Read the full story

CityHive Geraldton (www.cityhive.org) will open on 19th September 2011 and is currently crowd-funding parts of the fit-out and the programs it is set to run. Read the full story

Canadian Centre for Social Innovation

One of the key enablers of Social Innovation is the space to create, collaborate and network to bring ideas to life. Read the full story

Small organisations, start-up entrepreneurs and visiting consultants and trainers are all screaming out for workspace in Geraldton that supports their success. The workspace will be : central, affordable, professional, and creative.

Pollinators Inc. are leading this partnership project that aims to have a co-working space operating in central Geraldton in mid-2011.

This space would be run as a ‘social enterprise’ (makes profit, only to re-invest in the mission) provide a full-service office at flexible rates, meeting and workshop facilities, enterprise incubation services, entrepreneurship programs and regular networking and learning sessions.

This space would become the ‘home’ for emerging entrepreneurs and the sort of diverse, sustainable businesses that will be essential to Geraldton’s vision for the future. Innovation will be welcome at the City Hive.

Features of the space

Design

• 50% working space: mostly ‘hot desks’ where you bring your laptop and plug in and with a couple of private offices forenterprises of 2-3 people
• 25% devoted to meeting and workshop spaces, small and large
• Flexible (e.g. movable desks, lighting, power) for events that may take over the whole space
• Stylish, creative, healthy for workers and sustainable. Examples of interiors are viewable online
• Private booths for phone calls
• Casual lounge for reading, dreaming and coffees
• Lockers and storage for your private and valuable gear while you are not at your desk

Facilities

• (soon) the fastest broadband in Australia, including wi-fi coverage for the whole space
• Printers, copiers and landline phone
• White-walls and black-walls (better than white-boards and black-boards!)
• Projector for presentations and movies
• Kitchenette, coffee machine
• Secure bicycle storage
• Toilets

You can find out more and keep track of progress on the City Hive website but there is also the opportunity to contribute to deciding the direction of the space through completing this survey.

Each month SiiWA will be organising a meetup focused on Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise in Western Australia.

The meetup is designed to share ideas, issues, knowledge and action. At this stage we are still finalising exactly what will happen during the hour and a half along with partners / sponsors for the event. So if you have any ideas about exactly what you would like to see please make suggestions in the comments below.

You can register your interest here (if you are thinking of coming please do so as we need to work our a venue and have some idea of numbers/interest)

Who is it for?

This event is for people (and organisations) who wants to make positive social change. This could be:

• Social Entrepreneurs
• Social Intrapraneurs (Change makers in Government)
• Business people with social purpose motives
• Community members with passion and ideas

We are looking for a diverse mix of people who can bring their skills, experience and knowledge and contribute to this growing movement.

What will happen?

An exact “agenda” is still flexible however the goal is to learn from each other and the experiences of people who can share their knowledge. This will take the form of:

• Case-studies
• Pitches
• Guest Speakers
• Working groups
• Idea Generation
• Networking

What do I need?

Just yourself and your ideas. (and probably pen and paper…but lets see if we can find a sponsor for that)

Where is it?

Dependent on the number of people we have register their interest we may need to change the venue. At present we have pencilled in the Fremantle Arts Centre however this could change. So if you are interested please register as we will update those who have registered with the venue.

How much does it cost?

This monthly event will be a free event. We are looking for sponsors and partners who can support it with a venue, food, drinks and any other resources that could be required as the meetup evolves.

If there is anything specific you would like to see please let us know in the comments below.

Social innovation in Western Australia has setup a facebook account in order to share resources and provide a venue for dialogue around Social Innovation, Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship. Not only will the information posted to SiiWA be pushed through our facebook account but we will also share additional links to resources, events and activities happening around WA and around the world.

We have been using twitter for some time now and have had many positives from the resources we have been able to share.

Another support infrastructure component for Social Innovation that uses the principals of a technology incubator or social innovation incubator in this case is The Hub. The Hub combines both physical space with online community and in Australia we are getting our first Hub in Melbourne opening in February 2011.

More on The Hub -

We’re a social enterprise with the ambition to inspire and support imaginative and enterprising initiatives for a better world. The Hub is a global community of people from every profession, background and culture working at ‘new frontiers’ to tackle the world’s most pressing social, cultural and environmental challenges.

We believe that there is no absence of good ideas in the world.  The problem is a crisis of access, scale, resources and impact. So it felt vital to create places around the world for accessing space, resources, connections, knowledge, experience and investment.

We’ve been working across five continents and 23 cities to create places for people who change things. This is the ambition. We set out to create places that borrow from the best of a member’s club, an innovation agency, a serviced office and a think-tank to create a very different kind of innovation environment. Places with all the tools and trimmings needed to grow and develop new ventures. Places to access experience, knowledge, finance and markets. And above all, places for experience and encounter, full of diverse people doing amazing things. We call these places Hubs. In many ways we’re just getting started. And we’d like you to be part of it.

Looking at the different types of support infrastructure for Social Innovation is something we are going to need to do a lot of. The Canadian Centre for Social Innovation has a possible model that could be established in Western Australia.

More from the Canadian Centre for Social Innovation -

Definitions of social innovation abound and a casual observer can quickly become entangled in a debate over meaning and nuance. We’re not too hung up about it so we’ve adopted a simple working definition: Social Innovation refers to new ideas that resolve existing social, cultural, economic and environmental challenges for the benefit of people and planet. A true social innovation is systems-changing – it permanently alters the perceptions, behaviours and structures that previously gave rise to these challenges.

Even more simply, a social innovation is an idea that works for the public good.

Social innovations come from individuals, groups or organizations, and can take place in the for-profit, nonprofit and public sectors. Increasingly, they are happening in the spaces between these three sectors as differing approaches collide to spark new ways of thinking about the challenges we all face.

The Centre for Social Innovation operates here, in the spaces between sectors and among individuals, projects and organizations. We’re creating new spaces to foster social innovation by bringing together a mix of people, services, strategies and ideas.