts, as It root nodules showed high levels of nitrogen-fixation activity, stress tolerance and nitrogen fixation.
WHY ME?
I am Violet working in Supply Chain for 8 years, which 5 years in TESCO International Sourcing Shanghai Hub. So I help make the supply chain go smoothly.
Most of I am quite active in seabuckthorn research and application, had attended the 5th Internation Seabuckthorn Conference help in Xining Qinghai province, keeping good relationship with the growers in Tibet and factories. In terms of the enthusiasm and effort, I am qualified to promote. Quitting my job is the first step, try my full time and full heart on this project.
ACTIONS
- Contracts with farmers: Sourcing fresh berries, leaves, dry berries for the juice, tea, medicine industries and cosmetics industries. Packing, marketing and branding, set own brand.
- China is a big market and the main base of seabuckthorn resource with over 97% grow in China. So working with the successful brands in seabuckthorn product, both the raw material supplying and existing brands promotion.
- Cooperating with successful brands to expand the market: Currently the seabuckthorn application is growing, not the time to share the market. So speeding to educate the market and inhancing the awareness of seabuckthorn and offering better full product ranges is the key.
01-16-12
Paris HotSpot – GangSta Blabla / Opportunity Playlist for #socent projects / Opportunités pour Padawan #socent
Yoho Pirates ! Here are some anouncements gathered by the Gang in Paris that could #boost your projects. The competition in french have a description in French.
Salut les pirates ! ( ça sonne moins bien hein ? ). Le Gangsta Blabla : Quelques news, concours, annonces qui pourraient vous intéresser pour vos projets et idées
Concours / Contests :
Concours SFR Jeunes Talents Entrepreneurs Sociaux – Deadline le 18 Janvier ! Un An d’accompagnement pour 8 lauréats – C’est par ici !
Dream It, Do it par Ashoka – Deadline Février ! 3000 euros à la clé pour les 14 – 22 ans qui ont de l’impact sous le capot!
Social Business Youngsters by Danone Communities. Submit your Social Business project to have full support from the D.C crew and Doc Yunus
Stages / Chic Interships
Also on the Gangsta Blabla Paris HotSpot : Stage/ Intership @ la croix rouge in Paris in the innovation department with the fabulous clem di cioccio here’s the description.
Coming up events the hotspot in Paris heard about :
- Paris Jan 17 : Leila from the Gang represents with a pechakucha during the Alters-Mardis entrepreneuriat Social
- Paris : Jan 21 3DS : create a collaborative consumption start-up in a week end
- Paris : Jan 24 : Soirée Sparknews avec le fondateur de BetterWorldBooks inscriptions ici
- Berlin : Jan 21 SenseCamp by the berlin MakeSense Gang
- Paris : Jan 31 – 9 MakeSense hold-ups with the Mouves mixing #socent and city officials to solve city challenges
- Paris : 1 feb – Entrepreneur Social de l’année par BCG
- Marseille : Feb 2 – 6 MakeSense Hold-Ups @ Euromed Management to solve the challenges of Social Tourism entrepreneurs with GK.
- Nice : Feb 3 – 4 Hold-Ups @ Skema Nice
Let’s finish the Gangsta blabla with some good grooves.
untill the next one,
Christian live the Hotspot in Paris
01-12-12
Outcomes of the hold-up for Prakti-Design – Paris Jan 10th
Yesterday we organized a hold-up for Prakti Design.
Thank you to Next & CoWorking that kindly hosted the event!
Prakti Design is a social entreprise based in India creating innovative affordable cookstoves for the poor that dramatically reduce the impact on health and environment of traditional cookstoves.
Suzanne was here to represent Prakti. After a year internship, she continues helping the founder.
The challenge was : Come up with innovative ideas of a video scenario for Prakti.
The participants brainstormed during 3 hours and here are the concepts!
This is just the first step. Now we need you to vote (on MakeSense page on Facebook) for the video you prefer. From your votes and your comments, Suzanne and the Prakti Team will choose the ideas they will use for the crowdfunding campaign to enter the Unreasonnable Institute! Go on the MakeSense Facebook page and vote!
Concept 1 : Prakti Here and There
by Sophie, Alix & Heremoana
This concept does a parallel between the daily life of a Occidental woman and an Indian woman and show that with a small donation you can help the Indian person get to better living conditions
Concept 2 : The Killing Pan
by Léa, Meriem & Alex
This video chooses humor to show that everyday people die because traditional cook stoves. This woman is not that crazy
Concept 3 : Cooking Chiken Tikka Masala Kills
by Lucie, Aiaze & Cyrille
This video describes the different impacts of the traditional cook stoves and how Prakti brings a solution. Kill the chiken!
Concept 4 : Tell us about him…
by Benjamin & Christian
This video tell the stories of 3 women in 3 different countries telling how HE changed her lifes. But who is HE? On a dedicated website, you will then be able to know the detailed stories of how Prakti changed their lifes.
