Awareness Seminar for Social Entrepreneurs by BEBKA

Bursa Eskisehir Bilecik Development Agency (BEBKA) Social Entrepreneurship Talks Series started with “Social Entrepreneurs Making a Difference Seminar”. In the seminar organized in cooperation with Simbiyoz Aktivite Social Entrepreneurship and Social Development Center, successful social entrepreneurs shared their stories with the participants.

The Social Entrepreneurs Making a Difference Seminar, moderated by BEBKA Planning Unit Head Elif Boz Ulutas, was attended by Muhim Olan Co-Founder and Academician Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Ustuner, Joon Co-Founder Duygu Vatan, Young News-Two Books-Acayip Isler Atolyesi Co-Founder and Author Ismail Hilmi Adiguzel, Simbiyoz Aktivite Co-Founder Hulya Aras as speakers.

“The aim is to create social impact”

Muhim Olan Co-Founder and Academician Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Ustuner said, “There are incredible developments in social entrepreneurship at home and abroad. It started a little earlier than our country abroad. When it comes to social entrepreneurship, we call social entrepreneurs the groups that generate at least 50% of their income from commercial activities and try to create a social impact and distribute their profits accordingly.”

Joon Co-Founder Duygu Vatan said, “Joon actually creates an alternative livelihood model by providing design and sales support to disadvantaged producers. I can say that my journey started in my student life. The idea of doing a business that produces social benefit after student life was an area that I could not position myself, which was in my mind from the very beginning. At first, I used to complain about the market after the department. I stopped complaining and found myself doing a minor in industrial design at METU. After this process, I can say that I found myself. Joon is a capacity building platform for disadvantaged people with basic production skills but limited income and opportunities. The platform provides design and sales support to beneficiaries by bringing together designers and potential customers.”

From corporate life to social enterprise…

Simbiyoz Aktivite Co-Founder and Electrical Engineer Hulya Aras said, “Most of entrepreneurship revolves around software and overlaps with many areas of digital transformation. Finally, I established an innovation lab, where we worked with university students for a long time. I started to collect a lot of positive energy in these studies with young people. I had been volunteering as a trainer in associations in the field of civil society for years. Now, social entrepreneurship in the social-oriented, social benefit-oriented field started to attract my interest. Finally, after saying how many more years I will work in the corporate sector, I decided to put the point and become a social entrepreneur after various trainings.”

Ismail Hilmi Adiguzel, Co-Founder of Genc Haber-Iki Kitap-Acayip Isler Atolyesi and Author, said, “I met social entrepreneurship by coincidence and a little bit of trouble. We established an association under the name of Youth Platform in 2009. We had representatives in 85 universities. We were carrying out social responsibility projects in universities. This association has carried out many national and international projects for five years. It carried out social responsibility projects. Then I founded my own agency and two years ago I developed a project. We were earning financially, we did very good work nationally and internationally. And when that emotional hunger started to hurt me, the desire to produce social projects arose and I could no longer suppress it. I developed a project called Donation Piggy Bank, which meets the needs of both brands and non-governmental organizations. When I researched this, I learned that the name of this event is social entrepreneurship in the world.”

The ‘Social Entrepreneurs Making a Difference Seminar’ moderated by Elif Boz Ulutas, Head of Planning Unit of BEBKA, was completed after questions from the audience and social entrepreneur candidates. The seminars will continue in the coming days with social enterprise centers and social entrepreneurs from the region.

Source: https://bebka.org.tr/bebkadan-sosyal-girisimciler-icin-farkindalik-semineri-654/