Why an Alchemix Community?

Innovation Alchemy is deeply involved in facilitating an acceleration programme working closely with social entrepreneurs who are seeking to scale.  In working with these entrepreneurs who are growing their ideas, we realized that PEER learning forms the basis of a strong, substantial basis of how people seek and build learning. And its often tough to learn from Peers because people don’t have time, there are no structured platforms that bring this together – and very little facilitation that can help make discussions into LEARNING sessions.

 The Design Tenets

From the insight around peer connections and learning – we designed a Community of Practice in late 2010, and structured it within the following guidelines:

1. Keep sessions simple in their execution
2. Reach many people each time – use technology, live stream, social media where possible to complement the physical sessions
3. Be accessible for many people to want to share – ensure it does not feel like something only ‘experts’/ great speakers can go to’
4. Have a focus on practical implementation and learning – not just be an intellectual think tank
5. Have a shelf life beyond the physical session – so create a repository via online blogs and writing
6. Do several sessions over a calendar year enabling repeated connections within the community

Alchemix was crafted as a series of short, curated engagements between innovators, social entrepreneurs, creative minds, designers, engaged citizens, investors and ideas. These sessions bring together the innovation practitioner community every couple of months to debate, discuss, learn and apply.

Alchemix So Far…

In the five sessions implemented so far we have focused on the themes of Education via Social Enterprise; Health Care delivery in India; Water, Sanitation and Waste Management; Using social media as an innovation tool; and Innovating for Urban Slums.  More about the last few sessions, the themes, pictures and videos.

In 2011, this program was adopted by the Marico Innovation Foundation and implemented in the form of four Practitioner Sessions involving business and social innovators across 4 cities in India: New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. More about the Practitioner Sessions.

Between October 2010 and April 2012, here are some statistics:

1. Nine sessions implemented across 4 different cities, with separate themes related to social enterprise and innovation
2. Over 25 Practitioners involved in discussions to share learning and trigger peer dialogues
3. Over 650 registered participants in the community across the cities
4. Over 500 people joining in via Live stream from different regions/ countries
5. Managing over 4000 followers on twitter across multiple handles
6. Ten video films created from these sessions and hosted on Vimeo for free circulation
7. Over 25 Blog posts generated with learning and insights from these sessions and as follow-up case studies and features in meetings with participants and speakers

Read about these sessions and detailed posts related to insights from these sessions.