Early in March, Auckland was host to the second SOCANZ conference, following on from the first held in Wellington in August 2012.

The Innovation Auckland conference held from March 25-27 brought together a varied group of key note speakers from social innovation and social entrepreneurship experiences, sharing their knowledge with over 100 people who attended.

The conference aimed to allow people to:
- Get in touch with 200 + like minded people
- Hear from experienced practitioners about the impact of innovation
- Contribute to shared knowledge through participatory workshops
- Learn all about Social Entrepreneurship

For those new to social innovation and entrepreneurship, the conference provided a platform for networking and learning and for those who had more experience it created a chance to reconnect and share stories.

Representatives from the local and national government sector, business sector, and the community sector gave a good cross-section of networks and the opportunity for new networks and cross-sector collaboration.

Some of the key ideas that were shared at the conference by the Key Note speakers included:

"Leadership has changed. It's not what you know, but what you do with what you know" -             - Shelly Campbell of the Sir Peter Blake Trust.

"Wellbeing is not rising alongside economic progress. We often don't practice the same values at work as we do at home. Why?"
- Natalie Nicholles of NEF New Economics Foundation

"Connect and Communicate"
- Jay Williams, sharing the success of the phoenix foundation

"The answer is always the same: ‘the answer is in the dialogue'. Bring people along & have the right conversations."
- Carin Wilson on The development of a Maori Urban Design Protocol

"Philanthropy is about enabling dreams. We don't need to be just giving grants. We can be investing in community."
- Jennifer Gill of the ASB Trust

"We don't want to be the glue that holds it together, we want to be the grease that gets it moving."
- Billy Matheson speaking on ‘Using the Space Between: Leaving behind silos,       working differently.'

"The people we hire have to be able to function in an integrated way."
- George Housakos speaking about building & managing a cross sector organisations

Those who attended the conference felt that SOCANZ gave an international perspective on Social Innovation and entrepreneurship with speakers such as Natalie Nicholles (London) and Nic Frances (Australia).  

Participants also thought that there was a good balance of national activity, with one of the guests noting: "On the ground organisations that deal directly with their audience have a big focus on community and giving ownership to the people involved; such as the Sir Peter Blake Trust working with youth".

Another commented "If you just get people together they can do wonderful things - an idea taken from the Grey Lynn community who have introduced farmers markets and a choir to their area."

There is already proof in New Zealand of successful hybrid models: social good being achieved within a commercial model.  

The common theme of the conference that came through in both the presenters and guests feedback was bringing people together and that following this "all in this together" mentality, great things can be achieved.