Leonie Baldacchino being presented with the Buzz Builder Award by GEW president Jonathan Ortmans.

Leonie Baldacchino, a University lecturer and researcher, recently won the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Buzz Builder Award for best use of social media channels to promote the Maltese GEW campaign.

The award was presented to Ms Baldacchino by GEW president Jonathan Ortmans at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress held recently in Liverpool, UK.

Despite Malta being one of the smallest countries to take part in GEW, a blog entry posted by Ms Baldacchino on the GEW website ( http://unleashingideas.org/blog/big-buzz-small-island-malta-marks-gew-2011 ) to highlight the Maltese campaign was viewed, tweeted, shared and ‘liked’ on various social media channels more frequently than any entry by any other country.

GEW is an international initiative designed to inspire and connect aspiring entrepreneurs, helping them to embrace originality, imagination and ingenuity through local and global activities. Millions of enterprising individuals participate in thousands of activities in over 100 countries every year.

Since GEW’s inception in 2008, the University’s Edward de Bono Institute has been the official national host for this initiative in Malta, and has coordinated a growing number of events for an increasing number of participants.

The Global Entrepreneurship Congress boasted an array of high-profile entrepreneurs, including Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group, and Deborah Leary, president of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, who shared insights and ex­periences from their entrepreneurial journeys with the 3,000-strong audience at the Liverpool Echo Arena on the first day of the event.

On the second and third day of the congress, Ms Baldacchino joined GEW hosts from 123 countries to celebrate best practice in promoting entrepreneurship and to share ideas for advancing the GEW campaign in 2012 and beyond.

Preparations are now underway to plan for this year’s GEW from November 12 to 18. The Edward de Bono Institute is inviting interested parties to join the Maltese GEW campaign, either as official partners or as individual participants.

For more information about how to get involved, visit the GEW 2012 page on the Edward de Bono Institute website www.um.edu.mt/create/conferencesseminars/global_entrepreneurship_week_2012.

Article source: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120408/education/A-big-buzz-created-by-a-small-island.414527

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Will it lead to policy changes?

A new study has found that when it comes to starting a company, women are more likely to consider individual responsibility and use business as a vehicle for change.

“We found that women are 1.17 times more likely than men to create social ventures than economic ventures, and women are 1.23 times more likely to pursue environmental ventures than economic focused ventures,” says Diana Hechevarria, a doctoral candidate in management and entrepreneurship in the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business.

Ms. Hechevarria and co-authors Amy Ingram, Rachida Justo and Siri Terjesen examined data on different start-up types on more than 10,000 people from 52 counties. “Are women more likely to pursue social and environmental entrepreneurship?” pulled 2009 figures from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an annual assessment of worldwide entrepreneurial activity.

It’s the first research known of its kind to provide evidence that female entrepreneurs are more active in social and environmental start-ups than men. “Traditionally, men have always been more active in start-ups,” Ms. Hechevarria says in a press release, “but that’s because we typically have studied economic, social and environmental start-ups all together.”

She adds she believes “we will likely see more policy to encourage women to continue to pursue these types of start ups.”

Clean tech venture-capital fund launches

A new venture capital fund in Ontario will help clean tech companies grow and create jobs, according to a press release from the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation. The $100 million fund is a joint venture of SAIL Venture Partners, part of California-based SAIL Capital Partners, and Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Stifel Financial. It will invest in companies with innovative, ready-for-market products across the clean-tech sector, including energy, water and green products. SAIL was attracted to Ontario and Canada because of what it sees as opportunities in the sector and a record of fostering innovation. Providing the right climate to attract investment and build business, the ministry says, is part of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s plan to ensure that families, businesses and international investors “continue to look to Ontario as a great place to live and work.”

