Each day, we look at everything that is going on in the Sandbox, searching for impactful projects, stories and ideas by Sandboxers. We then repost the most interesting, inspiring or brilliant stuff here on our blog.

Today Alex Budak shares his seven best tips on how to turn ideas into impact. You can read Alex’s original guest blog post on US News and connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.

Having an idea is relatively easy; the hard part is making it happen.

Through my work with StartSomeGood.com, a platform for helping social good initiatives raise funds and grow a community of supporters, I help social entrepreneurs transform ideas for good into action and impact. I’ve learned a few things from working with these change-makers. Here are seven tips for how to make that great idea a reality.

1. Tell people about your idea. Too often people sit on great ideas, consumed by fear. Fear of failure—what if my idea tanks? Fear of success—what if this takes off and changes my life forever? Fear of copycats—what if someone else steals my idea? The first step in taking action on your idea is simply sharing it with others. When I began sharing my concept of StartSomeGood, not only did I start building the confidence that it was worth doing, I also received the type of feedback that was crucial to refining the concept and model.

2. Find a co-founder. Entrepreneurship is tough. I knew that going in, but still didn’t expect the roller coaster ride I’ve experienced. For this reason, it’s crucial to have a teammate as dedicated to your vision as you are. The journey of an entrepreneur can be lonely. Do all you can to have a partner ready to board the roller coaster with you.

3. Start small. Facebook wasn’t built in a night, and the journey of Google started with a single line of code. Trying to build something of that size leads to inaction by paralysis. Launch. Test your idea. Iterate. But before you dream of a million users, just try to make your first 100 as happy as possible.

4. Take advantage of free tools. Of course you know of Skype, Gmail, and Google Docs as killer—and cost-effective—communication tools. But if you spend a bit of time—especially as a small start-up—you can find all kinds of amazing free tools to help you. From Pivotal Tracker for project management to Dropbox for syncing documents, the capital costs can be extremely low to get started. Oh, and my favorite free tip: Try working from hotel lobbies. The fancier ones have free wifi, fruit-infused water, and some great people watching.

5. Never say no to a connection. I’ve found that entrepreneurs are great connectors, so whenever someone says, “Hey you should meet so-and-so,” take them up on the offer. Get invited to speak at a conference even if it’s a drive away and not your target audience? Jump at the opportunity—you never know who you’ll meet, or how this wonderfully interconnected world will play out to your benefit.

6. Build a support network. You’ve already got a co-founder, but surround yourself with others—both entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs—that will help bolster your journey. Lots of great professional groups exist for entrepreneurs which are important, but equally crucial is connecting with those non-entrepreneurial types that can help re-ground you in reality.

7. Take care of yourself. You’re pumped-up and stressed-out. You’re working 18-hour days and wish that daylight savings time occurred daily so you could bend the laws of physics and have constant 25-hour days. But in this flurry of activity make time for three things: sleep, eating well, and exercise. These seem like the three easiest things to give up, but they’re the three things that ignoring will make your work-life that much more stressful. Disconnect, unplug, eat whole grains, and you’ll be better prepared for the challenges that will come your way.

An idea left stranded somewhere in your brain can benefit only you. By getting that idea out there and starting the process of action, you’ll be amazed at how, in the words of Brazilian author Paulo Coelho “the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” So get out there and do it. Just remember to stop to breathe occasionally along the way.

Every day, we look at what is happening in the Sandbox, searching for impactful projects, stories and ideas by Sandboxers and we then repost the most interesting, inspiring or brilliant stuff here on our blog.

This week Achyutha Sharma tells the story behind Poorna Kaksha, a project aiming to create a positive learning environment by providing solutions for better school infrastructure in rural and urban schools with poor or negligible infrastructure.

Can you give us an overview about your project?

