Introducing Imece Summit 2021

In March 18-19th 2021, the imece summit will take place both virtually and in Istanbul, powered by imece, hosted by Zorlu Holding, curated by De-Coder, and in knowledge and network partnerships with ATÖLYE, B Lab Europe, BMW Foundation, SIX and S360

About the imece summit 2021

2020 was a year of transformation in manifolds. As impact practitioners we all try to leverage such transformations to bring systemic change for a sustainable future. Such explorations need collaborative work and open space to nurture a dialogue on possibilities.

In 2018, imece hosted SIX Wayfinder Istanbul in partnership with the Social Innovation Exchange, UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub, Brookings Doha Center and many other stakeholders with 500+ participants from 30 countries. Since then the social innovation scene has been thriving, whilst the sense of urgency is increasing for a better society and planet. To explore such possibilities, we have designed a summit to serve as a platform for individuals and organizations pioneering the transformation where they can think, collaborate and learn from each other for the pressuring challenges we face.

The guiding questions for the imece summit will be;

  • “How can we accelerate the proactive work of individuals and organizations towards transformation?’’ and
  • “How can we promote knowledge transfer and cross-sectoral cooperation for this purpose?’’

With those guiding questions, imece summit will consist of series of panels, workshops, keynote speeches, rountables and will focus on exploring themes such as:

  • Organizations for impact hosted by SIX

Public Innovation, Sustainable Cities and Youth Futures.

  • Community for impact hosted by ATOLYE

Collaborative & purpose-led communities, long term vision exploration for community of learners, community engagement & mobilization, community-powered design, international pioneering communities and such. 

  • Finance for impact hosted by S360

System-level change in finance, purpose economy, alternative finance models, strategic philanthropy, impact investment, buy social and such.

  • Business for impact hosted by B Lab Europe

Organizational change, business transformation, purpose-led business, impact entrepreneurship, purpose-led culture, impact assessment and management and such.

  • Leadership for impact hosted by BMW Foundation

Responsible Leadership, Network Leadership, Strategic philanthropy, Mindfulness & Wellbeing for Leadership, Sustainable Development Goals

The summit will be delivered bilingually, in Turkish and English. 

About imece:

imece is a social innovation platform where people and institutions that create change come together and work together to find solutions to social and ecological challenges. imece was funded in 2016 with the partnership of ATÖLYE, S360 and Zorlu Holding.

To support individuals and organisations that seek solutions to complex problems imece runs a cohort-based accelerator program imece impact. Further, in order to close talent gap in impact, imeceLAB supports the youth on enhancing collective capacity through challenges and a growing youth community. We believe that startups have a potential to create an impact and scale their solutions and youth have the drive and power to push that change. 

From our accelerator program imece impact which was previously an incubator, working with over 40 startups, we have seen their impact for seed-planting drones, a genderless toy kit that enables kid to create a world of their own, a platform for teachers to share and learn from each other, football schools for girls and more. With imeceLAB from the innovation challenges and a growing community of 600+ youth, we are reminded and inspired by their views, passion and potential to re-think and change the systems for a more sustainable and fair world.