The 2016 Social Enterprise World Forum: a look back

Back in September, the Social Enterprise World Forum 2016 landed in Hong Kong. Over 1,000 delegates attended. It was the ninth instalment of the global get together, before the event celebrates a decade in business this year in New Zealand.

At each event, there is an opportunity to discover new voices in social enterprise from around the globe and so it proved in Hong Kong.

There are always welcome surprises; alongside people from organisations that are instantly recognisable as social enteprises, such as Irene Leung from the Senior Citizen Home Safety Organisation, there were speakers such as Mark Surman from the Mozilla Foundation.

The foundation seeks to keep the internet open and accessible to all. It was perhaps very relevant that Surman chose to attend a conference in China, where many websites, including Facebook, the Economist and Time are censored. The foundation is not typically how you might have thought of a social enterprise previously.

The conference always seems to be able to invigorate with fresh thinking on familiar subjects. The willingness to share knowledge at the forum is also one of its notable traits. 

Jack Sim (aka Mr Toilet) seemed to sum the mood of the event up when he told our reporters: "The only thing that matters is that the world gets better. The only way is to open source our solutions with everybody." 

For a taste of how it was to be there, watch the film we made in conjunction with our friends at Digital Storytellers above.