delivering deep social business insights and relationship building fun. SVI is a gathering of CEOs and senior business leaders working in the social venture movement organized by Renewal Partners and held at the magical Hollyhock Retreat Centre. Communicopia has attended, presented, or sponsored for nearly all of its 12 years. 
Since its inception in 2001 Web of Change has evolved from a yearly retreat to a series of community building conferences organized by Communicopia. Web of Change brings together tech-savvy social change leaders to hone their skills, connect with other leaders, and refresh their passion for work, change, and innovation. I've just come back from the latest Web of Cha
For 10 years the leading connector of social tech innovators
Web of Change connects the leading thinkers and do-ers in social media, technology, and social change. Communicopia founded this series of conferences that has since grown into one of the most vibrant, trusted networks of leaders in these growing fields in North America.
We created the series to build community, share best practices, encourage cross-pollination of ideas, and "raise the game" of the practitioners in the still very nascent space. Because we believed that web tools - and the underlying thinking and open models behind them -could be transformative for the sector.
Web of Change's flagship event is the Web of Change at Hollyhock leaders summit, at the Hollyhock retreat centre in the BC coastal wilderness. We also convened for two years Canada's first "masters class" for emerging social tech leaders with our partner MaRS Social Innovation Group, the urban Social Tech Training in Toronto. Our growing community website is also becoming a hub for this community and our way of thinking.
In 2009, despite the recession, we made some bold moves. At our 2009 season kick-off event we launched our new website, re-positioning it from an events site into an aggregator of the best thinking, stories of impact, and news from our inspiring community of leaders. With a goal of expanding our impact, helping more people "get" web thinking, and further sharing the wisdom of our generous community beyond our physical events, the new site has already connected substantially more people to the innovation, collaboration, and transformation at the core of this work.
Seeing as we are all in the business of telling non-profits they should be more open, collaborative, and transparent, we decided we should lead the way. We always said Web of Change was "owned by the community it serves, but managed by Communicopia" as part of our social enterprise offering. Since 2001 our team has provided overall vision, event management and production, communications, and financial underwriting.
In 2010 we taking that model further. We are excited to be passing on the leadership role to Michael Silberman of EchoDitto, who will be the 2010 chair. Michael will be convening a truly world class team of partner firms - in some minds all "competitors", but in the Web of Change world who all share a deep mission for social change and an understanding that collaboration makes us all stronger. Biro Creative, Sea Change Strategies, Groundwire, Communicopia, and Free Range Studios will each be investing substantial pro bono and cash resources to help Web of Change go to the next level.
Visit Web of Change and become part of our community!
