Limitless organises the first Social Innovation Academy event in Europe

On January 24th, after filling up the conference room with interested audience days in advance, we gathered for the first time together with our Advisors, Friends and other amazing social innovators and social innovation experts, practitioners and enthusiasts in Luxembourg, to present the preliminary results of the Social Innovation Academy project. Most notably, we focused the research on core social innovation skills (we’re proud to share they have been published by London School of Economics Business Review), our analysis of the social innovation training landscape in Europe, and the beta version of the Academy itself. There were many participants attending, including government representatives, business angels, successful non-profit owners and business people, and aspiring social innovators from bankers to human right activists. 

Dariusz Sikora presented Limitless and how the company implements its mission of helping organisations and individuals to innovate for good.  The Limitless Innovation Associate, Anita Füzi showcased the different innovation tools that can help organisations, businesses and institutions to innovate faster, more effectively and in a fun way. Anita also showed Limitless Innovation FactoryTM, which helps leaders, executives, managers, experts and start-up leaders to learn the skills and techniques to innovate and obtain the right mindset to create a culture of innovation in their organisations. We also presented the new article on the capability approach to social impact – ‘Why Taking a Step Back From Social Impact Assessment Can Lead to Better Results’, co-written by Anita Fuzi,  Lidia Gryszkiewicz and Dariusz Sikora, and published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. 

Grigorios Kosmas Balamatsias from Limitless then presented the beta version of the Academy, officially launching the testing phase of the Social Innovation Academy project. 

Besides the presentations, we held a panel discussion on the social innovation concept and practice. For this, we brought together a range of panelists and guests from Luxembourg’s social innovation scene: Lidia Gryszkiewicz (The Impact Lab), David Iachetta (MOBILU, AVNOCONN)  Carolina Parisi (Global Shapers Community, Luxembourg Global Dignity), Anna Radulowski (Founder Institute, Coding Girls) and Fabrice Testa (Founder Institute, LSTA). 

Social Innovation Academy’s event scored several features in the national press (including Chronicle, Delano and Paperjam), revealing the growing interest in social innovation in Luxembourg. We are still under the charm of the great positive energy we have felt during and after the event, confirming that social innovation has great potential and is here to stay!  

What is Social Innovation Academy in the first place?

Social Innovation Academy will be the first European, fully online programme focusing exclusively on social innovation. The project, launched and lead by our team at Limitless from Luxembourg, and executed by several partners from across Europe (including Harvard Business Review Poland and Found.ation from Greece), will finish in August 2019. We are funded by the European Commission, under the Erasmus+ programme for professional education and training. 

Social innovation, in short, is any innovation that is social in its ends or in its means. In practice, social innovations take form of social enterprises, corporate innovation projects, non-profit projects, public sector programs, grass-root movements or community projects. 

Upcoming events of the Social Innovation Academy

After an inspiring event in Luxembourg, we met in Ljubljana, and next stops are Warsaw, Athens and Badajoz. Registrations for the Social Innovation Academy events in Warsaw (5th of March) and Athens (28th of February) are open now. Experience shows that places fill up fast. Book your spot early!  

Follow the link to register for our event in Warsaw. 

Follow the link to register for our event in Athens. 

Date of the event Badajoz to be announced soon. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay tuned!