As they primarily (although not all, black market innovations and digital nomadism made the list) relate to accelerating social change, I hope you’ll find them as thought-inspiring as I do.

As you’re rendered breathless by the scope of topics and the expertise of speakers, I urge you to cast a vote in support! Representation for good starts here.

1. Archetypes of Happiness–Pick Your Differentiator
   Organized by yours truly of Cause Capitalism | @OKL
   1 question this session will address: How cutting-edge businesses are using specific happiness archetypes to differentiate themselves.
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2. Co-opting Black Market Innovation
   Organized by Alexa Clay of Ashoka Changemakers
   1 questions this session will address: What can black market innovators teach me that’s relevant to my business?
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3. Create Brand-aligned Social Change
   Organized by Delyse Sylvester of Ashoka Changemakers | @Changemakers
   1 question this session will address: Why changemaking is central to a company’s success
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4. Digitally Outsmarting Apathy
   Organized by Bradley Short of Business Earth | @BusinessEarth
   1 question this session will address: How can we use social media to drive online communities to action “IRL?” 
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5. Doing Good Globally: Cosmopolitan Activism
   Organized by Ben Walsh of Purpose | @Purpose
   1 question this session will address: How do we tap into people’s desire for identity and belonging to expand our empathy and impact? 
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6. Engaging Consumers for Good Through Gaming
   Organized by Sloane Berrent of Lippe Taylor | @Sloane (I’m also a speaker for this session.)
   1 question this session will address: What are the most important elements to consider when launching a game for social good?.
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7. Making Social Media Measurement Sexy
   Organized by Beth Kanter of Zoetica |@Kanter
   1 question this session will address: Can you measure social change and if so, how the hell do you? 
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8. New Media and CSR: Communicating Corporate Good
   Organized by Nick Aster of TriplePundit | @TriplePundit
   1 question this session will address: Beyond reporting, what’s the exciting frontier in CSR communications? 
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9. Reflections of a Digital Nomad
   Organized by Erica OGrady of Peanut Butter Media | @EricaOGrady
   1 question this session will address: What are the qualities of a digital nomad? (This lifestyle isn’t for everyone.)
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10. RIP Crowdsourcing–Introducing Open Growth
    Organized by Ben Wald of Ashoka Changemakers | @Changemakers
    1 question this session will address: Who are the innovators applying Open Growth and what is key to their success?
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11. Social Business: Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch
    Oganized by Sandy Carter of IBM |@Sandy_Carter
    1 question this session will address: What are the five critical cultural items that have to be addressed for a company to successfully insert social media into all its business processes?
    . 
12. Startup & Nonprofit: What Do They Have in Common?
    Organized by Allie Burns of the Case Foundation & Revolution LLC | @Allieb37
    1 question this session will address:  Can nonprofits really benefit from taking a business/entrepreneurial mindset, or is it all talk?.
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13. The Power of Social Media for Good. B Corporations
    Organized by Dermot Hikisch of B Lab | @BCorporation
    1 question this session will address: How are B Corporations innovating, particularly around media?
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14. Turning Online Donors Into Change Investors
    Organized by Geoff Livingston of Zoetica | @GeoffLiving
    1 question this session will address: How do celebrities and weblebrities (e.g., famous bloggers) affect online fundraising?
     .
15. Under the Social Good Hood
    Organized by Robert Rosenthal of VolunteerMatch |@volmatchRobert
    1 question this session will address: How long does it usually take for a social good website to find a funding model that works? 

Jim Niegowski, Director, Nike Patents announcing the SBIO 2010 winner

I don’t often plug competitions, but Sustainable Life Media, Sustainable Brands Innovation Open’s parent organization, has a way of making magic out of the typically mundane. I’ve experienced this first-hand as an attendee at Sustainable Brands conference and have seen how past entrants of Innovation Open have benefitted from their participation. Earth Aid, winner of the 2009 competition recently raised $4 million in funding and BioLite was profiled in The Guardian and Men’s Health after its 2010 win.

Criteria
Sustainable Brands Innovation Open is open to entrepreneurs and companies with either idea-stage or early phase initiatives. Entries are scored on their potential to deliver a sustainable consumer product or business-to-business solution that promotes social and environmental responsibility.

Incentive
Ten selected finalists receive free admission to the Sustainable Brands conference (June 7-10 in Monterey, California) and the opportunity to both display and pitch their initiative to green/social investors, executives from leading companies, top brand consultants and conference attendees.

One, winning start-up will receive seed money, business services and consulting services from industry professionals, as well as top-level exposure and recognition.