Poorna Kaksha aims at creating a positive learning environment by providing solutions for better school infrastructure in rural and urban schools in India with poor or negligible infrastructure through creative thinking & system design approach. The infrastructure needs in education sector can be seen at three levels: the learning infrastructure (teachers’ guide material, educational tools, teaching aids), school infrastructure (building, toilets, electricity, computer lab, staff room, textbooks) and class infrastructure (black board, storage, desk & seat).
Currently, school infrastructure is not seen as a priority, is under the shadow of other educational schemes and a dealt with in a checklist approach to address infrastructural needs in India. School infrastructure is not a want but a need for our education eco-system that can make a tangible and intangible impact on a child’s positive learning through comfort, motivation, creativity, maintenance, and upgradation.
Poorna Kaksha addresses this critical need in education infrastructure by starting from the lowest denominator of school furniture, the desk & seat for a student. The design solution options of desk and seat has undergone a prototype stage with adaptable and executable features such as value additions, alternative material options, production scalability and ergonomic friendliness. Post the prototype stages, we intend to implement design solutions from class to school to learning infrastructure needs across rural and urban schools in India.

Tell us the story of your project – how did everything begin? What motivated you to start this project?

The idea triggered at a constitutional and creative level. At a creative level, as part of my community service, I took weekly classes in slum schools that made me realize the value of education, infrastructure and exposure that my education gave me. The idea triggered by starting with the basic furniture for students to sit comfortably and study which could be funded by investors. Recently during our team’s school visits we saw the abysmal state and lack of basic infrastructure in schools that lead to our moment of obligation to address these needs through innovative and socio-culturally rooted design solutions.
The idea at a constitutional level took shape when the Right to Education act was enforced in 2010 by the Indian government legalising the right to education for every child from 6 to 14 years in India. This historic act triggered our inspiration to address the socio-cultural and psychological/ emotional needs in school infrastructure rather than looking at it from a constitutional or legal context.
Our core team of passionate designers came together who genuinely believed in creating a tangible impact in education through our idea and vision of Poorna Kaksha.

How do you see your project evolve in the next:

6 months: Currently we are talking to investors for funding 5 – 10 schools for the school prototype stage to test the scalability of the project. The stage consists of: pitch presentation, funding for school prototype, bench production, implementation in target schools. Feedback – incorporation of design solution impact in schools, feedback from local bodies, principal, teachers, students, fine tuning of bench/ system design (if required). We intend to complete this stage in three months and then formalize – vendor management (local vendors), design refinement, production streamlining, local & rural partners/ strategic partners, implementation structures and marketing. It will be followed by setting up of Poorna Kaksha organization.

3 years: We have planned our growth in 3 development phases. Starting from Poorna Kaksha (holistic class), we address class infrastructure design solutions through a ‘system design’ approach for desk & seat, blackboard, storage. Poorna Paatshala (holistic school) will mark our second phase by addressing school infrastructure solutions such as school design services, storage system, display system, ICT, sports facilities and play spaces. The final phase will flag Poorna Shiksha (holistic education) that will integrate educational infrastructure with creative thinking tools, teaching aides and technology aides.

What advice would you give to young people that want to start their own project?

From a social entrepreneurship perspective, I could share my experience:
- Start with a solution which is a small investment, easy to implement, plan the roadmap and then scale up based on its success.
- Team, Team and Team. They will shape or break the vision you intend to realize.
- Learn to be humble realizing that I can’t claim to “change the world” with my work until it’s actually happening.

How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support your project?

- We would greatly appreciate if we can be introduced to International and Indian social impact investors in Education who would like to invest in school infrastructure for schools in India.
- Any exposure through media channels about our project would be great help for us.

Meet Sandboxer Alexa Clay! Alexa describes herself as social entrepreneur, a poet, a collaborator, a dreamer, and an economic historian.  Find Alexa on Facebook and Twitter.

1.Tell us the story of your latest project / occupation.

I recently met with folks from Soros’ Institute for New Economic Thinking. It reminded me how closed off economists are to the rest of the world. At the same time, I’m in constant conversation with social entrepreneurs and grassroots communities that are pioneering whole new approaches to job creation, economic development, measures of GDP, time banking, etc. I’d like to elevate the influence of these innovations – help them to scale. In so doing, I think we can truly democratize how economics is done.

2. What are you doing and how did you get there?

I listen to people’s stories and make sense of them. I spend much of my day at Ashoka Changemakers synthesizing insights from the field of social entrepreneurship and providing coherent ways of thinking about how the future of issues may evolve. I work on topics that range from job creation and property rights to patient empowerment and STEM education. At Meteos, I also lead research on open innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Everything I’m doing is a combination of being mission-driven and incredibly intellectually curious.

