November 9, 2017 Leave a Comment
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Corporate Social Responsibility

#CiscoChat Recap: Leveraging Technology to Accelerate Social Entrepreneurship

Last week, Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) hosted a #CiscoChat on its Twitter page around social entrepreneurship; specifically, we looked at how organizations, companies, and individuals can leverage technology to accelerate social change.

As a strategist on CSR’s Strategy and Global Problem Solving, 1B team, I joined three featured participants during the hour-long discussion:

Mary Elizabeth’s team, Project Vive, was the grand prize winner of our first annual Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge. Teresa, co-founder of Neopenda, was part of a team to take home the Cisco prize in the 2016 Rice Business Plan Competition. And as the founder of Good World Solutions, an organization to which Cisco CSR provided early stage funding, Heather’s experience in social entrepreneurship is extensive.

Our responses show how digitization and the Internet of Things (IoT) is connecting more devices and data than ever before, with good ideas now having the ability to make a difference more quickly than ever, leading to positive change and financial success.

Whether you’re a student with an idea for the “next big thing” or an organization looking to scale, technology is playing a huge part in making those innovations possible.

Here are a few of my favorite responses from last week’s #CiscoChat:

Q1: In the age of digitization, what role can technology play in impacting pressing social issues?

Q2: Tell us more about the need you are trying to address through a technology solution.

Q3: How did you leverage technology to bring your solution to life?

Q4: What was the biggest challenge you faced as you developed your solution and how did you solve it?

Q5: What advice would you give social entrepreneurs who are trying to get their solutions off of the ground?

Q6: Why is supporting social entrepreneurs important as we move forward in an era of digitization?

Q7: Give an example of a technology solution with a social purpose that has inspired you?

Q8: How can others use technology solutions in their everyday lives to make a social impact?

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Follow @CiscoCSR on Twitter for future #CiscoChats and updates on accelerating global problem solving.

If you have solutions that solve societal problems, apply for Cisco’s Global Problem Solver Challenge!