How to connect (or reconnect) to your purpose and create positive change
21 Jun 2018Why do you pursue an ‘ethical’ career? How do you maintain focus on your purpose and develop the skills to create positive change?
Whatever your ‘why’, it is important to participate in experiences that can remind you why you are passionate about a purposeful career, and offer opportunities for learning and development. These experiences should inspire, educate, and connect you to others who share your passion for making a positive impact.
For anyone in Perth this July, the Social Impact Festival 2018 is an unmissable experience for connecting with your purpose and developing your knowledge and skills for your purposeful career. The Festival is a platform for cutting-edge knowledge and ideas, celebrating initiatives, creating positive change, and generating insights that can help to address complex social problems.
Inspiration
Inspiration is abundant with many opportunities to celebrate and showcase those who ‘care for everything’ – a state of being that every human being has the capacity to achieve. The Social Impact Summit (19-20 July at UWA Business School) is the highlight of the 2018 Festival. If you are a changemaker working in Western Australia, this is an opportunity to strengthen your understanding, skills and networks of social impact, in collaboration with leaders of social innovation from business, government, academic and community sectors (see Program Snapshot). Further capacity building events hosted by the Centre for Social Impact UWA as part of the Festival include the Presencing Foundation Program and Public Lecture: Leading Innovation with Theory U by Dr Otto Scharmer (8 July at UWA Business School).
Come and meet Perth’s vibrant community of ethical businesses at The Good Market (7 July at UWA). Their passion and creativity will inspire you to find joy in creating sustainable change – as an individual, family and community (read more).
Finally, the Festival’s diverse program of Impact Sparker events are designed to inspire and empower while providing an avenue to connect emotionally to your purpose. Merely browsing through the 2018 Program or #SIFest18 hashtag online, let alone attending the Festival, gives you an idea of the huge amount of inspirational people in Western Australia leading change from conscious capitalism to ethical fashion.
Learning
The Festival is about sharing knowledge and gaining deeper understandings of the challenges we face in our society, in order to act effectively in solving them. The Social Impact Summit is a carefully designed journey that draws insights from social enterprise, homelessness and housing affordability, architecture and design, disabilities and ageing, impact measurement, community development, Indigenous rights and well-being, climate change, and more. It is an opportunity to recontextualise your work’s purpose by understanding how you fit within the larger framework of social impact.
You can learn in different ways at the Festival. Whether it’s jumping into building a business Silicon Valley style at Startup Weekend, or expanding your understanding of what’s possible through Effecting Change: How Citizens Are Democratising Science and Making a Difference. We invite you to learn from lived experiences and develop your empathy required to address even the most complex issues facing society today.
Connection
The Festival intentionally brings together unlikely allies across traditional boundaries such as sectors, industries, cultures, locations, and ages. Every single event is designed to provide ample opportunity to connect with other individuals who are also dedicated to making a positive difference in their communities. This connection leads to collaboration and collective action that is critical to achieving social progress.
What do previous attendees say?
“ [I’m] more determined than ever to get on with the job of making a difference instead of sitting around talking about it”
“All stories heard during the week are from ordinary people who are just doing what they are lead to by passion. It has helped me to feel more adequate to take a risk and have a go.”
“For me, attending the social impact festival was like attending a buffet of ideas. It provided a place for people passionate about social change, both veterans and newcomers alike, to share ideas and experience a ‘meeting of the minds’.”
Join the hotspot of change-makers from 19-20 July at the Social Impact Summit 2018. Early Bird Sales for Summit end Friday 22 June. Register now: https://socialimpactsummit2018.eventbrite.com.au