TRANSITION e-Mag #1 | Page 11

_11 project around this challenge? Joe: The incubatees we are working with don’t typically identify themselves according to whether or not they are having a social impact. Many are more concerned with trying to mature, validate and find a market application for their idea, so we try not to confuse them with our jargon on social innovation, social dividend and other similar terms. It is important to treat them on an equal level as a normal enterprise. One particular project we are working with at the moment is developing a methodology to help people learn music by using colour as opposed to reading notes, and in this way making art music accessible to everybody. Our system there is guided by commercial principles: finding the money and connecting the project to people abroad that can take the project to other countries. Ultimately, on this project, we are moving into a nesting area in the social innovation context saying that young people who play music tend to stay out of crime and out of socially undesirable practices. They instead find pride in themselves, find satisfaction in life and a fantastic hobby they can be passionate about. Wouldn’t every parent or community leader want every young person to find something like that? In this way we took a good, possible idea and ordered it into a social innovation context. What are some key insights you have gained through incubating social innovation projects that you would like to share with other incubators in Europe? 1_ Treat them as a regular commercial enterprise, and don’t to confuse it with jargon. It is OK for us intermediary people to talk in these terms, but it is not fair to impose this on social enterprises or social entrepreneurs. 2_ Encourage early engagement with people outside their usual sphere. It is too easy to stay in your comfort zone of like-minded people or geographical-proximate people. The difficult step is to move outside of your own region or country, and to connect with people who are doing something