On February 22th, Hub Prague hosted a kick-off event for Social Impact Award Czech Republic. Lucie Lankasova, the coordinator of SIA Czech Republic, and Peter Vandor, SIA’s founder from Austria, started the evening out by introducing the contest to about 60 eager people in the audience. To give the audience a three-dimensional perspective on what SIA has to offer, the evening featured presentations by social entrepreneurs from Austria, Romania, and the Czech Republic. These young entrepreneurs not only introduced their projects and business ideas, they also shared valuable advice and experiences. Ultimately, the presenters glowed with passion about their projects, and showed that social entrepreneurship constitutes a valuable alternative to traditional business models.

The five presenters showed that social enterpreneurship exists in many shapes and forms. Last year’s SIA winner, Footprint (Vienna, Austria) brings business and human rights issues closer together by providing mental health and social services to human trafficking victims and running a gym. Schreber Meister’s (Vienna, Austria) business model combines employing people from disadvantaged backgrounds with creating window farms that promote urban agriculture in Vienna. KOKOZA (Prague, Czech Republic) focuses on developing a system for community composting in Prague. Ethnocatering (Prague, Czech Republic) employs immigrant women who make delicious dishes from their home countries and thus provide exotic catering at various events. Last but not least, one of the founders of Hub Prague (the organizer of SIA Czech Republic) shared their story about establishing a co-working space for meeting and innovation.

We would like to thank everyone who attended the event as well as the presenters. We would like to wish young social entrepreneurs best of luck in developing their project ideas.

We would also like to extend an invitation to all those interested in attending our first workshop “Idea generation” The workshop will take place on Thursday, March 8^th at Hub Prague. The goal of this workshop is to guide participants through several steps necessary for forming a successful social business. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!