During these weeks of relative quiet at RealizedWorth.com, we have been traversing the globe (ok, just Canada and a little bit of the U.S.) to make discoveries and gather insight in the name of Corporate Volunteering, CSR, and Social Media. Today, as our trip nears its end, we will begin to offer our learnings to you in the hopes of drawing you into our adventure and leaving you with new value to offer and implement.

Beginning where we are: Boston.

Boston. A beautiful city and an exciting reason to be here: The Boston College International Corporate Citizenship Conference. This year, the conference theme is “Winning a Seat at the Table” which reflects the “evolution of corporate citizenship and its impact on the bottom line and beyond.” Already, the voices speaking here have proven to encourage, challenge, and educate.

 

We’re here for a full and interesting day today and most of the day tomorrow where we will be hearing from great minds such as: Dan Roam, author of “The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems with and Selling ideas with Pictures.”, Kurt Kuehn, Chief Financial Officer of UPS, John Hoffman, Vice President of HBO Documentary films, Nadira Hira, writer for Fortune Magazine and more. Check back in as we bring you updates, information, introductions, photos and videos from the conference.

Back in time and to the northwest: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Before making our way to the sunshine and cherry blossoms here in New England, we came from the wintery town of Edmonton, Alberta. Despite the frigid weather, the City of Edmonton and its Volunteer Resource Manager, Susan Kankunnen provided a welcome that kept us warm. On Wednesday and Thursday mornings, representatives from area non-profits and businesses gathered to learn and discuss how to create excellent volunteer experiences, as well as the best methods regarding corporate volunteering. An excellent group of people makes for time well-spent and a plethora of fascinating feedback and info to share. Watch for our post drawing on the thoughts and questions of the volunteer workshops in Edmonton.

A little city by the mountains: Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Calgary, Alberta is a short flight from Edmonton and the home of LBG Canada, a community of companies committed to maximizing the impact of their community investment programs. On April 7th and 8th, LBG held their 2010 Annual Benchmarking Meeting where we had the honor of presenting our thoughts on “Designing an Engaging Corporate Volunteering Program.” Wendy Mitchell from Volunteer Canada spoke about “A Strategic Model for Community Engagement.”

If you are a business interested in community investment or corporate volunteering – or – a non-profit that would like to get into the minds of business, check back in to read more about LBG Canada and the results of the 2010 Benchmarking Meeting.

The city: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Our adventure began back on April 1 at the Sustainability Leadership Exchange in Toronto, Ontario. Essentially a “Who’s Who” of CSR in Toronto, the purpose of the SLX was to explore what sustainable business means in practice. The event’s keynote speaker was Jay Coen Gilbert, the co-founder of B-Corporation, which certifies companies that voluntarily revise their bylaws to include social and ecological benefits in their definition of the shareholder value they are obliged to deliver. We took the opportunity at SLX to grab some video with a few of the known names and faces which we plan to share with the world through 3BL Media. Check out the informative CSR videos of Christine Arena, Fabian Pattberg, Elaine Cohen, and David Connor here and soon you’ll also have access to my chats from the Sustainability Leadership Exchange.

Back to today

Now, its back to Boston and the 2010 International Corporate Citizenship Conference. See you soon!

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