Stories from the Finger Lakes Social Entrepreneurship Institute

The power of storytelling can strengthen connections, inspire engagement, and cultivate pride within a community and beyond. Inspired by the Strangers Project, we asked this year's conference participants to respond in writing to one of three prompts about social entrepreneurship and transformative action. These stories are all shared here for you to explore. Sort by the categories participants self-selected or browse the whole gallery, then scroll to the bottom of the page for ideas about how to keep the conversation going.

The Conference

This year's conference included workshops, 1:1 mentoring, panels, and plenary sessions with speakers from across the country. Explore the full schedule at 2017flsei.sched.com

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Keep it up.

Let's extend the conversation about transformative action and social entrepreneurship beyond the three days of the conference.

Questions? Feedback? Reach out to Allison at hi@allisonusavage.com

The conference is over. What should I do now?

We've designed this project to help support connections and collaborations beyond the three days of the conference. Most people chose to share their contact information, so as you explore other's stories, click that "contact" button and reach out with ideas, inspiration, questions, and feedback. We also encourage you to post your photo on social media with your thoughts about the conference or a question to engage your community in conversation about social entrepreneurship.

How do I get my photo?

When you click into your story, there's a "download photo" link below your image. This will provide you with a higher-resolution file.

What should I do with my photo?

Use it however you want! We hope that these images will have nice lives as professional profile photos on sites like LinkedIn or other places where headshots are necessary, but we also encourage you to use the photo to start a conversation. Post it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and share a story about your experience at the Institute, or ask a question about social entrepreneurship to help the conversation live on. Link back to this site, and encourage others to explore the stories we all shared.

I need some post ideas.

Did you take notes at the conference? When you share your photo, share a quote that resonated with you, and ask others to share their thoughts on it. Or, ask your friends one of the three questions we asked you:

  • What does an economy that works for everyone look like?
  • Share a story of a small action that led to a systems change.
  • What impact do you see yourself having on the world in the next three years?

Is there a hashtag?

Of course. To help connect with each other and with a broader community, use hashtags like #socialentrepreneurship and #transformativeaction, and the conference-specific tag, #FLSEI2017. And don't forget to tag the Center for Transformative Action on Twitter at @transformaction and on Facebook at facebook.com/centerfortransformativeaction.