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)

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!