Impact Days 2019 – Scaling Social Impact

On Oct 10-11, Impact Hub Vienna and Mercer hosted two days of collective action around social and environmental impact. We brought together investors, startups, executives, intermediaries, and policymakers to explore how each of us in our roles can contribute solutions to some of the world’s current challenges. Most importantly, we kicked off new collaborations and generated ideas to help these solutions truly scale. Here’s a recap of some of the highlights from Impact Days 2019.

The day in numbers: 

• 330+ people participated in the conference
• 3 separate tracks were hosted for deep learning and connection building
• 20+ countries were represented
• 25 impact ventures presented their story and work

Here were a few key messages from the conference that inspired us: 

Charly Kleissner (Co-Founder Toniic & KL Felicitas Foundation; Board Chair ImpactAssets)
Systems change only under pressure – we can’t predict when the change will happen but we know it will happen. This system doesn’t serve the population anymore. We can be victims or co-creators. I say we will be co-creators. 

David de Rothschild (Environmentalist and Explorer, Founder Lost Explorer and the Sculpt the Future Foundation)
We need to start thinking about innovation. And not from the perspective that we need to design a new app. If you are an innovator you are a creative problem solver. The problems that we face today cannot be solved by politicians.

Dr. Rüdiger Fox (CEO, Sympatex Technologies)
Every change, especially a dramatic one, needs a lot of time. SDGs are nothing more than global goals for the global economy.

A call to action

We’ll borrow a few words from Katherine Milligan, (Head of Gender & Diversity, Bamboo Capital Partners) to close: “Talk was great, but now it’s time for action.” It is time to leverage your personal sphere of influence to scale social impact. How can you change your decision making in your personal and professional life to contribute to building a more inclusive, sustainable world? Which SDG can you impact and how can you support it? We hope that you’re asking yourself these tough questions. We hope you have the audacity to challenge the status quo and start scaling impact. If you want to get notifications about next year’s Impact Day’s conference, you can subscribe to updates here.