Old-money heirs leave their legacies behind

“The old money crowd has found the new, new thing,” Evelyn Rusli writes in the Dealbook section of The New York Times. The children of some prominent U.S. dynasties are taking a different path after they complete their educations. Rather than following their legacy businesses in retailing, real estate and finance, they are opting for a future in technology. Justin A. Rockefeller, the 32-year-old fourth-generation descendant of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, is a partner at venture-capital firm Richmond Global and a director of business development at Addepar, a financial software start-up. Real-estate heir Joshua Kushner, 26, is a founder of Vostu, a large Brazilian online game company, and he recently raised $40 million (U.S.) for his technology investment firm, Thrive Capital. Like some of their peers, they have a powerful combination in the start-up scene: wealth, wits and a well-connected family. “They view this as the next great frontier,” says David Hornik, a partner at August Capital. “There’s not much money left to be made in timber or coal.”

EVENTS AND KEY DATES

Chinese Canadian entrepreneur awards

The 2012 ACCE Chinese Canadian entrepreneur awards gala takes place April 14 in Markham, Ont., near Toronto. The black-tie affair, ACCE’s premier event, starts at 6 pm. The annual honours outstanding entrepreneurs from across Canada in nine award categories. The objective is to promote entrepreneurship in the Chinese Canadian communty, to recognize the contribution of Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs, to encourage new business start-ups and to promote social responsibility. Tickets are $250.

Article source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-tools/small-business-briefing/women-more-active-in-social-start-ups-study/article2393025/

“Traditionally, men have always been more active in start-ups, but that’s because we typically have studied economic, social and environmental start-ups all together,” Hechevarria says.

Article source: http://business.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201204/84558.php

MANILA, Philippines — Last month, over 40 student leaders from the different campuses of Ifugao State University (IFSU) underwent a crash course in social entrepreneurship and youth leadership, where they learned that earning a profit and saving the world can go hand-in-hand.

Sponsored by the Office of Rep. Teddy Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao, the Office of Senator Francis Pangilinan and the Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership, the “iChange Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Training Program” of the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) gives college students all over the Philippines a chance to learn how to transform their ideas into projects that could benefit themselves and their communities.

The first part of the training introduced the various social problems that our country currently faces and why there is a need to develop innovative and creative solutions to these problems.

The second part helped students develop new ideas that they can implement to address problems in their respective schools of communities.

Finally, participants were also taught how to develop their vision-mission statements, goals and how they can also raise resources to fund their planned activities and projects.

The end goal of the training is to get these student leaders to craft a concrete and doable proposal for a project that they can execute after the workshop. Mentoring was also provided by the facilitators who came from the ASoG.

Among the participants for the Ifugao leg of iChange were the scholars of Baguilat, student leaders of IFSU, and Sanggunian Kabataan officers. While the seminar was held at the main campus of IFSU in Lamut, Ifugao, participants came from as far as Tinoc in Alfonso Lista, Potia, and Lagawe.

At the end of the seminar, each of the six groups presented their project proposals to a panel for evaluation. The panel, composed of TESDA Ifugao provincial director Genaro Ibay, Karen Luglug from the Office of Rep. Baguilat, and IFSU director of the Department of Student Services and Development Dinah Licyayo, provided feedback and points for improvement for the groups.

IDEAS FACTORY

The students’ project proposals had a common theme: youth. Of the six ideas presented, four proposed to help Ifugao youth with their education, whether it be financial or academic support. The remaining two projects aimed to help out of school youth get out of a life of vices, much like 2009 CNN Hero of the Year Efren Peñaflorida’s Kariton Klasrum does.

The Program has already been to several cities and provinces, with the aim of introducing the concept of social entrepreneurship to Filipino students. The iChange caravan seeks to train students and change their mindsets that businesses are only for profit, and that organizations that help other people cannot make money. With social entrepreneurship, the youth can hit as much as three birds in one stone: earning profit, helping a community, and protecting the environment.

The program has trained students in Quezon City, Marikina City, Mindoro, Iloilo, and Bacolod, among others. If interested to partner with ASoG to bring the iChange Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Training Program in your school, call Myra de Leon at (02) 990 3282or email ateneoylse@gmail.com

Article source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/356506/earning-a-profit-and-saving-the-world