Social Entrepreneurship Day, an event hosted by Ashoka Turkey in partnership with the Vehbi Koç Foundation (VKV) to strengthen the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey. It is organized within the scope of the Vehbi Koç Foundation annual grant given to the Ashoka Turkey Social Entrepreneurship Program since 2018.
The Social Entrepreneurship Day includes inspiring speeches and interactive workshops designed especially for the participants’ common needs.
The first Social Entrepreneurship Day was organized on 16 October 2018 in Istanbul with the participation of over 90 people from 15 cities across Turkey. The workshops were organized on themes such as social impact management, nonviolent communication, design thinking, sustainable financial structures and developing business model.
The Social Entrepreneurship Day was organized for the second time on 28 May in 2019, in Salt Galata, with the participation of over 130 social entrepreneurs and industry, nonprofit and public sector leaders from nearly 10 provinces across the country. The event included workshops on empathy, new leadership, sustainable financing, connection, and networks. The guest of honor was Dr. Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at MIT working on leadership and corporate behavior. Dr. Scharmer, who is the founder of the Presencing Institute and the developer of Theory U, which includes the concept of “an open mind, an open heart, and an open will.”
The third edition of the annual Social Entrepreneurship Day was held online on April 28-29, 2020 due to the safety measures taken for the global corona virus epidemic. During the online sessions, which were followed by nearly 200 people from more than 10 cities , evolving systems and the changing world order were discussed from a social entrepreneurship standpoint. The event’s guests of honor included Jeroo Billimoria, an Ashoka and Schwab Fellow who also leads several civil society projects worldwide to empower children and youth, Bekir Ağırdır, General Manager, KONDA, and Faruk Eczacıbaşı, an Ashoka Support Network Turkey member and Vice Chairman of Eczacıbaşı Holding.
To watch the recordings of the Social Entrepreneurship Day, click here.