Global Week on Entrepreneurship

The current challenge of becoming innovative and entrepreneurial has reached Brazilian organizations. From my observations and work during the past 3 months, since I got back, there is a high demand for innovation, driven by societal changes, by competition and by the global markets... and a big question: how?

Last week was celebrated the global week on entrepreneurship. In Brazil, Endeavor promoted the event with a series of workshops, lectures and presentations around the country, under the theme "bota pra fazer" (something like "let's do it").

Through the events I participated at, it was clear the message: we need to change a culture! Brazilians (and the business/political/cultural environment around) have to:

• Dare to fail - and face society's prejudice against failure
  
• Innovation from bottom-up, full support from top-down
• Persistence, courage and belief
  
• Existence of an "eco-system" for innovation
• Transformative education rather than technical knowledge transfer
  

Another key message, in between the lines, was about social entrepreneurship. The idea that business and entrepreneurs can solve issues such as poverty or AIDS or environmental destruction was said and repeated many times - without using the words "social entrepreneur" or "social business". Those of us operating in such a paradigm should feel like being at the wave crest (na crista da onda). It's exciting and it's the future!

SONHAR PEQUENO OU SONHAR GRANDE DÁ O MESMO TRABALHO!
(to dream small or to dream big: it's the same effort for both)

jazz-overload in Molde (Norway)

Inspired by a compliment I have just received from @lopesluciane, I decided to catch up with my blog and update it with new stories. Actually, not so new, as this one took place over a month ago. But I thought it's worthy sharing :P

Between experiencing the mountains in Sweden and sailing the Norwegian sea with a professional skipper, Mark, Philip and I got "stuck" in a little town for one week. Luckily (luck is not enough to describe that!), there was a major international jazz festival taking place there during those 6 days... the town is called Molde, city of roses, with 20,000 inhabitants, host of one of the oldest jazz festivals in the world, MoldeJazz, at its 49th edition!

And how luck we were to get a volunteer job there! Why not? We would get a free pass for all concerts, free camping and discounts on food and drinks, plus a "special" deal for a day in an island across the fjorde, with music, beers, food and a swim... and our job? For some reason, they got to know we're passionated about the environment, so they got something to do... and it was called The Environmental Patrol (Miljø Patrulje)...

Our job was simple: clean the main street. Another name for it: cleaning men! Apparently, Scandinavians have replaced names for all "discriminated" jobs with nice names (and they are really well paid ;-))

In our case, we worked 1 hour, twice a day, for 3 days. A total of 6 hours of work (should I say fun!?) worth 300 euro!! Niiiice!! And we enjoyed showman Leonard Cohen, crazyman Cecil Taylor, funnymen Fanfare Ciocarlia, talentedman Joshua Redman and his Trio and popman Jamie Culum... plus a few other surprises at the Jams during the night and some street artists during the day...

I absolutely recommend for anyone!! So much fun, an overload of jazz!

More pictures at my flickr account: flickr.com/vedana

Got wild in the Swedish mountains, again

I mentioned previously about my current European summer adventure. It has been so far the most diverse short trip I have ever done (6 weeks) and still to be the most fantastic. I still have two more weeks on the road but I've found some time to start writing about it. I've managed to update my Twitter a few times though...

The first part of my trip was in Sweden. I've been there last year taking part of the GetWild program, and I came back this year as co-facilitator, supporting Martin and Rowan in this mission of providing an extraordinary experience with Nature for 18 young social entrepreneurs for one week in July. We're received once again by Göran Guunvi, CEO of Naturakademin and our connection to the Sami People, "owners" of the sacred lands of Vålådalen.

The learning curve was increadible, and I got a lot from this experience. It was fun at most times and pretty challenging at some moments. We got terrible weather most of the time and three people were "rescued" from the top of the mountain, due to the cold and constant rain. But even for them, the experience turned out very impactful, and it feels great to know that. Bert from Netherlands wrote about his experience in his blog.

I intent to facilitate new experiences like that in the future, in Brazil. I also realized the crucial importance of authenticity - you cannot preach what you don't do yourself. I need to join more solo trips and practice more mindfulness myself before doing it again for others!

Thanks for Rowan for his determined work at Up-Stream.dk and Martin for his experience and calmness.

In the next post I'll share more about the MoldeJazz Festival 2009!

Post # 100 :D

WOW!! This is my 100th post to my personal blog!!!

It all started back in September 2005, when I was moving from Brazil to Netherlands, for an AIESEC internship at ABN AMRO Bank. And now, 3 years and 10 months later, I start to get prepared to come back. I arrive in São Paulo on 24th of August for a new cycle in my life. I'm closing my chapter of 4 years in Europe.

At the Kaospilots, I graduated two weeks ago, in an incredible party organized by Team 14 and 15 (first and second year students). I was carried home at 6.30am, by Pedro and Florentine, my two guests who came from Amsterdam to party with me! And, even better than that, I managed to pay all my school debts in time!! (this is definitely a good theme for another post!). Unfortunately, my final exam didn't go well (this is subject for yet another post), and I'll have to go for a re-exam, to take place on 19th of August :S

I'm finishing the last changes to my final project for my client, and on Saturday I start another "crazy European summer trip". Like in 2007 when I hitchhiked across France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Czech Rep, or in 2008, when I traveled over 3.000km and 40 different cars across Denmark, Sweden and Norway!

This time I'm combining fun and work, adventure and reflection!

