SKOLL 09: OUR SKOLL DIARY

As well as reading all their news stories from the three days, you can find out what they've been up and who they've been talking to here at the Social Enterprise Skoll diary.

FRIDAY 27 MARCH

4.15pm - Gemma

An inspirational closing by Pamela Hartigan, Jeff Skoll, Colin Mayer (Peter Moores Dean) and Lord Puttnam, but the star of the show was definitely Soraya Salti, senior vice president of INJAZ al-Arab. She talked about the need to inspire young people with passion and knowledge, and called Jeff Skoll the 'modern-day prophet of the Arab world'. She's intelligent, funny and, most of all, hugely inspiring.

The reception area is alive with final chats, pitches and card exchanges, but is slowly clearing. It's the end of the Skoll World Forum 2009 (apart from a final networking event and maybe some more informal meetings in the pub!).

It's not the end for us though - more stories to come, including new health partnerships formed, the release of the Volans report and the key messages from the closing plenary.

All the best Skoll stories will be in our next Livewire - sign up at our homepage.

2.41pm - Gemma

The closing event is packed and everyone is on a high. Pamela Hartigan, Skoll Centre director, has just told a ecstatic audience that the Skoll World Forum is the sixth most Tweeted topic IN THE WORLD!

1.59pm - Gemma

I'm still buzzing from the health session - more on that in our news pages soon. The closing plenary is nigh and, I'm not sure about other delegates, but I'm quite sad it's ending. I'm interested to hear what Jeff Skoll has thought about the last three days.

10.49am - Gemma

I'm just stepping into what I consider to be one of the most exciting sessions of the Skoll World Forum - healthcare. In the UK, healthcare has embraced social enterprise, not only setting up a £100m fund to aid provision, and not only because the government recognises the need to let NHS staff set up their own health social enterprises because they are the ones with the answers, but because social entrepreneurs recognise that a holistic approach can save money across departments and radically change a community. just look at organisations like the Sunlight Development Trust in Kent.

At this session, we will be hearing from Bart Weetjens of Apopo/Hero Rat - one of last night's Skoll Award winners. He's already captred the hearts and minds of delegates here. You know you can adopt a rat from his website?!

12.42am - Gemma

It's gone midnight and I've left the usual suspects painting Oxford red. It seems one Thai restaurant was the hub of all activity tonight, with social entrepreneurs flitting from table to table, meeting new contacts and sharing stories. My evening chat has mainly been with a man from Liberia working towards social justice with the Carter Center. A pleasure and an inspiration.

THURSDAY 26 MARCH

10.53pm - Chrisanthi

Last night we heard Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto explain how social entrepreneurs embrace the 'power paradox' - that is the inherent power that lies in the tension between two choices - and which can be used to find a third way. Tonight I saw that in action. When asked by KT Tunstall to choose between a new song she has just penned about George Bush's face when Obama was inaugurated or a 70s classic cover the audience immediately refused to choose and yelled 'both'. I even heard one delegate quote Martin and yell out: 'We reject false choices'.

8.04pm - Gemma

The awards are over and it ended on a high with K T Tunstall's rendition of I Want You Back, because 'everyone loves to end an evening with a 70s disco cover'! It was a really inspirational evening, not only because of the wise words of the 13 social entrepreneur winners and the three fantastic short films played, but because of the honesty and passion of keynote speaker Dr RK Pachauri. Find out more in our news story.

4:55pm - Chrisanthi

A hectic day with barely enough time to think meant I appreciated even more than usual a moment of cross-cultural comedy which arose in the session entitled: Expansion Finance for Social Impact. The crowd was given several vivid illustrations to show that scale (ie big) means different things to different people. But, as an Aussie, the one I appreciated most was Crocodile Dundee's interpretation of New York knife culture and that famously misquoted line: 'You call that a knife - this is a knife.'

3.35pm - Gemma

So many great sessions today, but so many great stories to write too. More coming online very soon before we head to the exciting Skoll awards.

1.56pm - Gemma

Lunch time has been abuzz with a reception hall full of networking. I've just met up with Allyson Hewitt from Toronto, director of the social innovation programme at MaRS, which provides resources for social entrepreneurs. We met at the Social Enterprise World Forum in Edinburgh last year.

12.50pm - Gemma

I've just been sat next to Jeff Skoll for the last two hours in the Capital Markets session! As well as noticing how bad his handwriting was, I also noticed that he seems very interested in Sir Ronald Cohen's (Social Finance Ltd) comments on the need for a social investment bank and how social entrepreneurs need to support governments across the world. His message was that we need them on side.

The other thing I'm noticing is that everyone has gone Twitter mad! Including me! Find us on Twitter by clicking the link on the right.

11.20am - Gemma

The capital markets session is packed with people looking for solutions. Sir Ronald Cohen, venture capital founding father and director of Social Finance Ltd, is talking passionately about the need to support governments around the world because they are the keepers of tax incentives and the need to set up a social investment bank with dormant bank accounts.

WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH

Sometime after midnight - Chrisanthi

The final speech tonight by Sundance Institute executive director Kenneth Brecher had me in tears. He connected the social entrepreneurs sitting in the Sheldonian Theatre with Russian activist poet Anna Akhmatova who wrote against Stalin's regime and was presented with an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1965 in that very same theatre. My neighbour saw me using shorthand throughout the ceremony and said I should just reproduce the speech verbatim but the truth is I was so moved that my shorthand had deserted me - and besides, some things just can't be reproduced in a notepad.

2.54pm - Chrisanthi

A classic Skoll World Forum moment straight off the bat. I'm in my first session for the day - and it's about networking.
One of the people at my table is Pewee S. Flomoku who is programme coordinator for The Carter Centre in Liberia.
As soon as he mentions Liberia, Carolyn Haymen CEO of Peace Direct starts talking about an amazing movie she has just seen called Pray the devil back to hell which shows the incredible role of women activists in Liberia's peace process.
Carolyn asks Pewee if he has seen the movie. Pewee's response: ‘Actually they use some of my footage'. Classic Skoll World Forum.

2.17pm - Gemma

An interesting session featuring academics really passionate about teaching and inspiring the next generation of social entrepreneurs. It was good to hear from Skoll Scholar and social entrepreneur Jessica Lax, who said her defining moment came after a five-minute presentation, part of her uni course's coursework, about what she learned during her final semester spent in Kenya. Tears and sadness, she said, but it inspired her to make a difference.

9.16am - Gemma

I've headed straight to the Saïd Business School in Oxford for the start of the Skoll World Forum and it's already starting to fill up with people eager to register and network. There's an opening session before the main forum events begin about a global university network for social entrepreneurs - it's interesting to see that even in the scheduling of events, education comes first.