Design Influence

This episode features Arta Istrefi, an experienced private sector development adviser, ecosystem builder, Founder of Women Entrepreneurs Kosovo and a PhD candidate, based in Pristina. She is focussed on the growing role of entrepreneurship as an engine for economic mobility, particularly for women. We had a chance to discuss her findings on how the younger generation of female entrepreneurs in Kosovo is taking the lead in developing ambitious, thriving businesses with global aspirations.

This episode features Kevin Jones, a successful serial entrepreneur who, with his wife, has built media and event businesses centered on niche communities—including the influential SOCAP Conference. He is currently focussed, amongst other efforts, on helping communities of faith take seriously the call to economic justice through faithfinance.net. 

For generations, the systematic exclusion of Black families from access to home ownership, white collar jobs, college, and voting has resulted in a widening racial wealth gap that has yet to be overcome. According to the Brookings Institute, in 2019 the median white household’s wealth was 7.8 times that of the typical Black household. So what does this mean for Black entrepreneurs emerging in 2022 in the United States?

This episode features Charles Montgomery, author of the book Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, and the founder of the consultancy of the same name.

We know cities are key economic drivers, often even outperforming their own countries in terms of growth. We also know that urbanization comes at a cost, particularly around transportation, affordable housing, and pollution but also around safety and access to public and green spaces. 

How can we design cities where we live together better and create ways for people to be more included, empowered, and to have access to resources to transform their lives? How do we even define, let alone measure, the most important dimensions of human happiness to translate this knowledge into designing urban spaces that are inclusive, safe, resistant to shocks, and conducive to wellbeing? 

This episode features Adriana Valdez Young, an urban design researcher and strategist based in New York City. Her perspectives on cities and how we live together seem particularly relevant in a time where our collective notions of private and public spaces have shifted. Where the global pandemic has meant that for the privileged who can perform their work remotely staying safe has been synonymous with staying home. 

How might we reimagine and co-create streets, spaces, and cities to help them fulfill their potential as the change machines Adriana knows they can be? How can we help people feel more included, empowered to transform their lives?

In this episode I speak with Delilah Agho-Otoghile, an Organizer, Political Strategist and Co-Founder of VoteSimple, a Texas based digital voter registration organization focused on registering young voters of colour and LGTBQ+ Texans. Delilah previously worked as State Director for Beto for America and Field Director for Stacey Abrams for Governor. Her work is dedicated to ensuring our democracy truly reflects progressive values and the striking diversity of her country—the United States.

In these times of change and unrest, how do we meet potential voters where they are? How do we ensure everyone’s vote is counted? How do we illustrate that a movement born in the street must continue on the ballot and in the courts to effect lasting change?

Delilah shares her insights garnered from years of experience on the ground mobilizing voters to show up for democracy.

In this episode, I speak with Mica Le John. Mica is a writer, technologist, and educator, and the CEO and co-founder of 2SWIM, a social messaging app with an emphasis on close connections and private communities. 2SWIM will be for everybody but is currently invite-only for POC-, LGBTQ+-, and/or womxn-centric communities, creators and brands (and their allies). 

How have online communities changed in the light of the COVID-19 crisis? 

How can we reimagine these virtual communities to moved them from being spaces for performance to spaces for engagement? 

Can social networks generate value for users instead of extracting it?

In this episode, I speak with Sean Condon, Manager Director at 312Main, a Vancity Community Foundation project in Vancouver's Downtown East Side, about his hopes for this project which reclaims a building heavy with our colonial history.  What happens when we open up avenues and physical spaces for dialogue, when we invite community and indigenous organisations to co-habitate and inspire each other? How do models of social enterprise come into play in addressing some of societies most blatant inequalities?

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Gavin Armstrong, Founder and President of Lucky Iron Fish Enterprise, a Canadian social enterprise tackling the issue of iron deficiency with a simple health innovation. 

I was in Lima supporting startup ecosystem builders and taking part in a training day for micro, small and medium enterprises. THE MSME event, organized by the Asia Pacific Foundation and Global Affairs Canada, featured a talk by Gavin. 

I met Gavin a year ago in Toronto and it felt like a small world to meet again in Lima. Over and over what came up in conversations that day was how difficult it can be to measure and express the multi-faceted performance of a social enterprise. Gavin seemed like a perfect candidate to dig deeper into that topic.

So what is it that makes the story and mission of Lucky Iron Fish Enterprise so compelling to partners, stakeholders as well as customers and beneficiaries? What ingredients does a social enterprise need to thrive?

In this episode, I speak with Sean Harvey, Founder of Sympónia Men and Co-Founder of GenderArc.  As a writer, speaker, and consultant he is exploring new narratives around gender balance in organizations to transform people, cultures, and systems. In a time that seems to favour headlines over dialogue and shouting over listening, Sean is trying to build bridges. How can we tame language to weaken the extremes of the gender binary? How do we facilitate compassionate conversations? And when and how do we even create space for them to occur?

In this episode, I speak with Dara Parker, Vice President of Grants and Community Initiatives at Vancouver Foundation, about the social profit landscape as she sees it.  What happens when the private and third sectors meet? What does collaboration mean for not for profits and how does social entrepreneurship fit in all of this?