You–reader of this blog and likely social entrepreneur–can spot their untruths. But what about the millions of business in the United States that can’t?

• That think social responsbility is just a moral argument and not a profitable business strategy?
• That label it a marketing trend?
• That think it’s just for the robber-barons out there?
• Or that are intrigued, but think social responsibility costs money?

Can you help me reach them? It’s quick and painless and I’ve signed up to do the heavy lifting. I’ve proposed a panel, Your Business + Social Mission = Happiness + Ka-Ching, at South By Southwest Interactive in Austin next March.  Whether my panel is selected and my message reaches these businesses depends in part on audience votes, like yours.

Here’s what attendees will learn:

1. Specifically how their company will gain a competitive advantage by having a social mission
2. What type of social mission is right for their business’ size and product
3. What the best programs to start with are
4. How they get buy-in from management or co-founders
5. How to be socially responsible without a budget

If you think these are important questions to help businesses answer, please take 30 seconds to vote for the panel before Friday, August 27. If you have time to spare, why not leave a comment and tweet it?  Here’s a handy link: bit.ly/Vote4GoodBusiness.

*I wanted to bypass the “I hate to ask…and down with these voting mechanisms, but can you help…” in the body of this post, but it’s true. I don’t take my request or your support lightly.  I hope I haven’t spooked you.  And thanks.

Conferences can be a black hole of time and money or they can deliver you your big break. To help you prepare for scenario number two I asked David Wilcox to share the tactics he uses at the four to five conferences he attends each month. Through his company, ReachScale, David unites companies with social enterprises that can be scaled to create a significant impact in the companies’ interest area. He attends conferences to make these connections and create new programs based on the latest trends and information.

Listen to our conversation or right-click and save for the MP3.

Download audio file (Cause-Capitalism_David-Wilcox.mp3)

Key Points:

Preparation

• Determine whether your idea or opportunity is of interest or value to the people with whom you’re trying to connect. If it is, then be confident when you approach people to talk about it.
• Look at the speaker list before the conference. Do you know anyone in the speakers’ companies or networks? Do you share a specific interest with any speakers? David spends several hours researching speakers before each conference.

Participation

• It’s all about participation, not promotion.  Think up interesting questions to ask the speakers and panelists. This gives you access to the speakers in a new way because it turns you into a participant. David gets 5-15 business cards at a conference just from people who liked the questions he asked.
• Learn to focus on talking about your idea or the issue, not yourself or your company. This means couching what you want to present in trends and opportunities.
• Introduce yourself to the speakers and exchange cards before the session starts to avoid the post-session queue for the speaker’s attention.
• Avoid office work at the conference and stay out of the hallways and off your phone as much as possible. Attend as many sessions as you can.

If you have a company looking for an innovative way to develop employee skills and grow brand awareness and stakeholder engagement or you are a social entrepreneur, connect with David on LinkedIn.  You can see the conferences he’s attended and where he’s headed on the lower right-hand bar of his site.

So far, the listings are physical events because I generally think they hold themselves to a higher standard than online events. Want to prove me wrong? Send in your recs.

Happy enterprising.

Image credit: HeartFish.com.

“More than ever, organizations need to collaborate to identify and create new models in social responsibility to keep pace with change, share best practices and plan for the future,” says CommunIielligence president John Gerstner. The conference aims to provoke collaboration and systems among nonprofit, government, corporate and educational organizations.

As the conference is split into two half-days and can be accessed online, there’s scarcely a reason to miss it. I’ll be tweeting and blogging interviews with speakers. Communitelligence has complete information on speakers, attendees and pricing.