• GetWild Nature Quest: going back to Sweden, this time as one of the "hosts" of the 7-days Nature Quest, including 3 days-solo in the Swedish Mountains of Vålådalen (see map). 21 young people from Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and even Brazil and Iraq (!) are joining us this year!

• Molde Jazz Festival: Mark, Philip and I will hitchhike and couchsurf to Trondheim and Molde (Norway), where the famous Jazz Festival takes place. We'll meet our friend Inger-Mette and hopefully we get some paid job for one week!

• Sailing trip from Molde to Oslo: one week sailing with Skipper Christian Løken, who joined our team at the Kaospilots but left us to join the Volvo Ocean Race ;-)

• Madrid: some days working with Guga, good old friend, with whom I'm developing a business plan for our startup and we're part of a competition promoted by Artemisia Foundation. Deadline is 2nd of August!

• Italia: back to the roots, once again. This time I'll travel to Rome with Florentine and relax for a few days in the countryside, with good wine, good food. Good life!

• Denmark: back to Denmark, time for the re-exam, pack my stuff and fly home!!!!!

Who knows, maybe I meet some of you on-the-road, let me know if that might be the case!

Ah, my record says that I blog an average of once every two weeks!! At least I'll keep this average for the the next year to come!

(and many updates come on Twitter anyway. Follow me...)

Event: Stories of Antarctica, Leadership and Climate Change

Today is EarthDay! First celebrated 39 years ago, it marks the birth of the modern environmentalist movement... learn more at www.earthday.net/earthday2009

As part of the celebrations, my "action" today is to start sharing my experience in Antarctica. I'll also write some reflections down on my blog (meanwhile you can check the Official Expedition Website) and look for photos, videos and blog posts, where I was one of the official bloggers).

If you are in São Paulo, try to join us at The Hub, located at Rua Bela Cintra 409 (see map) at 19h.


Thomas Ufer e Henrique Vedana foram escolhidos entre jovens do mundo inteiro para participar de uma expedição para a Antarctica (http://expedition-antarctic-2009.com), em Março/Abril de 2009, com a intenção de ver os efeitos das mudanças climáticas acontecendo no continente mais remoto e mais intacto do planeta, e conectar-se com lideranças jovens e cientistas de ponta, buscando entender a crise onde estamos e quais as perspectivas, o que a gente pode e deve fazer.

Mostraremos algumas fotos, o filme da expedição e contaremos algumas histórias... venha pra bater-papo, fazer perguntas e refletir com conosco!

Biking in São Paulo

I should write about Antarctica, about my final project at the Kaospilots, about my Magic Kombi and about Wind People, or even about my "facing my fears" climbing experience last weekend, but instead I rather talk about BIKES! Bikes in São Paulo!

The motivation: I love biking and I've done it since I was a child. A bit hidden from my parents, who would naturally advised me against, while in reality I was happily building self-confidence in exploring my hometown, Porto Alegre. I loved it. It was dangerous. I moved to São Paulo and continued doing so, without realizing the crazyness of such an attitude. Then, Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Aarhus (Denmark), and the "bikeland", the two most bike-friendly countries in the world. I had reached Paradise :)

Four years later, back to São Paulo, I was going for a 20min ride from Vila Mariana to Bela Vista this morning, crossing one of the main avenues in Brazil, Avenida Paulista, and I met Marcia:

An article on TreeHugger explained: "Márcia Regina de Andrade Prado [40 years-old] was a well-known bike activist who was run-down by a bus last January 14 (2009). Her accident exposed one more time the fragile situation of bikers in large cities and caused great mobilization among the Sao Paulo's bikers." Quite shocking and real!

Another cool website and some background info on biking in São Paulo...

• São Paulo has 6 million vehicles (3 times more than in 1980)
  
• There were 262km of traffic jams in 2008
• Being inside a car in the middle of a traffic jam is 2 to 4 times more damaging for health (pollution) than biking in the same situation
• There are 30km of cycle paths in São Paulo, for 250.000 bikes
  
• One citizen dies every 4 days biking in São Paulo (84 people in 2006)
  

As the CriticalMass movement states (Bicicletada.org in Brazil): (Each bike means) one less car! I recommend reading the Manifest of the Invisibles before calling me crazy, and for a better understanding of what the whole thing is about!

Join the movement... control what you can!

Ushuaia - the end of the world...

A few days in Amsterdam would help to prepare and pack. A long meeting in Aarhus and I almost missed my train. Actually the time in Netherlands was fantastic but not for the preparation. Lots of things missing in the last minute. This blog post half-written. An excited and underprepared 'change agent' going to Antarctica. That's not good!

Luckily the flight was excellent and I arrived in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, for 2 days of preparation before embarking to Antarctica. The whole group of 60 students plus BP Leaders, professors, experts and facilitators is here, united. Tomorrow at 9am we gather. At 7am we practice Aikido (thanks Thomas!).

It feels surreal still. I just had dinner with Peter Senge this evening. Nice easygoing guy. He knows very well AIESEC, he was totally up for Pioneers of Change members to join the expedition, and surprisingly (for me), he knew lots about the Kaospilots!

I promised myself to disconnect from the Internet after this blog post. We won't have any communication or mobile signal while onboard, except for a basic satellite connection, where we can send a few packets of information: blog posts and photos for the official website. I'm one of the expedition bloggers so you can follow the website for more details: www.expedition-antarctic-2009.com. The position of the ship can be tracked and you can leave (me) a message, and it will be delivered!

Below is the (planned) itinerary, if the weather conditions allow...


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