3. Tell us about the biggest successes and failures in your life. What worked, what didn’t, and what did you learn?

Most of my successes are correlated with virtues of openness, spontaneity, and possibility. My failures are correlated with a need for privacy and self-reliance. Interestingly, frustration with rules and establishment are actually both a driver of success and failure in my life. At this stage, my biggest success is really around respecting and cultivating my vision and originality. My biggest failure is sometimes operating too individualistically.

4. What do you want to achieve in

a) the next week: write a few articles for Fast Company; research UFO abduction in China; get a book proposal together; fall in love.

b) the next year: get a network to produce a reality television show about communities preparing for the Mayan apocalypse; visit some amazing communities pioneering “black market innovation”; spend more time in London and New York; launch a movement around social intrapreneurs; launch a research initiative on new economic thinking.

c) the next 10 years: transform economic thinking; write some books; architect some mass social movements; launch my own social investment fund, meet incredible people and continue to be inspired; develop a more cultivated style involving hats.

5. What was your most inspiring moment during the last two weeks?

Meeting someone in Kenya working on elephant poaching. Her level of commitment surpasses that of Lady Gaga.

7. How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support you and why would that be exciting for them.

I’d love to meet people with inspiring ideas about: black market innovation, poetry, performance art, and social entrepreneurship. I’m always up for collaborating on micro-events and writing projects and can offer support to others in the form of: kick-ass frameworks, strategy development, ideation / brainstorming.

7. Alexa’s favorite:

-book: East of Eden / Fugitive Pieces / The Brothers Karamazov

-movie: War of the Buttons

-place on earth: Beaches in Mozambique and Martha’s Vineyard

-travel destination during last year: London / Kenya / Stockholm / Berlin

-food: Pesto

-drink: Whiskey

- Quote: “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” by William James

]]> http://www.sandbox-network.com/meet-a-sandboxer/meet-a-sandboxer-alexa-clay/feed/ 0 http://www.sandbox-network.com/from-the-sandbox/from-the-sandbox-prove-them-wrong-make-it-happen-by-konstantina-zoehrer/ http://www.sandbox-network.com/from-the-sandbox/from-the-sandbox-prove-them-wrong-make-it-happen-by-konstantina-zoehrer/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:13:48 +0000 Richard Hylerstedt http://www.sandbox-network.com/?p=8269

Every day, we search the web for impactful content produced by Sandboxers. Once a week, we choose the most inspiring, funny or brilliant piece and repost it here on our blog.

This week Konstantina Zoehrer shares a story of love, determination and entrepreneurship. Check out the original story here and give Konstantina a follow on Twitter.

One year ago, I went to one of the concerts, I will remember my whole life. It was U2 performing in the Olympic Stadium of Athens. While «I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For» was sounding, I wanted to call a very special person, the person I was falling in love with. It had the taste of being a teenager, the same sweetness and anger, full of dreams.

During the following months this special person, saw me presenting myself to the entrepreneurial community as a wannapreneur and finally young entrepreneur, saw me stating his question (Why should somebody abroad come back to Greece in crisis?) to the Primeminister of the country, being offered a place at a leading University…and sending him greetings through a radio night show on the web. Shortly: Loving what I was doing.

It was a time, when people told me that I was wrong, crazy, unreasonable. Yes, I was and still am. People are used to name things to put them in little boxes with names, and I could not understand the whys yet. While listening to U2, I was just who I was, same for him, who was believing in me.

In the «traditional» business world, I needed to use a title, or whatever was naming, what I was doing, in a fancy way. Being just me was not enough at that time, but proving them wrong and making it happen always is, for the right people to be beside you.

During the last year, I was pitching my ideas, my work to some known entrepreneurs in Greece (and some outside Greece), or people that call themselves entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial spirits. Feedback was most of the time, quite turning me down, telling me that I am too young to know, that I am a communication person and not a business person (Is not a lot of business operations based on communication?) and that I should not try to get into shoes too big for me and focus on the romantic blog posts I was writing in Greek on (That was an interesting statement, I have to admit).

