In this month’s edition of the EBBF Inspire Magazine Karim Beers interviews Alexis Eremia. Discussing the motives and stories of founding emersense, sharing insights and learnings from some of our previous projects, exploring new solutions for individuals and businesses to make use of their potential for positive contribution… many meaningful topics are addressed in a conversation you can read here.

Honoring contributions to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the Austrian Commission for UNESCO annually awards patronage to selected projects and initiatives – and today recognized our “Solution – Leadership for Sustainability” conferences for their “impact on youth, their innovative learning approach and the cultural diversity of their participants”.

While we are happy and grateful for the recognition, we especially thank the many facilitators, partners and participants of previous years who made this happen. More than that we are also very excited to soon launch an enriched program for 2010 – now under official UNESCO patronage…

“The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) seeks to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning, in order to address the social, economic, cultural and environmental problems of the 21st century.”

Hosted by Erste Group, ERSTE Foundation and Česká Spořitelna in partnership with Ashoka, good.bee and emersense, “Banking for Social Entrepreneurship” brought together more than 120 selected participants in an engaging conference that pioneered several new ideas and triggered many exciting thoughts on ways to connect and leverage banking and social entrepreneurship for lasting positive impact in CEE.

Amongst the many guests and speakers of the conference: Andreas Treich (Erste Bank), Erhard Busek (IDM), Felix Oldenburg (Ashoka), Sava Dalbokov (good.bee), Jeroo Billimoria (Aflatoun), Jonathan Robinson (The Hub), Eva Varga (NESsT), Brian Richardson (Wizzit), Rupert Strachwitz (Maecenata Institut), Peter Püspök (Oikocredit), Nikolaus Spieckermann-Hutter (gcp), Franz Karl Prüller (ERSTE Foundation) and Michael Fembek (Antara Solutions).

A final thought on the role of emersense in the conference: “As learning designer of ‘Banking for Social Entrepreneurship’ we particularly intended to enable a high level of engagement and significant relevance for both social entrepreneurs and bankers throughout this unique event. We tried to make it happen in a blend of learning and exploration, seeking to encourage passion and spur creativity of everyone involved, adding edge and spark to let participants obtain clarity, form new ideas and initiate meaningful actions upon their genuine ambition.”