Agenda
Explore the agenda that covers topics on #climate, #finance, #team, #impact, #tech, and #communications, in many interesting and varied formats.
With the theme “Journey to Impact,” the SIA Summit 2023 encapsulates the essence of the entire event and the approach it takes in addressing social challenges. It revolves around the idea that social entrepreneurship and driving positive impact are not static processes but rather dynamic journeys of continuous learning, discovery, and evolution.
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Day 1: Tuesday
Day 1 sets the stage for this extraordinary expedition, heralding the dawn of innovation. The day’s journey encompasses profound discussions on transforming challenges into opportunities, empowering attendees with the knowledge to make a tangible difference in the world.
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09:30 – 11:00
Opening ceremony
Your Journey to Impact is only starting, and in this opening ceremony we will bring all of us together to explore what can you expect at the SIA Summit 2023, and together with two keynote speakers set the stage for the following days.
You will first be greeted by Milica Pavić, Senior Advisor for SMEs at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
We will then get inspired by a keynote speaker, Katarina Ejdus is the founder of Women on the Way, a Serbia-based social enterprise and a fashion brand empowering female refugees. Through her work at Women on the Way, she fosters social and economic inclusion of female refugees in Serbia.
We will get to know each other a bit better and look at what expects us at the SIA Summit 2023.
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11:00 – 11:30
Break
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11:30 – 12:30
Parallel sessions #1
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11:30 – 12:30
Financial Management for Entrepreneurs: Basics
We know that managing financials of your early-stage venture can often causes stress. What is cash-flow, how to do financial planning, what are profit and loss statements?
In this session, Bojan Vulikić, Small Business Department Head, will demistify this terminology with you, and help you undersand basics of financial management for entrepreneurs.
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11:30 – 12:30
Countering Heropreneurship
Especially in times of crisis we long for hero stories because hero figures offer hope and inspiration. Social entrepreneurs are often presented as heropreneurs: they save the world, help disadvantaged people, earn money, become immediately active in crises, are full of innovative power, and all of that at the same time.
But what does this actually mean for the social entrepreneurs themselves and what effects do such enormous pressure situations have?
The session will be an interactive fishbowl discussion exploring this question. The format gives every attendee the possibility to participate in the conversation equally, sharing experiences, thoughts, and questions with everyone.
SIA Speaker Peter Vandor Senior Researcher, Founder and Manager of Social Entrepreneurship Center at WU Vienna, Founder of Social Impact Award WU Vienna -
11:30 – 12:30
Building a Supportive Ecosystem: Collaborating with Mentors and Incubators
Gain insights from a panel discussion on the vital role of mentors and incubators in nurturing and accelerating entrepreneurial growth.
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11:30 – 12:30
Vision Retreat – Opening
Exclusively for the organizers of Social Impact Award.
The opening session aims to connect all SIA Hosts in real time and create a space for an international overview of the SIA 2023 year.
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12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
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13:30 – 15:00
Parallel sessions #2
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13:30 – 15:00
Advanced Financial Management
This session is for those who want to better understand advanced financial concepts for entrepreneurs, such as loans, debt financing, liquidty and similar.
In this session, Bojan Vulikić, Small Business Department Head, will demistify this terminology with you, and help you understand what banks and potential investors might ask from you.
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13:30 – 15:00
Technology as an Enabler: Leveraging Digital Solutions for Social Change
Uncover the potential of technology to drive meaningful social change and impact.
We will demonstrate how the latest AI tools, like AI image generators and ChatGPT, can aid your entrepreneurial endeavors.
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13:30 – 15:00
Building and Managing Your Customer’s Journey
We will cover 5-step customer journey map to recognize how we build strong relationships with our clients and what is our special ingredient aka chocolate on a pillow. The most important thing in our business is to care about our customers, in this session we will learn how to do it.
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13:30 – 15:00
Vision Retreat – Reflection Café
Exclusively for the organizers of Social Impact Award.
Join the Reflection Café and together with the other SIA Hosts identify lessons learned and pain points of your local Discovery Phase, Incubation Phase, and Award Phase. The format will ensure you share and get tips & tricks for your implementation next year.
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15:00 – 15:30
Break
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15:30 – 17:30
Insight Conversations
Using the power of collective wisdom, we will dive deeper into peer-to-peer conversations around #impact, #tech, #team, #wellbeing, #communications.
We will gather in Impact Arena and later spread out in groups to experience five conversations with five hosts, which will enable you to exchange your experiences and learn from each other.
