Dirty Rotten Socials #3: The rise of the business geniuses
Lights, camera, action! Find out what happened at the third Dirty Rotten Socials event hosted by The House of St Barnabas, a not-for-profit private members' club situated right in the middle of London's Soho that also offers support to the capital's homeless population.
Over the past year Pioneers Post has partnered with The House of St Barnabas to curate the Dirty Rotten Socials – a series of events that brings people together to pitch ideas around social innovation.
With a group of experts to guide them, including Michael Soloman from Responsible 100 and Virgin Media's Ernestina Craig Hall, participants at the third Dirty Rotten Socials event were given the task of turning the UK's traditional red phone box into a viable business model that has social impact at its core.
Ideas ranged from community vending machines providing essentials such as umbrellas and suncream, which also features a mobile phone recycling facility, to a unique photo booth which donates its profits to local social ventures.
As well as brainstorming the best ways to utilise these iconic booths, the participants came up with a list of criteria to define what a "genius business" would entail.
Top of the list were that the business needed to be made up of purpose-driven people who were able to be adaptable when things didn't go right the first time and that it needed to be solving a genuine need.
A good example was the business run by the event's host Michelle Morgan. The business she co-founded, Livity, is a youth marketing agency that works with clients such as Google and aims to harness the influence of big brands to tackle social challenges facing young people.
The Dirty Rotten Socials is a unique series of events curated by Pioneers Post and The House of St Barnabas to challenge people to think about innovative solutions to big social issues. To find out more click here.
