MyVision McGill held it’s second annual summit on Tuesday, March 24. MyVision was founded by Yashvi Shah and Joanna Klimczak, who wanted to create a global network that helps students build their own enterprises to solve social problems. MyVision has spread globally, and its second annual summit featured three inspiring keynote speakers that all praised the MyVision’s goals and accomplishments, while emphasizing a global need to address more social problems.
The first speaker was McGill’s very own Henry Mintzberg, who is the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at Desautels Faculty of Management and an internationally recognized academic and author on management and business. Mintzberg has recently published his book Rebalancing Society, which focuses on how the third sector, not the private and public sectors, will be the one that rebalances the worlds social problems. (His book is online for free, because he wants anyone interested in social business to have access to the information, which is admirable and very cool of him).
At the summit, he spoke about the importance of this third sector which he admits is obscure, but includes civil society, NGOs, etc. and stated that this sector has to get organized before society will be balanced and completely well off. He went on to praise social initiatives, such as MyVision and the enormous number of co-ops that are going on now, before concluding by emphasizing that young people can help to solve social problems in a number of ways. Mintzberg urged everyone to vote and to think about ways in which we can replace what business’ do badly to make significant changes.
Bernard D’Arch, a current McGill student and winner of the 2014 Dobson Cup, spoke after Professor Mintzberg. D’Arch and his partner took a social entrepreneurship class that required creating a business plan addressing a social problem. They decided to come up with a plan concerning Lac-Mégantic, the town in Quebec that was ruined when a freight train carrying crude oil derailed and killed 47 people and destroyed the downtown area.
D’Arch spoke about how the community most wanted a community building and help for the entrepreneurs in the area that were hurting from this disaster. D’Arch and his partner are currently still working on this project and are trying to fund the creation of an incubator and co-working space in the downtown area. He also emphasized the importance of community, perseverance, communication, and networking.
The concluding speaker was Richard St. Pierre, president of C2 MTL, which is a massive annual business conference in Montreal that praises itself on making Montreal shine internationally and bringing people together to get inspired and do business.
St. Pierre dispelled many myths about starting something, but he acknowledged that once you have an idea, you face a mountain of challenges. His first point was to ignore all of the things telling you that you can’t do something, you “have to start somewhere, so start,” was his advice. He then went on to talk about the importance of collaboration and cultivating of good ideas. St.Pierre said “the difference between idea and action is creativity,” and that it is key to have a plan but to also surround yourself with diverse minds and remember the merits of collective thinking.
After the three speakers presented, there was a workshop in which participants were split into groups and given a bag of seemingly useless objects that looked like they belonged in a kindergarten classroom. Each group had to come up with a social problem they wanted to tackle and to use the objects to create a solution.
Yashvi reflected on the summit as being “phenomenal,” and said that the fact that the event was sold out was extremely satisfying. MyVision hopes to continue educating through summits since they are a great way to connect people. She also said that she’s already looking forward to next year’s summit but that the energy at this one. The event was extremely successful, and everyone at HerCampus wishes MyVision the best of luck and hopes to attend next years summit.
Images taken by HC McGill writers Kelly Moore and Cleona Tsang.