- Building up your team, hosted by Ana Janošev from Social Impact Award (location: Innovation Lounge, ground floor)
- Communicating your impact, hosted by Sonja Dakić from Live*Work*Love (location: Changemaker Oasis, first floor)
- Human-AI Collaboration in the Workplace, hosted by Boban Poznanović from Levi9 (location: Empowerment Nook, first floor)
- Redefining Marketing in the 21st century, hosted by Martin Nicolai from Social Impact Award (location: Catalyst Chamber, second floor)
- Changemaking 2.0, hosted by Stefanie Beßler from Social Impact Award (location: Vision Loft, third floor)
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17:30 – 18:30
Dinner
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19:30 – 21:30
Exhibition Opening
Join us for the opening of Social Impact Award’s first ever photography exhibit in Serbia. Entitled “Journey to Impact”, it explores social entrepreneurs’ complex relationship with themes such as identity, leadership, and purpose, diving into what it means to try and change the world. Built around a collection of analog portraits and honest interviews with SIA alumni from around the world, “Journey to Impact” shines a light on those considered “superheroes” in today’s world and reminds us all of our innate desire to live a purposeful life.
Commissioned by SIA, all analog portraits were shot by Nikolas Rode, video interviews by Fraem Films, and the backdrop painted by Jeremy Miedler in official Social Impact Award colors.
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Day 2: Wednesday
Day 2 propels the journey forward, accelerating participants’ growth as effective leaders and amplifying the impact of their endeavors.
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09:00 – 09:45
Lightning Talks
We’re starting the day with two Lightning Talks to inspire conversation and new ideas.
Alexandra Kick, Co-Founder of Thinkubator, will talk about sustainability and gender equity – two major topics that are currently discussed. As we very rarely think about how climate change affects women or the other way around, she’ll divedeeper into this intersection together with you!
Ravznaur Eker, Founder of Coridor, will share the brief origin story of a venture that has faced repeated failures and had to secretly establish a social initiative. In this story full of ups and downs, the sharing of challenging experiences awaits you with Fail101.
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10:00 – 11:00
Parallel sessions #3
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10:00 – 11:00
Engaging Stakeholders for Lasting Impact
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10:00 – 11:00
Archetypes of Leadership
Every little thing in life has countless points of view. The real challenge is to look at things from a new viewpoint, one that was previously out of our sight. That’s where change can start happening. In this workshop, we will tackle the idea of leadership identity through creative tools and interactive work.
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10:00 – 11:00
Leadership Lessons From My Entrepreneurial Journey
How does a leadership journey of a social entrepreneur look like? Growing the team, increasing the revenues, developing new products and services – all require vision and good people management.
In a panel discussion moderated by Lisa Schnägelberger, Dragana Jovčič and Alexandra Kick will share their lessons learned along their entrepreneurial journey about how to grow as leaders.
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10:00 – 11:00
Vision Retreat – Strategic Shifts until 2030
Exclusively for the organizers of Social Impact Award.
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11:00 – 11:30
Break
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11:30 – 12:30
Parallel sessions #4
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11:30 – 12:30
Getting Things Done
Learn the way of stress-free productivity, in order to free your mind from having to remember tasks and to-dos and instead let it work at full focus on the task at hand and big ideas.
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11:30 – 12:30
Marketing For Social Impact
Focus of this session will be on the importance of conceptualisation of brand/business idea. How to develop and test the concept of you business? How to validate your business idea? Also, topics like competition analysis, customer analysis and market segmentation will be covered.
SIA Speaker Branka Novčić Korać Associate Professor Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade -
11:30 – 12:30
Sustainovation: Fostering Product Sustainability through Community Involvement
Learn how to turn your beneficiaries into ambassadors for your brand, and enhance, and scale your product with the help of a community.
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11:30 – 12:30
Vision Retreat – Strategic Shifts until 2030
Exclusively for the organizers of Social Impact Award.
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12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
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13:30 – 16:30
Social Innovation Safari
Novi Sad, European Capital of Youth (2019) and European Capital of Culture (2022), is home to many innovative businesses, projects, and initiatives. To inspire and connect you with the local ecosystem, we will visit some of these shining examples of social innovations in smaller groups.
- Liceulice & Patrija
- Iz Srca Bačke / From the heart of Bačka
- Restart
- Čepom do osmeha / Cap to a smile
- Cycling Initative of Novi Sad
- EXIT Foundation
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16:45 – 17:30
Lessons Learned: Bring Back From The Social Innovation Safari
Coming back from the Social Innovation Safari, we will dive deeper into some interesting concepts you’ve seen and share lessons learned that could spark new ideas in you.