I started traveling for work and leisure in order to open myself to new things and to implement better thinking out of the box, without patterns that kept my focus in the wrong direction.

Berlin: Meeting some of the brains and souls behind Silicon Allee and 6Wunderkinder.
Athens: Meeting Loft2Work.
Vienna: Meeting STARTEurope.

In Berlin, I experienced that all the comments, I was told as feedback, simply were not true. Silicon Allee was in its first steps and became a reality for the entrepreneurial ecosystem some days after my departure from Berlin. 6Wunderkinder and their Wunderlist became a part of my everyday work flow. Silicon Allee and 6Wunderkinder are an inspiration of strong will and flexibility, both assets needed in the business world.

In spring, I met Sophia, Olia, Andreas aka Loft2Work and people that had no reason to believe, in what I was saying. In the end, I was just a girl talking a lot and very passionate about entrepreneurial culture and social entrepreneurship. Meanwhile. I joined the team and I am very excited to build up, one of the country’s first social businesses.

This summer, I met the team at STARTEurope, while they were running the preparations of the upcoming European StartUp Festival, StartUp Week 2011. Again, there was no reason to trust a young woman, who was not running a company yet at that time. But they did and supported my efforts during the last two months, difficult weeks, working on a vision of entrepreneurial culture.

Today we heard a lot about Steve Jobs. If the Jobs era teaches us something, than sure it is about how important culture is, whether it is corporate culture or mentality. He thought us that passion is not only a buzz word, but “«following your heart and intuition» is not sentimental but a whole life theory.

It is the first time, I see my name printed with «Social Entrepreneurship» written below on an invitation, I felt as an honor. These days, I also got some organizations and companies supporting my efforts and during the last weeks I got also some entrepreneurial inspirations on board of it. It will be announced soon and it is just a small step forward but I enjoy the journey, even if this means that I have to be patient a little bit more than I thought I could. be.

This post was my way to tell the story behind two simple words like «Thank you» to all those who support and believe.

Returning to the romantic story I was mentioning at the start: The special person came into my life at a point, I was not well. He was watching from a distance and he intervened. Maybe unconsciously but he was there, letting me be just me without the mails, calls and meeting, just me, and reminding me that if I do not enjoy the journey, it might not be my journey and that I had to believe in it first. We lost the connection, but he came back into my life as a friend, when I was more than just ok, having won my various struggles and «simply loving what I was doing». Making it happen.

“If you really want something, and really work hard, and take advantage of opportunities, and never give up, you will find a way.”
- Jane Goodall

Meet Sandboxer Romain Boulongne! Passionate about youth engagement, social innovation and entrepreneurship, Romain is currently working with Adive, a non-profit organization in France that encourages large corporations to develop business relationships with entrepreneurs located in disadvantaged areas. Find Romain on Facebook and Twitter.

1.Tell us the story of your latest project / occupation.

Adive is a truly entrepreneurship-oriented organisation. Our goal is to transform the workforce of French corporations by connecting procurement officers with suppliers and entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities.
Our program has the potential to enable disadvantaged groups to get an easier access into the mainstream economy. By breaking down the walls surrounding the privileged market where big companies are tendering, our approach aims to bring transformative and systemic change.
Adive was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship and the Echoing Green Fellowship, which are both organizations rewarding today’s boldest social change visionaries in the fields of human rights, economic development, and the environment, among others.

2. What are you doing and how did you get there?

Amongst other things, I started my college education in studying French and English literature, history and philosophy.
What has always interested me in literature is the process of creation, of redefining the world and changing the status quo using the well-known but underused power of the pen and thereby the power of imagination. In a way, this is exactly what to me is the value of political science: understanding society in order to transform it and to have a more efficient impact. At the same time, I wanted to have a concrete impact on the world and I didn’t feel that politics would have helped me in this quest.

Hence, I attended a managing social innovation program as a master’s degree, which opened up new perspectives leading me to travel near and far and venture to Montreal to work with a social entrepreneur to understand the roots of (social) entrepreneurship. This inevitably led me to join Adive, that is non-profit and social innovation-oriented in essence.

Presently, I have been working with the organisation as a project leader, leading others, but also myself towards a viable career path in the completely new field of social innovation!