01-12-12
That was MAAAAAAD! – MaD Forum 2012, HK
01-07-12
A 2011 Full of MakeSense (London recap)
As we kick into 2012 with more excitement than ever, let’s take a minute to look back at the year that’s just elapsed. 2011 was not only a booming year for MakeSense as a whole, it’s worldwide community and the range of projects it got involved in, but it was also a crucial milestone for the London gang!
It was the year Christian came to run the first Hold Ups at the London School of Economics, where he met the fabulous Felix Beaulieu and Mike Mompi. It wasn’t with much hesitation that these two decided to take the reins and expand the MakeSense vibe into the British land. After a successful first London-based hold up for InclusivePlanet the wave grew bigger and bigger. Superpowers multiplied when Alberto and Stephanie joined the gang in the summer and the 2011 highlights started rolling:
• The DoNation hold-up with the 2011 On Purpose Associates
• MakeSense was the official social media team for the Emerge Conference in Oxford in October
• We held two fully booked hold-ups held at the Emerge 2011 Conference for two Emerge Lab social entrepreneurs
• Co-hosted the cross networks “Impact Social” event at the Hub Westminster, together with Impact Generation, Emerge Venture Lab, Women Advancing Microfinance and On Purpose
• Facilitated brainstorming and participated to the London Random Hacks of Kindness hosted by Mike and MyBnk
This is some of the feedback we’ve received from the social entrepreneurs after their Hold Ups:
Friday was an almighty help and inspiration boost. It was great to see the reaction to The DoNation from so many sharp minds. Some fantastic ideas came out of it, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do with them.
- Hermione Taylor, the DoNation, Hold Up with On Purpose Associates, 14 Oct 2011
It was an incredible evening and I have come away with some great ideas. Those that really stuck out are: using fun videos to congratulate people when they complete their pledge and the small business competition.
- Hermione Taylor, the DoNation, 27 Sep 2011
The team have all reviewed it now – I think there are definitely some good ideas here that we will look at pursuing – in particular I think some areas such as making links to political interest groups to enable them to understand the power of the resource that is available.
- Paul Lenz, theyworkforyou.com, 24 Aug 2011
That was great, but too short – I could have done 6 hours!
- Christoph Warrack, OpenCinema, 8 Dec 2011
The plans for 2012 are bigger and bolder.
We now have a solid core of members who are passionate about MakeSense and are making it their own challenge to build on this movement. We have the dedicated friends who join regularly to share their ideas and great energy and we have the curious ones who join our different activities as they can and bring the diversity and open-mindedness that we love. Everyone is welcome and everyone is encouraged to use this platform as it suits them.
In 2012, we are keen to expand MakeSense into university campuses, developing the social enterprise networks and possibly fitting in some SenseSchool. Serge and Candice are well on their way with this one! We’re also considering expanding our services into the private sector with the CommonSense model, and have already some interesting leads there
Above all, we want to continue connecting people who want to help and support social enterprises and social entrepreneurs that want to benefit from these youthful, enthusiastic and clever minds! So watch out for the Hold Up trainings, Sense Drinks, more OnPurpose hold ups, MakeSense at Oxford Jam, TEDx…. Ideas are plenty, now let’s have FUN!
01-05-12
Jan 7-8th – Be MaD! Hold-ups for Green Collar & YES Network @ MaD Forum 2012, Hong Kong!
Hong Kong based MaD, for Make A Difference, is holding its annual Forum in Kowloon, HK, this coming weekend. Click here for more details.
Vallabh (watch his interview) and I (Larry) have been invited to attend it and will represent MakeSense at this big change party! We will also take this opportunity to organize the 2 first Hold-ups in Hong Kong (and the 2 first of the year), for Green Collar & YES Network, 2 local social enterprises.
If you are around, make sure to come and join us at the piazza of the Kwai Tsing Theatre to help:
- Green Collar, a social enterprise promoting green lifestyle, find ways to make recycling fun and exciting, on Sat Jan 7 at 11.30AM
- Young Entrepreneurs for Society Network, a community empowering youth for social change, make the field of social entrepreneurship cool enough to attract top talents, on Sun Jan 8 at 11.30AM
Just register below and see you very soon!
01-04-12
January 10th – Hold-up for Prakti Design @ Paris
First hold-up of the 2012 season in Paris!
Prakti Design is a top social entreprise, known worldwide and many times awarded , for their innovative cookstoves for the world’s poor. As you may know, the toxic smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires kills 1.9 million people every year.
Mouhsine Serrar founded Prakti in 2008 in India, Pondicherry. Suzanne, a gangster with incredible IT super powers, has worked for Prakti for almost a year in Pondicherry, and thanks to her Prakti wen to the finals of the Global Social Venture Competition in Berkeley and received the award for best social impact assessment.
Prakti has been accepted as a Finalist of The Third Annual Unreasonable Institute! The Unreasonable Insitute is very cool and we want to help Prakti get to it with a powerful viral campaign!
The Challenge : Come up with innovative ideas of a video scenario & a promotion campaign on Social Medias for Prakti.
We are organizing a hold up to solve this challenge on January 10th (tuesday), at 6.30pm, in Paris (location to be confirmed soon)
See you on Tuesday! The hold-up will start at 7pm!
