In my last post, I mentioned a conference coming up in April, 2012. Well there’s one that’s just came to an end at the Mason School of Business at The College of William and Mary. The inaugural session of SEcon (Social Entrepreneurship Conference) has just concluded. What an amazing two-day experience being among leaders, innovators, and change agents with a passion for doing great good for business and society.

The conference hosted participants from across the globe, including:

• Sheikh Hamad Bin Ali Bin Jassim Al-Thani – Vice-Chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Program.
• John Bridgeland – President & CEO of Civic Enterprises
• Jonathan Greenblatt – Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the Domestic Policy Council
• Stanley S. Litow – IBM’s Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of IBM’s Foundation
• Mike Perlis – President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes Media LLC
• Ali Siddiqui – Principal shareholder of JS Group and board member of the Acumen Fund, a social enterprise fund
• Wayne Silby – Founding Chair of Calvert Funds

There’s a complete list of participants here.

Social entrepreneurship is not a new idea that requires considerable thought or effort to understand. It occurs and develops in many different ways – with individuals, communities, companies, and even nations. After attending all the breakout sessions and listening to the various speakers, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for luxury brands that want to be more relevant to consumers.

The SEcon 2012 conference website will be up for a long time to come. I suggest you access the trove of videos and information generated by the event. I’m going to study all of the material to find those nuggets of wisdom that will help me in my luxe-focused career.