Communicopia

It's been quite a month for us and our key collaborators, especially for Joel Solomon and Carol Newell at Renewal Partners / Endswell Foundation (new, Communicopia re-designed sites coming in early 2008). Joel and Carol have been absolutely essential to our success - as a business and my personal success as a social entrepreneur - from the first moment we met 8 years ago they have backed me, my business, and my values to the core.

It was fun to spend the day at our Toronto office again, which is at the Centre for Social Innovation at 215 Spadina St. It’s a beautiful scene, in a vibrant, diverse and hip part of town – steps away from Chinatown, Kensington Market, and Queen St West. The building itself is very cool, with a “living wall” of plants cleaning the air and welcoming you into the lobby, a roof top deck, and one of Toronto’s only green roofs. Very livable.

The Centre is a shared space with over 30 tenants so the biggest perks are the people you run into. Today I had a meeting with the Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, who knew and worked with at least 3 other tenants. Toby, the CEO of Corporate Knights, Canada’s foremost CSR mag, was over in the corner, and my good friends Tonya Surman, who co-founded and runs the Centre along with Social Innovation Canada, and Phillip Smith, a partner we do Web of Change with, were also there.

Communicopia works with some of the most senior people in the industry. Here are some of the key people you are likely to meet: