Amsterdam hub of social innovation

I have to apologise to my readers for not writing for a while, but work has kept me busy. The last week in particular was pretty hectic. I spent it in Amsterdam, discovering what is emerging in one of the most active European hubs of innovation.

Would you ever have expected that such a small community could be so dynamic and ready for the international race to lead in the field?

Even though this is the case with the Dutch, it is not widely known outside of their own country. I assume the Dutch language doesn’t help branding. I spent a week there to find out more; I was invited by Knowledge Land, the think-to-do tank led by Chris (one of the shakers in the country) and De Waag , the centre for applied creativity and new technology led by Marleen Stikker (the other mover in town).

I started with the conference on impact investing organised by PYMWYMIC – an unpronounceable acronym which stands for Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Company. I had the impression that there was more wealth concentrated in that room than throughout the rest of my visit to Amsterdam. It was also the first time I was publicly congratulated. Thanks to Margaret, one of the founders of PYMWYMIC, who praised my work in Naples.

Following this, I met with the upcoming Dutch network of social enterprise. I was introduced to the founders: Willemijn Verloop, NGO star who funded War Child, and Mark Hillen, former consultant and already active social investor with several projects – some of which you would only have expected in London.

They started with a research led by McKinsey (here is the link). Nobody is perfect. But what I loved was Willemijn’s comment on Ashoka. She was actually recruited initially to establish Ashoka Netherlands, but later realised that the American network’s elitism and focus on non-profit organisations could not work in a nation of collective leadership.

I closed my week with the first gathering of Social Innovation Network Netherlands, initiated by Chris and Marleen. They asked me to talk about the related European policies. Except for Chris’ comments I didn’t follow much of what happened – the discussion was held in Dutch and I kept smiling just for courtesy. Here is a comment by Mark … if you can read Dutch.

In the end, the best discovery was Simon van Cleeff, a friend of Kimon (Knowledge Land) and founder of the Young Generation. He revealed the magic world of marketing “gamification,” ie. how to turn a marketing campaign into a game. All the companies are developing games to promote products and services (open this link for instance). Millions of young people are into it. Leaving behind the TV culture of passive reception, they want to interact with everything. Let’s see if we can use game to engage young people on public good and perhaps even in next European election.