3. Tell us about the biggest successes and failures in your life. What worked, what didn’t, and what did you learn?

Curiosity is what drives me forward and keeps me really going. This led me to be part of a wonderful experience at the heart of a promising social enterprise, growing almost from scratch with fabulous serial social entrepreneurs and led me to understand that my life will be definitely entrepreneurship-oriented. I realize now that my nature is unobtrusively in line with Sandbox’s philosophy. This led me to be at the right place at the right time and to have the right connections to make things happen.

This doesn’t mean that I never failed – in contrast it happened many times. For instance, I remembered a time when I was trying to run many things at the same time and I eventually f***ed up almost every project I was involved in. Multitasking is bad… but Beckett put it best when he said: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

4. What do you want to achieve in

a) the next week: finish all the burning projects I am currently working on by the end of the month to do a short vacation!

b) the next year: develop new sustainable programs with large corporations, to help fostering new and sustainable partnerships for large corporations and small innovative businesses.
To sump up, help large corporations to become effective change makers to create effective shared value.

c) the next 10 years: Many people die at age 25 and don’t get buried until they are 60. So, as I am turning 25 next year, I really don’t want to get buried for the next 35 years of my life … Consequently, my to do list for the next ten years is quite simple: get stuff done and be awesome, which on a more serious note means to create a systemic change in the business world and work upstream to shift the culture of future leaders and to promote social innovation among youngsters.

5. What was your most inspring moment during the last two weeks?

Gathering for the 30th anniversary of Ashoka – I had some pretty exciting conversations with social entrepreneurs from around the world, it was amazing and powerful.

6. How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support you and why would that be exciting for them.

Let’s come together! I love to connect. I would love to benefit from other Sandboxers’ expertise and experience as we are launching different projects on a regular basis.

7. Romain’s favorite:

-book: La chute by Albert Camus
-movie: 12 angry men
-place on earth: New York
-travel destination during last year: Thailand, Chicago, Los Angeles
-food: Italien
-drink: Cuba libre
-quote: “If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito” – Anita Roddick

Sandboxers from all over Europe convened in Oxford last weekend for the Skoll Emerge Conference. Hosted at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School (SBS), the event brought together some of the world’s leading industry experts, academics and social entrepreneurs to discuss the topic of social entrepreneurship.

Delegates were in the extremely enviable position, having the chance to listening to some truly inspirational keynote speakers in the form of Bunker Roy (one of TIME’s 100 most influential personalities 2010, he founded Barefoot College – a social enterprise addressing problems of water, sanitation, education and rural unemployment in the developing world) and Tim Smit CBE (Founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall which has turned-over £1.1 billion since it’s launch in 2001 ). As usual the organisers behind the event, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, offered a great program of events aimed at those delegates interested in learning, doing and building social enterprises.

At such a high profile event there is no surprise that many Sandboxers made the trip to Oxford for the excellent networking opportunities, the constant spew of simply fascinating ideas on the topic and not least to mention the joint Skoll/Sandbox Dinner, which came fittingly at the end of this engaging yet intense weekend of conferencing.

The dinner was organised by Sandbox’s very own Ambassador for Social Enterprise  Kyra Choucroun, herself a writer for the Guardian on all issues that concern the environment, sustainability and social enterprise. Indeed many Sandboxers  found themselves dining with some of the major influencers, innovators and key decision makers across these fields. Geoff Lye, Executive Chairman of SustainAbility, was in attendance and no doubt left an impression on the 33 people that ate at the dinner (around half were Sandboxers). Geoff’s company has been a pioneer in sustainable consulting for over two decades – they pride themselves on tackling the root causes of what un-sustainability brings as opposed to just it’s symptoms. Geoff brought along many of his expert colleagues, many thought-leaders in their own right. This was similarly true of Alexis Ettinger (Head of Marketing Strategy & Marketing at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship) who invited her senior colleagues and several Skoll “Skollars” including Xavier Helgesen a social entrepreneur who has contributed $8 million to libraries and literacy organisations through his social venture Better World Books. It was a dinner packed with a diverse and exuberant audience at the bleeding edge of social enterprise in the UK especially, we even had the pleasure to sit among many seniors from Volans, the organisation which first coined the term “triple bottom line”…WOW!

