To attend my first Skoll World Forum in the same week as writing a column with the headline “We should stop trying to change the world” may be regarded as imprudent. The Skoll forum on social entrepreneurship, started nine years ago by eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll, probably has a higher quotient of delegates with that precise objective than any other conference on the planet.
What’s interesting is that it also has an increasing number of delegates from “big business”. There were none at the first forum, according to Pamela Hartigan, director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford’s Said Business School. Yet she was on her way to lunch with more than 60 on Thursday, which she considers a positive sign.
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