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17:30 – 18:30
Dinner
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Day 3: Thursday
Day 3 represents the pinnacle of the journey, igniting a spark of inspiration that fuels the flames of sustainable impact.
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09:30 – 10:15
Lightning Talks
As we enter the last day of the SIA Summit, we will hear more “food-for-thought” stories from SIA alumni.
Gleb Likhobabin, Co-Founder of Collab, will talk about applying the product approach, which helps businesses meet people’s needs and achieve significant outcomes, to social projects.approach to social projects as well?
Miomir Popeskov, Founder of Kliker IT Center for Kids, will share about scaling your business and social impact through franchise model. He will cover the steps needed for making your business scalable, franchise model as a solution, and balancing good partnership and friendship relations.
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10:15 – 10:30
Break
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10:30 – 12:30
Parallel sessions #5
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10:30 – 12:30
Game Up Your Fundraising
Whether it is philanthropic funding, corporate funding, or public funding – the vast majority of social entrepreneurs rely on such sources as part of their business models. But how to identify such funding opportunities? How to approach those funders? How to negotiate with them successfully to close attractive funding partnerships? And how to keep those partners engaged and involved?
Jakob Detering, Managing Director of Impact Hub Vienna, will bring 10+ years of fundraising in the social entrepreneurship sector to the table and host an interactive session on fundraising. Jakob has been a social entrepreneur himself, worked many years in the foundation sector, and is the impact advisor to Austria’s largest impact investment fund. This session is designed for all levels of experience in fundraising.
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10:30 – 12:30
Effective Communication and Presentation Skills
Mark Kalin will introduce the key elements of a pitch deck and elevator pitch, as well as how to do the research of what type of investor is the right one for a specific startups. Every investor requires focused, concise information, and we have specific communication techniques to portray our key message. Every presentation is an invitation to cooperation.
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10:30 – 12:30
Scaling Your Impact
Let’s look into the different strategies for growing the impact of your venture by “scaling out, up, or deep”.
We will look at best practice examples from our community and derive your own scaling strategy.
You will understand when you are ready to take the next step and what is needed for it. -
10:30 – 12:30
Financial Planning – From Zero to Hero
This workshop is designed to equip social entrepreneurs with the tools and knowledge to create their first bottom-up 4-year financial plan in Excel.
It will provide a foundational overview of key concepts of financial planning and a hands-on process on how to do it.
If you want to test the financial sustainability of your business idea or communicate your operations in numbers, this is the right workshop for you.
Stefan Kurandić Program Lead Relevant Ventures -
10:30 – 12:30
Vision Retreat – What is our destination in 2024?
Exclusively for the organizers of Social Impact Award.
Planning is the compass that guides us on the journey of success. Before we set forth, let’s ensure our map is clear and our destination well-defined. Where do we want to go? What do we want to achieve? Let’s identify this together.
After we have done that, we will close the Vision Retreat by reflecting on the learnings and insights that you are bringing back to you will bring back to your country.
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12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
During this lunch break, we invite those from the CEE region to consult with the specialists from the Erste Bank Serbia, Biljana Trkulja i Dejan Krmar, about financial support for entrepreneurs that the bank can support with.
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13:30 – 15:00
Networking lounge
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15:00 – 15:30
Break
During this lunch break, we invite those from the CEE region to consult with the specialists from the Erste Bank Serbia, Biljana Trkulja i Dejan Krmar, about financial support for entrepreneurs that the bank can support with.
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15:30 – 17:00
Closing ceremony
Another SIA Summit is coming to an end, but your journey is just starting. Florian Bauer from Erste Foundation will share how can they support you going forward. After Florian’s closing statement, we will share what can you expect from SIA going forward and wrap up the event with some final reflections.
SIA Speaker Florian Bauer Director for Social Finance, Sustainability and Innovation Erste Foundation -
17:00 – 18:30
Dinner
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20:00 – 22:30
Community tombola
The Tombola is a chance to connect with other Summit participants in a playful and informal atmosphere. To participate, you need to bring a small item as a gift (valued between 2-10€) and/or buy a token throughout the duration of the Summit for 2€. The more tokens you buy, the more you increase your chances of winning gifts.
All the proceedings from tombola will be donated to organizations providing humanitarian relief in Armenia and Palestine.
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22:30 – 23:59
Party!
Wrap up the experience with the official Summit After Party, starting right after the Tombola. Celebrate the impact, connect with fellow attendees, and continue the conversation in a lively and vibrant atmosphere.
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