photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chanc/491168707/

Fall is a season of change and Toronto is definitely inspired this month. In the last week of October there a number of exciting events happening in your neighbourhood.

Three organizations come together and bring us GET Environmental Management System Workshop.  The City of Toronto, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA)/GreenTBiz  are helping existing organizations looking to become planet friendly with this one day workshop. One day, but two cities. This event will be held on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 from 9:00am – 4:00pm in Etobicoke’s Civic Centre. And then again in Toronto the next day from 9:00am – 4:00pm in the North York Civic Centre. Tickets are still available here: Toronto registration.

MaRS asks, “How do we build an innovation economy that harnesses the full capacity and creative energy of women?” This Wednesday join MaRS’s experienced all female pannelist discussion at Women Piloting Innovation from 7:30am – 9:15am at their downtown Toronto offices.

Are you looking to be inspired by the collaborative power of arts and sicences? Drop by The Carlu (444 Yonge St, by the College subway stop) on Thursday for Day One, Brown Bag Special at Creative Places + Spaces. Meet some of the world’s most creative thinkers as they discuss the exploration of the art and science of collaboration. Artscape’s Creative Places + Spaces: The Collaborative City tops of this week’s listings with a Friday filled with art-infused experience designed to inspire, empower, and connect thinkers, policymakers and practitioners working to build vibrant, dynamic, sustainable and creative places.

Plan a road trip! Cornell University’s just a five hour drive away, plan your transportation now and make it to their November event, 2009 Net Impact Conference. Professionals and students come together to share experiences and lessons with the sustainable global enterprise movement, including sustainability and corporate responsibility practitioners, social entrepreneurs, and nonprofit leaders. Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, and Seth Goldman, President and TeaEO of Honest Tea will be there, you should go, too.

Keep your eyes open, this city’s filled with great events for your inner social entrepreneur. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, guidance or taking action on your organization’s EMS, it’s all happening this week. Get out there and tell us what you thought of them. Just click here to write us about your experiences with these and other SE related events this week.

Every day it seems that new competitions are emerging for social entrepreneurs and social innovators to win money for coming up with great ideas to solve social problems.

Aviva’s Community Fund is offering up to $500,000 to Canadians with ideas to create positive change and improve the lives of people in our communities.

Dell’s Social Innovation Competition is offering $50,000 for university students from around the world to pitch innovative ideas that address social issues in the areas of human rights, education, and microfinance, among others, and to transform these  ideas into actionable plans.

The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business is running a Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition for university students worldwide to come up with ideas to alleviate poverty in the developing world for prizes up to $17,000.

Aid for AIDS is running a competition for young social entrepreneurs to come up with the most successful fundraising model, in terms of money, outreach and awareness, to support people living with HIV and AIDS.  The prize for this competition is $25,000 and a chance to intern with the Aid for AIDS organization.

The good news is not only that companies and organizations are putting large sums of money on the table to address critical human needs around the world, but that this indicates that social entrepreneurship and social innovation are finally entering into the mainstream.  Additionally, many of these competitions are directed at young people…

This is an exciting prospect.

Check out EvanCarmichael.com’s “Top 50 Social Entrepreneur Blogs To Watch in 2009” for a list of inspirational blogs, ideas, concepts, and people. Learn about some of the real heroes in our world i.e. the social entrepreneurs!

That’s the new RBC Mini Innovation Challenge.  And they’re offering students a prize of $1,000 to answer this question.  Check it out:

http://www.rbc.com/innovator/mini_challenge.html