Cross-posted on World Challenge Down to Business.

Leaders in the fields of education, policy, climate change, impact investing, healthcare, food systems, the arts and mobile technology met last week at the Columbia Business School social enterprise conference to debate how technology and online networks are affecting—perhaps even redesigning—how social ventures can achieve greater impact.

I was honoured to open the day as a keynote speaker with Matthew Klein of the Blue Ridge Foundation, and also to conclude the conference as a guest adjudicator in a social venture pitch competition.

As we train the next generation of social change agents, we must consider how technology will assist them in building stronger social ventures. The accelerated trajectory of technology in the last five years marks this as an exciting and promising time in social change. From innovative approaches to reach intergenerational audiences, to the ability to rapidly share new ideas and resources, we're beginning to see break-through business models that are using technological capital to transform social business. For example:

• The Chordoma Foundation uses a wiki-style open source platform for scientists around the world to collaborate on results-oriented bone cancer research.
• iMentor challenges the traditional mentoring model by combining online technology and targeted in-person support to create a more flexible and effective education development program.
• Bamyan Media produces a reality television competition to encourage economic social innovation in the poorest areas of Afghanistan.

However, if technological capital matters, human capital matters more. The true heroes of social enterprise are the social entrepreneurs themselves. Not to be overlooked is the opportunity to use technology to build a network of a human kind. The stickiness of human capital is the community of people around them that will be their fiercest champion. Building this network of daring people and bold ideas, where the sum is greater than its parts, is the key to scaling social innovation and impact. The network helps the young social entrepreneur spark collaborations and partnerships with some of the most courageous people on the planet, to feel supported in the loneliest times, and to take successes and failures and use them to build a movement.

Big problems require big ideas. Young people are at an incredibly creative period in their lives, and have never been more equipped to drive change. It's up to the world to nurture their big ideas to impact.

For additional insight on the conference, read "Social Entreprenurship Coming Full Circle" at nextbillion.net.

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