From the feedback we have received there is no doubt that everyone who attended enjoyed the discussions that took place over the entire weekend and some very valuable connections were made. All felt it was a hugely valuable and worthwhile experience, despite the pain of having an underground tube strike, whilst most people ventured their way home to London. I would like to thank everyone who helped organise the event and all made so great, including those at Skoll, Volans, SustainAbility and Sandbox.

Brad is a Sandbox Community Manager based in London, he’s working alongside Christian to grow the impact of Sandbox and its members around the globe.

This post is long overdue, but it is important that I write it. There is no way I cannot blog about my first incredibly fun conference experience! On the 24th of Sept, Fabian, Mariam and I bussed up from New York to Harvard University, Boston, to make a splash at Igniting Innovation: A [fantastic] Summit on Social Entrepreneurship. With Sandboxers Emily and Amily organizing the event, and the likes of Kosta, Manou and Fabian’s orange socks attending, it was bound to be a blast.

It was my first foray into a world of meet and greets, and I can honestly say that I learned a lot. TED style talks are the future, and the hour long speeches of old will no longer serve the purpose of catalyzing an audience. Every presenter had just 15 minutes to talk about their project, organization, and life.  It puts pressure on presenters to be focused, and simultaneously demands a level of commitment from those watching.

The quality of speakers was excellent, and they represented some very cool companies and NGOs. We got to hear from Jeff Church, of Nika Water, and the exuberant Kathy Eldon, founder of Creative Visions. Doug Cohen brought his own gong, and Fabian rocked his own presentation of course! In between talks, It was refreshing to be able to chat with them in a completely informal setting, because I now know the power of building your network. All you have to do is reach out, tap someone on the shoulder, and give them a reason to remember your name.

Also, age was not a barrier. It is one of the things I love most about social entrepreneurship. Some of the presenters may have been in their 50s, but they were there thanks to the incredible planning of a bunch of 20 year olds. Although I am young and may not have the perfect idea for a business yet, but I have become conscious of the fact that there is absolutely nothing stopping me from turning the world on its head. By attending events like Igniting Innovation, I’m learning constantly. When I am ready to apply this knowledge, Sandbox can provide a perfect sounding board for my work.

So thanks to Sandbox, for letting me do what I love, and teaching me to do it well. I left Boston that weekend feeling very optimistic about things to come. At 19 years old, that is exactly what I need.

Last week, Sandbox gave a keynote address and hosted a ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ workshop at the Ivy Leadership Summit at Yale University.  Preparing for the conference, we wanted to do things a little different.  We were asked to share our thoughts on ‘Fearless leadership.’  Instead, we argued the term is misleading.  Observing the Sandbox community,  we made the case that leaders aspiring to change the status quo must fear something.  Sandbox members would point out three fears in particular:

1. The fear of not having an impact.
2. The fear of doing something they are not genuinely passionate about.
3. The fear of being ‘normal’.

To help participants truly engage with our message, we invited everyone to a Sandbox workshop on Social Entrepreneurship.  Our goal was to demonstrate that it’s not only possible to create and act on atypical ideas that have meaningful impact, but it’s actually a lot of fun.  We prepared four general topics in areas such as  promoting good, improving education, raising awareness of homelessness, and improving remittance payments for migrant workers.

With these topics, we formed four groups and encouraged participants to choose a cause they felt most passionate about.  We limited brainstorming time to 30 minutes, asking for a plan with concrete actionable steps that would bring the idea to life.  Here is what happened in less than 30 minutes:

1. Bikes for Cambodia: Moderated by Nettra Pan, the group came up with an effective way to address education and transportation improvement in Cambodia.  The Idea: In rural areas of Cambodia, transportation is rudimentary while schools are distributed widely, making it difficult for thousands of kids to attend school.  The group wants to provide bicycles for children in Cambodia, in this way boosting school attendance.  The group plans to create bicycle rental centers at schools in a given village, through which children will borrow bicycles for a small fee.  Bike companies and individual donors will ‘adopt’ school zones by donating money and equipment (bicycles).  To learn more please join the Facebook Fan page here.

