A powerful dose of emotion and hope…
1,000 solutions, 130 countries, 1,200 investors, 35,000 participants:
Caroline Diehl MBE, Founder & CEO of Social Founders, shares just a small part of her three days at the ChangeNOW summit in Paris
“Wow! It was a powerful dose of emotion and hope, leaving an indelible mark on all of us.” The closing words from the co-founders of the 2024 ChangeNOW summit in Paris - a gloriously intense, super-connected, global gathering of 35,000 social founders, change-makers and impact investors.
It was a delight to spend 3 days with passionate, innovative and inspirational social founders from all over the world at ChangeNOW, coming together to share solutions, connect and collaborate, inspire each other, partner, invest and so much more. Delegates included my fellow INSEAD social entrepreneur global alumni joining us in Paris from as far afield as Pakistan and Brazil.
The ChangeNOW summit in Paris at the end of March 2024 was the 7th summit, and the biggest yet.
The above speaker is Rosario del Pilar Diaz Garavito, Founder and Executive Director of The Millenials Movement in Peru.
Just imagine how many themes, solutions, innovations there were to see. ChangeNOW has 6 show-case stages hosting speakers, panels, pitches, films, games, and more, surrounded by hundreds of booths, stands, displays across the acres of space under the arched domes of the Grand Palais Ephemere.
What I love about this event is that anyone in the impact space can attend. It is low-cost, it’s NOT by invitation only, and it attracts what I believe is a unique group of impact entrepreneurs, founders and partners. 500 speakers from 130 countries, 1,200 impact investors, and 35,000+ participants - most of whom are at some level active in social change, and many of whom are part of our global social founder community.
There were social founders from Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Japan, USA, Kenya, Canada, South Africa, Indonesia, Peru, Pakistan, India, and from all over Europe.
The above panel, on the Circle Stage, with 400 participants, included the powerful Hafsat Abiola, Founder of Women of Africa, with Ana Oliveira, President & CEO of the New York Women's Foundation, and Elise Buckle, Co-Founder and CEO of She Changes Climate.
Daniela Fernandez, Founder and CEO of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, based in San Francisco, gave a powerful keynote talk about her collaborative work - the importance of collaboration, across all sectors, was a major theme at the summit.
Gregoire Landel, Founder and CEO of CityTaps, a social enterprise that helps bring running water into urban homes across Africa and Mexico, gave a fantastic pitch to impact investors from the ‘Pitch Stage.
It was a joy to meet Lucile Cornet-Vernet, Founder of La Maison de l’Artemisia, and hear about how she facilitates and enables others to replicate her model in rural communities across Africa. Lucile has set up 130 artemisia farming initiatives in 27 countries, mainly across Africa, using what she calls ‘une charte ethique’ to provide ethical boundaries, alongside funding and support for them to run their own artemisia enterprises.
And to hear Francisco Vera speak on stage, the engaging 14 year old Social Founder of ‘Guardianes por la Vida’ from Colombia, Latin America, who set up his organisation when only 9 years old! “I have been able not just to learn from nature but to act for nature.”
I specially loved spending time with Sadaffe Abid, the founder of Circle, based in Lahore, working across Pakistan to support women from all backgrounds, cities, villages, mountains and plains to gain digital and leadership skills. Supported by funders as diverse as L’Oreal and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Sadaffe is scaling fast.
Sadaffe and I were part of INSEAD’s very first social entrepreneurship programme back in 2006, and we have stayed actively involved in the ever-growing global alumni network.
2025's next week-long INSEAD Impact Entrepreneurship Programme is in Paris and Fontainebleau at the end of April 2025, to coincide with ChangeNOW25. Contact us if you are interested in attending, or in sending social founders in your networks, as we are hoping to provide some bursaries.
So 'hats off' and a big bow of admiration and thanks to the brilliant co-founders of ChangeNOW: Santiago Lefebvre, Kevin Tayebaly and Rose-May Lucotte. Their ambition, vision and impact is huge.
Social Founders are exploring options to take a delegation of founders from our network to ChangeNOW 2025 which is in Paris again on 24, 25 & 26 April.
Register your interest with us here, and we’ll keep you posted. Join us if you can!
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