May 8th -10th
Malmö University, the City of Malmö and Region Skåne are arranging SOCAP: Designing the Future.
A renowned international conference that brings together the world's most innovative social entrepreneurs and investors, as well as anybody interested in social innovation.
- SOCAP is an opportunity for investors to find suitable projects to invest in, as well as being an arena for social entrepreneurs looking for investors or other types of partnerships. Of course there will be an array of workshops, seminars and lectures offered within social innovation, for everybody from beginners to experts, says Eva Engquist, vice principal at Malmö University and in charge of cooperation.
The person behind SOCAP in the US, a yearly reoccurring conference in San Francisco, is Kevin Jones. He has visited Malmö University several times as a guest speaker and during one of these visits discussions of hosting SOCAP Europe in Malmö were initiated. From the beginning the idea was that the university, the city and the region would host the conference together. A group of representatives from all three parties are now working together with the SOCAP team from the US in order to determine the program.
New models
- It means a lot to us to be part of arranging SOCAP: Designing the Future. We need both new solutions and new partnerships in order for us to jointly solve future challenges society is facing within the areas of for example inclusion, environment and an aging population. The conference provides an opportunity to present how Scandinavia is working with these issues and we also expect to learn more about how people are working with this in other parts of the world, says Eva Engquist.
Eva adds that she hopes SOCAP: Designing the Future will inspire more to work even more with or begin their careers within social innovations. And that perhaps the conference can result in new solutions to future challenges.
- By arranging this conference we can in a way contribute to future development and make sure our voice is heard in the ongoing dialogue. I hope the conference will be such a success that perhaps this can become a reoccurring event in Malmö, says Eva Engquist and adding:
Broadened innovation concept
- We need to broaden the concept of innovation to not only include product innovation but also to include service innovation. We need to deal with issues differently than we have in the past and gain a broadened perspective by collaborating across sectors. Corporate and public sectors need to learn from each other, make new connections and collaborate more if we are to succeed in solving the challenges our communities are facing today. It is also important to involve the nonprofit organizations in this collaboration, they often have a good sense of what works and what doesn't work in society. I hope that individuals from all these three sectors as well as social entrepreneurs and investors use this opportunity and attend SOCAP: Designing the Future.
Malmö is becoming all the more known internationally as a regional cluster for social innovation. Beyond the Forum for Social Innovation Sweden actors such as MEDEA Collaborative Media Initiative, Public Entrepreneurship, Malmö Living Lab for New Media and Uppstart Malmö with the new Malmö Job incubator.
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