Business, boldness and hot tubs at Social Venture Institute [VIDEO]

Over 135 entrepreneurs and organizational leaders gathered at Hollyhock—a "leadership and lifelong learning centre" on Cortes Island— last week for the 20th annual Social Venture Institute (SVI).

The first night's keynote speaker was Matt Stinchcomb, former Vice-President of e-commerce site Etsy.com and current Executive Director of Etsy.org, a new initiative dedicated helping build “regenerative businesses."

Other featured presenters included keynote speaker Nikki Silvestri of Silvestri Strategies, Amie Garcia and Mitzi Rivas of children’s shoe manufacturer Livie & Luca, Jay Bad Heart Bull of the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI), and Dara Parker of queer advocacy organization Qmunity.

A post-event video released by SVI attendees Pure Souls Media is below.

As the Hollyhock website puts it, SVI:

... offers the mission-based entrepreneur an opportunity to share challenges with peers in an atmosphere of trust and goodwill. SVI participants run enterprises built around values and meaning. They face numerous challenges, as well as isolation, while growing enterprises that maintain a values-driven mission.

“This is a type of work that is not often done,” said Hollyhock's chairman Joel Solomon at the event opening on Sept. 2, referencing SVI's "cross-sectoral, intergenerational, peer-learning type approach."

"We don’t attempt to express or agree on a strategy, or the way the world is supposed to be," Solomon continued. "This place, our time here, is to cultivate all of us to think ultimately about our responsibility as ancestors, and to make ourselves as effective, clear, able to connect and worthy of trust as we can. And to be skillful at the things we dedicate ourselves to.

"That’s what SVI is about: this is a trust, love and competence manufacturing facility.”

<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-video" data-allowfullscreen="1" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/PureSoulsMedia/videos/1135059776523908/"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/PureSoulsMedia/videos/1135059776523908/"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/PureSoulsMedia/videos/1135059776523908/">Lessons From A 20 Year Old</a><p>For 20 years, change makers have been gathering at Hollyhock for the Social Venture Institute conference. This is what we learned.</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PureSoulsMedia">Pure Souls Media</a> on Saturday, September 5, 2015</blockquote></div></div>