Details
Submit a one-page business plan by April 25. Details and the submission form can be found here.

Doing good is a business strategy, here’s how to start and how to do it better.

That’s the flag I’ve been flying for three years and 250 blog posts. Next week, I’ll be speaking with a group of entrepreneurs and employees practicing varying levels of social sustainability (and, I hope, some who dismiss it altogether) at South By Southwest in Austin.

I’m leading a core conversation, Your Business + Social Mission = Happiness + Ka-Ching, which will be provocative and educational. Anyone with access to the Interactive programs can participate.

If you’ll be at SXSW, I want to meet you. Here are 4 ways we can connect.

• Join the core conversation, March 12 from 2-3 PM.
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• Come to The Good Capitalist Party, March 12 from 6-9 PM. The event is co-hosted by Ashoka’s Changemakers (I do work for Changemakers), Social Capital Markets, Acumen Fund and Good Company Ventures.
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• Make it easy for me to invite you out! I’ll be in Austin March 10-15. Email me at olivia[at]causecapitalism.com and let’s plan to run into each other.
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• Find me on SXSocial.

Every March the world takes a closer look at women–how many own property, are employed, run businesses, have bank accounts, are literate, or have clean drinking water. The list is long and diverse, and while these issues deserve attention throughout the year, March serves as an annual review of the progress made toward women’s livelihood.

In commemoration of what has thus been accomplished and to incite action for the challenges still ahead, the Business Civic Leadership Center and the United Nations Office for Partnerships are organizing Investing in Women & Entrepreneurship: Solutions to MDG 3.

*** I have several tickets to give away (priced at $175 each but worth more!) to Cause Capitalism readers. If you’d like to attend, email me 1 point that you enjoy about CauseCapitalism.com and 1 point that you don’t.  Please email me your two points by 9 pm EST on Saturday, March 5. I will select 3 different readers and transfer the tickets. ***

The daylong conference will take place New York on March 8, the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.  Geena Davis will join activists and policy makers from the UN, the Department of State, Intel and Vital Voices, among others, who are working across sectors to achieve MDG 3.

I’ve had the opportunity to attend several events organized by the Business Civic Leadership Center, which have drawn an experienced and diverse audience of individuals who are leveraging markets to effect social progress. If you can make it to NY next week, I hope to hear from you soon. To track live tweets from the event, follow @chamberBCLC.

“Let’s take a look at this phrase corporate social responsibility. Let’s take away social. Now let’s take away corporate. What we’re left with responsibility, which is defined as being accountable for something and the moral obligation to behave correctly. That sounds really heavy and we don’t want that. Why don’t we call it an opportunity.  And what’s an opportunity?  To do something. Really, in essence, we’re talking about corporate social opportunity.”

As an advocate for socially driven business, it’s my responsibility to say, “enough.”

We are on the fringes of some amazing territory, where businesses can be used to meet significant social needs and can be successful doing so. But the territory is still undrawn and I fear that some of us in the party for socially driven businesses are digging sand traps, perhaps unwittingly.

Just as the momentum is gaining–consumers and communities are more expectant of companies to be proactive ethicists, new demographics are being served, and the perceived limits of business are bursting open with innovation and collaboration–there are some who are erecting smoke and mirror sideshows. And if there’s one word that could derail this movement, it’s inauthenticity.

Poorly executed employee volunteer programs and cause marketing campaigns are excusable for first-timers. These companies’ determination to make a social impact will carry them through novice flubs, but what about BSR–that’s Business for Social Responsibility–which invited Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant to keynote the recent conference and shepherded him around like the Maharaja? Nearly 20 years old, BSR is too experienced to make that type of mistake. Which means it’s not a mistake, it’s a hairy tangle of posturing, false marketing and deception.

What are BSR and the Foundation for Social Change, professed support systems for social business, doing? Where is their expression and action for real social impact? I won’t even hold them accountable for large-scale impact (yet), but I will demand honesty of intention in the name of world-changing.

While my bleeding heart is certainly beating strongly at the moment, I’m not letting it trump pragmatism. The stakes for social impact and economic growth are too high to let falsehoods of do-gooding perpetuate. I absolutely believe that through collaborating among sectors, meeting new market needs and working for our grandchildren’s world, we’ll see ample businesses that succeed by doing good and more individuals who benefit from business.

If you’re not on board, that’s okay, but please don’t stand in the way promoting false sustainability. There’s too much at stake–and too much opportunity–to turn this into a distorted fun house.

Image credit: Alicia Hayes