A SEA Change is a profound or notable transformation. The SEA Change happening in Columbus, Ohio will be showcased in the form of a festival. There will be two back-to-back days focused on the raising up of Social Businesses into the consciousness of Ohio.

In the Center of Columbus, The Arena District, there is a park. On August 20th, in McFerson Commons, underneath the arch across from Nationwide Arena, that park will be filled with Social Enterprises. Here, you can join us for the largest give back celebration Central Ohio has ever seen (www.seachangefestival.org). Come window shop and support good causes at the same time. Feast on food truck culinary excellence and compare local iced coffees and craft beers, all while enjoying some of Columbus’ most talented musicians live on stage.

What is a Social Enterprise? Wikipedia says it is “an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being—this may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for external shareholders”. In other words, a Social Business is a for-profit business that has social change woven into the fibers of how it does business. The most prolific example is TOMS Shoes. Their buy-one-give-one model is both a revenue generator and an expense line item on the Profit and Loss statements. You buy yourself a pair of shoes, and you feel good about your purchase because you know you just put a pair of shoes on a person that may not have had them. You buy the shoes; TOMS does all the heavy lifting of getting the shoes on the person in need.

There are over 50 Social Businesses, like TOMS (http://www.cincohio.com/social-enterprises-in-central-ohio) within Central Ohio, and more are being started, scaled and sustained every year. The day before the SEA Change Festival, some of these social businesses, who have been working over the last 12 weeks in a business developing accelerator, will be live on stage. Come see the new class of home grown Social Business pitch for $100,000 at the SEA Change Pitch Event, the Social Enterprise Accelerator, on August 19th from 5:30 to 8:30, at Columbus College of Art and Design (60 Cleveland Ave.). Everyone is invited.

So, come join us for two days and two events that will cause what we hope to be a lasting and notable transformation in the way Central Ohio thinks about Social Business. Hope to see you there.

One,
Timmy