Innovation + Responsibility

I have CSR conference fatigue already and I have only been to one CSR-themed conference since joining Sun! It seems that every day I get a mailing - and by the way, these usually are hard copy mailings, so much for environmental consciousness - about some new conference related to social and environmental responsibility. Many of the environmental conferences make sense to me, since those often seem to have sessions or tracks that are designed to deliver tangible tools that people can take back to their companies to start implementing positive change.

The problem with the CSR/Corporate Citizenship kinds of conferences is that they have the same general speakers list as each other and the sessions are almost like infomercials for the featured companies. Sure, you can learn from the experiences of the other companies in your industry, and of course the networking is valuable, too. But how many times do I need to hear the same company tell the same story before I have had my fill? And how many times can I get the same business cards? And, by the way, these conferences are not cheap at $1700 - $2000 a pop - and that does not even include travel!

I would much rather see regional events, roll up your sleeves working sessions, where people like me - the worker bees - get together and hash out some of the challenges facing companies that are doing their best to adopt and implement credible CSR strategies and programs. I am envisioning some case studies featuring real-life problems encountered in the course of a CSR practitioner's day, and a free-flow of ideas and suggestions about lessons learned and how best to deal with such challenges.

Let's say such a conference existed and I was presenting a case study. I might deliver a presentation about the challenges associated with creating a company's first CSR report. I would lay out the scenario as transparently as possible, including some the difficulties as well as the smooth sailing!, and spend time talking about lessons learned. Then the audience would, undoubtedly, have a lot to say about things that could have been done better/differently, as well as some steps they may have taken that might be useful to me and everyone else in the room.

Imagine a whole day of these kinds of working sessions - people learning from each other and sharing best practices, providing support and walking out with a bunch of business cards of people who spend much of their time every day just like you do - trying to initiate positive, lasting, meaningful change at their companies in a way that is sustainable over the long life of the organization.

Why doesn't anyone put on this kind of conference? I understand it is less sexy - less of a platform for companies to feature their CSR-focused executives and deliver their CSR messages to a friendly audience. But it seems infinitely more useful.