On the 9th of September, the Social Enterprise and Innovation Forum welcomed the theme “Tomorrow’s Technologies: Achieving Social Change through Innovation” and attracted policymakers, social business leaders, innovators and experts in various fields.

For the third consecutive year, the Forum has attracted international attention, with more than 30 speakers from 12 countries worldwide, and remote participants from European countries, the US and even Australia. This year, the Forum also hosted the closing event of the international initiative POSITIVE and showcased the publications and documents produced by the project. 

Social business in public policy

“It is no coincidence that this year’s Forum highlighted the synergy between technology and social innovation. We live in a rapidly changing world, where technological advances open new horizons and provide the tools to tackle society’s deepest and most pressing problems. However, this progress must be combined with the social sensitivity and responsibility that we must assume to achieve a fairer, more equitable and sustainable world,” said Viktorija Bražiūnaitė, Head of the Lithuanian Social Business Association (LISVA). 

The patron of the event, the Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, drew attention to the importance of innovation in her opening speech: “In addition to the enormous opportunities that its application opens up in many areas, innovation, and in particular artificial intelligence, is increasingly being warned of the risks if decision-makers fail to keep up with cutting-edge technologies and find rational ways of regulating them. It is therefore more important than ever to have a strong link between experts and stakeholders in different fields so that we can exchange knowledge effectively and make wise decisions in a rapidly changing world. Looking at the day’s programme, the speakers and their topics, I am delighted that there will be an attempt to look broadly and from different angles at the opportunities offered by the collaboration between cutting-edge technologies and social business.”

Welcoming speeches were given by Brigitte Fellahi-Brognaux, Head of the Unit for Social and Inclusive Entrepreneurship at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Dr Petra Püchner, Commissioner for Europe of the Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism Baden-Württemberg and Executive Manager of Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, Germany, and the CEO of the Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, the Lead partner of POSITIVE. 

Bringing social innovation and technology ecosystems closer together 

The second session focused on ways to foster cross-sectoral collaboration in the social sphere using the latest technologies and innovations. Dr Mantas Vilys, Director of the Lithuanian Innovation Centre, welcomed the fact that more and more bridges are being built between the two worlds of social and technological innovation: “The discussions at the Forum certainly show that social innovators are increasingly looking into the technological innovation ecosystem for solutions that could optimise their activities, while the participants in the technological innovation ecosystem are becoming more open to the specifics of social innovators. We can learn a lot from each other and together become stronger and more resilient to crises, but sometimes collaboration is harder than it seems at first sight. This is why events like the Social Innovation and Business Forum, where a wide range of stakeholders come together and try to hear each other out, are particularly needed.”

Partners from POSITIVE also presented the materials, prepared during the project activities: 

Toolkit for Social Innovation Training

POSITIVE Impact Challenge Playbook

The full speeches of the Forum in English and Lithuanian are available at: https://www.youtube.com/live/B3C1yMxRqKA