Social Occasions!

Thursday June 19th, 2008

One of the great things about working on the Get Involved project are the social occasions we get to attend!

Last night, the other Jane (Jane L. Thompson) and I zoomed over for the Centre for Social Innovation’s closing reception following their “Sharing For Social Change” full-day seminar. We had some web work we needed to put in place, as well as picking up a few more comments and quotes for the TVO profile we’re doing on the centre’s ball-of-fire Director Tonya Surman. Naturally we brought our camera /sound crew Matt and Matt with us… Jane Squared and the Matt’s: together again

The centre provides shared space for small innovative businesses that might not be able to exist any other way. It’s so popular it’s completely full (and bursting at the seams!) with clients, and it’s become a rallying point for others interested in the entire social change movement. So Tonya invited over 250 of her closest friends (non-profit leaders and supporters from all over Ontario) to attend a full-day seminar to share her ideas, innovations and tips to help others re-create this brilliant model elsewhere.

While Jane T and the Matt’s were getting interviews in the corner, I zipped around the Centre’s shared office space dropping off our 2 page “promo sheet” which gives a basic overview of the documentaries and the web and describes how the 2 pieces fit together.

Everyone got it! And everyone I spoke to agreed to sign up as a member organization. They particularly liked the “Challenges” part of the web site – the place where an organization can really stand out and set themselves apart by the challenges they choose to set the community.

Turns out getting everyone interested in “Getting Involved” wasn’t much of a challenge at all!