2. Karma Points: Moderated by Fabian Pfortmuller.  The group came up with a way to promote good deeds through an online platform, involving both individual and corporate ‘good doers’.  The idea: Create a network of people who enjoy giving back to the community.  On this platform people will be recognized and rewarded for their day-to-day acts of kindness and compassion.  Companies will donate goods and services that will be awarded based on Karma points.  To learn more please join the the Facebook Fan page here.

3. Sleep in their Shoes: Moderated by Danielle Tomson, the group came up with a way to raise awareness of homelessness while raising money that helps local shelters.  The Idea: Students across the US camp out in their university quads or nearby public parks.  Each student seeks sponsorship from friends/family/companies.  The act will raise awareness and sponsorships will help local shelters.  Students from several universities are putting the plan into action.  To learn more please join the the Facebook Fan page here.

4. Air Cash: Moderated by Paul Gleger, the group brainstormed ways to improve expensive and sometimes unreliable cross border remittance payments sent by millions of migrant workers.  The Idea: create (or expand existing) text message based mobile money transfers.  The idea can first be tested in small towns and university campuses.  The group plans to then scale the user-friendly model into larger markets.  The bigger idea is to create a standard ‘air cash’ mobile currency that is trusted, easily transferred, and recognized as legitimate payment.  The team is currently researching the topic, will develop it further for a university business plan competition, and will connect with a telecom operator in Zimbabwe (thanks to one of team members) to learn more about mobile networks and payments.  To learn more please join the the Facebook Fan page here.

It was exciting to see our keynote message put into action.  From feedback we realized hands on workshops are preferred over traditional panels – after all, learning comes from doing, not just talking.  We also noticed that constrained brainstorming time leads to impressive levels creativity (as we’ve probably all experienced writing term papers last minute We were thrilled to receive positive feedback from participants and we hope to conduct similar workshops in the near future.  What topics should we tackle next? How can we make the workshops even better? Let us know!

(Ivy Leadership 2010 at Yale – press right arrow to begin presentation)

Fabian Pfortmüller and Paul Gleger presented Sandbox and moderated a workshop on Social Entrepreneurship at the Ivy Leadership Summit hosted by Yale University.  Above you will find a presentation (thanks to our friends at Prezi) of the talk Fabian gave to 200 young leaders opening night of the conference.

Keep an eye out for a more in depth view regarding our thoughts on “leadership”.  We will also soon post the fantastic outcomes of the workshop attended by more than 50 students.  We were inspired to see four social ventures come to life in 30min!  In the presentation we encouraged students to create positive impact, think big, and actually make things happen – this weekend we lead by example.

Yuxin is one of our Sandbox Ambassadors. He is taking care of the growing Sandbox community in Hong Kong by organizing regular events. Besides being the Sandbox Ambassador to Hong Kong, Yuxin is currently preparing the MaD-conference. This post is based on several questions we sent to Yuxin.

Yuxin is currently working with the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), a social venture think tank on various socially beneficial business projects. Recently he has been cooperating with UNDP and Aceh Partnership for Economic Development (APED) working on strengthening the cocoa value chain for sustained growth in Aceh, the provence that was hit by the boxing day tsunami in 2004. Yuxin has just been voted as the Top Make a Difference (MaD) Role Model on m-a-d.asia and is working with MaD on organizing events and promoting entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and discovery in the region.

Taking on several ambassadorial roles, Yuxin helps to bring together young talents in Hong Kong, Mainland China and other places over the world. He enjoys being with people and believes in the sparkles when different minds meet and when great ideas exchange. He loves and respects diversity while tries to build communication and cooperation on top of it.

Being an out-reaching, self-challenging and adventurous person, Yuxin always seeks for opportunities of exploring himself and discovering his unknown part of the world. He tries to understand different cultures and learns from them; at the some time he also tries to introduce Chinese culture to other countries and help people better understand China.

Apart from all above, Yuxin is fond of fine arts and other visual arts, cheffing and wine tasting. He parkours and climbs and does a variety of other sports.

At Sandbox, we’re thrilled to have Yuxin as our Hong Kong ambassador, and we look forward to having a great Sandbox community there! If you’re ever traveling through Hong Kong and want to meet up, let us know.