1st International Conference of the Latinamerican Social Innovation Network

The 1st International Conference of the Latinamerican Social Innovation Network took place in Panama City, Panama, on September 28^th and 29^th, 2017. It was organized by the Erasmus+ funded project LASIN, in which the University of Alicante is a partner.

The Conference brought together over 150 participants from Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Germany, Honduras, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States and Venezuela. In several plenary and parallel sessions, the participants were able to discuss on a wide range of areas related to social innovation, for example “How can social innovation be measured, scaled-up, transferred or sustained?”, “How can universities support social innovation?”, “Social innovation theories and practices in Latin America”, “Social innovation and the Environment”, “Social innovation and people: education and employment”, “Social innovation and people: cohesion”, “Social innovation and technology” or “Social innovation in art and culture”.

The University of Alicante was represented by Prof. Javier Mira and Víctor Climent (GIPE), who gave presentations in the sessions on inclusion of social innovation in the Social Work curriculum of the UA and on the perception of Spanish citizens on social vs technological innovation, respectively, and by OGPI senior project manager Cristina Beans who chaired the session on Education and Employment.

The participants all deemed the Conference a great success, with many experiences exchanged, new relationships forged and old ones reinforced, and wishing to join the Latinamerican Social Innovation Network (if they weren’t already members). All are ready to return for the 2^nd International Conference which will take place in Columbia in September 2018.