Last month, we successfully organized the TEDxChengdu 2019 annual event, and celebrated the TEDx Skoll Conversations series in Chengdu, one of the biggest city in western China, with its unique multi-ethnic and inclusive culture, slow-life but fast-development tempo, pioneering spirit, and giant pandas.
At TEDxChengdu, we devoted ourselves to spreading good ideas from this great city, and from China to the rest of the world. This year, we curated more than 20 main-stage speakers around the theme of “Character Adapted”. The speakers spanned a wide range, from designer to astronomer, from game maker to paleontologist, from educator to ecologist. 
Every year without humility, we have a tradition of labeling the cast of speakers with a unified character. We called them A-list Players this year, in order to spotlight their authentic thoughts, confident actions, and bold risk-taking. With that theme in mind, we kept asking ourselves a question: how to improve the adaptability at the individual level to an organizational level for the common future. As a response, social innovation has captured our attention.
Angela Bai, with rich experiences in banking, now is the Secretary-General of CASVI (China Alliance of Social Value Investment). Her organization is taking the lead in establishing a quantitative assessment model for sustainable development contribution in the capital market. Through algorithm optimization, it leverages capital investment in more areas with social impact, and ultimately to improve our common future. In that sense, her work coincides with the new economic development advocated by the Chengdu government.
Yu Kang is the founder of Enlighten Our Future, a poetry-based educational program for children in rural areas. She believes poetry can nurture children’s sense of humanity and help people be better. China has been recognized for its economic achievements, while in many cases, its unique and deep-rooted duality has been neglected. Even in the suburbs of Chengdu, 300 kilometers from the inner city, a large number of people are left behind in the deep mountains because of poverty, yet they can shape the future of their community.
Guo Bing, often called the Wheelchair Warrior, has worked hard to promote urban accessibility for all, not just for the disabled. He insists that the gaps in the mindsets between different people is crucial to the inaccessibility problem. He points out that we already have good facilities and infrastructure in most cities and that everyone is connected to the accessibility issue when it comes to babies, the elderly, and the pregnant women. His key message: promoting accessibility is not a burden on society. On the contrary, it may breed a new market with huge consumption potential.
How to produce only two cans of garbage in three months? Yuan Yu, co-founder of The Bulk House, a social enterprise that promotes a zero waste lifestyle, shared her answer. Early this year, the central government launched a pilot project of urban garbage classification first in Shanghai which has been followed up by many other cities. In this context, zero waste would be a new lifestyle fashion, says Yu.
Each of these ideas are all related to Chengdu, on one hand, because Chengdu is like a microcosm of China. On the other hand, these ideas originate from a pioneering spirit. When it comes to social innovation, it should be noted that Chengdu took the lead in formulating the certification of “social enterprises” from the governmental level in 2018, categorized as one kind of the New Economy Development strategies.
Through the institutional innovation of social enterprises, Chengdu hopes to level up its ability of social governance, and encourage all participants to create new business models, and guide them to serve vulnerable groups with the premise that market mechanism is strictly followed. Undoubtedly, this has built a basic ecosystem for the development of social enterprises in Chengdu.
In our TEDx Skoll Conversations, we convened a diverse social impact community, including social entrepreneurs, NGO practitioners, researchers from think tanks, and community builders. Topics included textile waste classification and recycling, idle goods sharing, vocational development training for Y12 generation, handicraft shops with Tibetan flavor, intangible cultural heritage protection, and assistance for disadvantaged groups. Our current and past relevant TEDx Chengdu speakers were also invited to join our conversation. We are thrilled to witness the new connections. Following these conversations, in order to make real differences, let’s see what actions and impact are created.
