Global Health and Social Entrepreneurship – New Recipe for Great Conferences

If you are a regular reader, you know by now about the Tech4Society event Ashoka is hosting with the Lemelson Foundation in Hyderabad in February. Though I won’t be there, I am excited for our team putting on the event and am anxiously looking forward to the commentary and insights we’ll gain from the gathering.

Over the past few years I have been somewhat frustrated by health/development/technology conferences that seem to focus on the same groups of stakeholders: international donors, foundations, large government agencies, etc. I’ve often been left wanting more: more presentations, access, opinions, and insights from the entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs on the ground, and end users or beneficiaries of the program. The fact that all 100 of the Ashoka-Lemelson Fellows will be at the Hyderabad event, plus corporations, international organizations, etc. excites me beyond belief!

That is also why I was so happy to hear about the Global Forum for Health Research 2009 conference that took place in November. Ashoka’s Al Hammond spoke at the event, alongside the Ministry of Health of China and others. Jaspal Singh has a great series of 6 posts covering the event here, here, here, here, here, and here.

‘So what?’, you ask. In April 2010, the Unite for Sight Global Health & Innovation 2010 conference will take place. Not only is the speaker list really impressive, featuring the likes of Seth Godin, Jacqueline Novogratz, Julia Novy-Hildesley, Neal Lesh, Ashifi Gogo, Kate Grant, and many others, the topics are timely, forward looking, and strike a great balance between global health professionals, private business, social entrepreneurs, and international organizations.

With sessions like, “Creative Partnerships in Global Health”, “Social Entrepreneurship, Scalability, and Investments”, “Food Security and Producing Better Food”, “Village-based Models for Health”, “Women’s Health”, workshops on “Community Action in India” and Social Enterprise, and “The Cutting Edge in Infectious Diseases”, it is bound to be a thought provoking two days. Al Hammond will be speaking at the session “Corporations, Businesses, and Global Health” alongside Laura Herman, Managing Director of FSG Social Impact Advisors, Stephen Phillips, Medical Director at Exxon Mobile, and Brenda Colatrella, the Director of the Office of Corporate Responsibility and Global Policy Support at Merck.

Adding to the excitement is the inclusion of multiple “social enterprises pitches” sessions, in which people can pitch their idea for 5 minutes followed by a 5 minute Q&A. With sessions like these sprinkled throughout the conference, I am sure attendees will be kept on their toes.

So, is this – combining a sector-specific focus with representation and perspective from social entrepreneurs – the wave of the conference future? Let’s hope so. I believe that in healthcare, because there are so many ideas and innovations constantly being tried and tested, having the viewpoints and lessons of these innovators included in the conversation is necessary for real change to happen.