Skoll 2009 Reflections: Preaching to the Choir

by Marina Kim

Published April 02, 2009 @ 01:50PM PT

(via Dan Martin)

Ed. Note: We're excited to have Ashoka's Marina Kim share her thoughts as a Skoll World Forum veteran. Marina helps lead Ashoka's University Programs, which include the University Network for Social Entrepreneurship and the Changemaker Campus Program. Welcome to the site Marina!

This year marks the fifth time I've attended the Skoll World Forum. My first time around, I was a student presenting on Stanford's burgeoning academic programs related to Social Entrepreneurship. I was staying in the Funky Backpackers Hostel, had never worn a suit to a conference, and was petrified of speaking in front of such a high-level audience.

I remember being in awe of the "who's who" of social entrepreneurship. But at the same time that became my biggest frustration: it was the same faces, the same recycled presentations essentially preaching to the choir.

Times, I'm happy to say, have changed...well at least for me personally.

I've been upgraded from the Funky Backpackers Hostel (slightly) and I am no longer intimidated by the great names in the field. This year, I was with a team of Ashoka staff, hosting a full day of events for the University Network for Social Entrepreneurship. We brought together over 100 professors and practitioners interested in "re-envisioning the role of social entrepreneurship education." In addition to this minor task of transforming the higher education system, we had the goal of experimenting with new models of bringing people together.

We wanted to ensure that our content was going to be relevant and thought-provoking for the attendees, and also wanted to create structured networking opportunities that might lead to collaborations. Easier said than done, but we tried valiantly. For starters, we hosted a "collaboration marketplace" (very much still under development, but essentially a way for academics and practitioners to find each other based on areas of need and interest) and every panelist was instructed to be "insightful, provocative and funny" (seriously, this was the prompt we gave each of them, though some were more successful than others). One classic was Professor Jim Austin's Star Trek moment: "These are the voyagers on the Starship Social Enterprise. Its mission is to go where no one has been before and this is the excitement that awaits us."

As for the Skoll Forum itself? Are times a'changing? I still feel strongly that there are too many of the same faces and that students would be blown away if they could sneak in. However, I also have a new lens: maybe we're still preaching to the choir, but that isn't such a bad thing. My friend Melanie's mother speaks the truth in this regard: "Never underestimate preaching to the choir because a lot of the time the choir is sitting on its ass."

Every choir, even an "everyone a changemaker" choir, needs a kick in the butt once a year. We get complacent, we get comfortable with our understanding of how things work and how they should work. That's why people come to good conferences - to be challenged, to be provoked and to gain new perspective.

I like to think that by the end of Skoll, the choir was out of its chairs, re-energized by the good butt-kicking. Now, I hope we stand long enough to inspire more to join our ever-growing choir.