Saying goodbye to a great man- a tribute to Diogo Vasconcelos, from SIX

On Friday 8 July, the global community of social innovation lost one of its forefathers. SIX Chairman shockingly and tragically died suddenly, after struggling to fight a sudden viral attack. I’m almost out of words to describe how I feel about this. This is devastating news for his family, friends and those that worked with and knew him. I already miss him a lot. There have been many tributes written, from words by the President of Portugal and President Barroso of the European Commission, to hundreds of tweets, to many messages from you the SIX community. I know, together, we will do all we can to continue the great work Diogo has done to get social innovation on the global agenda. This is the best way we can commemorate him. There have been many specific suggestions already (including the Diogo Vasconcelos prize for social innovation, a dedicated book, a gathering and more). I will communicate with a separate note how we can best achieve this. But for now, let us remember all of those unique qualities that enabled Diogo to have such special relationships with everyone he met – a collection of your messages can be viewed here. For more reflections and tributes for Diogo please see the website of SIE, Dialogue Cafe, SiG and Al Etmanski.