SAP Twitter Chat on Millennials & Social Entrepreneurship: #SAPsocent

On Thursday, October 23rd at 9am PDT / Noon EST, TriplePundit and SAP led a Twitter Chat on millennials and social entrepreneurship at #SAPsocent. 

This facilitated discussion examined how millennial entrepreneurs are transforming their industries and communities with new social enterprises. We spoke with experts and millennial entrepreneurs themselves about how the younger generation approaches bringing meaning to their daily work and building sustainable businesses from the ground up - and SAP shared its approach to supporting these young leaders. Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, even stopped in to give his two cents!

Stepped out of CEO Summit to check out the convo here. We are talking about social contract between generations wCEOs. #SAPsocent

— Bill McDermott (@BillRMcDermott) October 23, 2014

Our guest speakers comprised a diverse, global panel of entrepreneurs and practitioners. The four agreed that the millennial generation is a different breed, and that the traditional workplace is changing as a result of technology and their desires to make an impact in the world.

• Tiago Dalvi, Founder and CEO of Solidarium, which markets products made by impoverished artisans to retailers such as WalMart:
  
  
  • @dalvitiago: We’re focused in building businesses with cause. It’s possible to make money and change the world at the same time.


• Jacob Rosenbloom, Co-Founder and CEO of Emprego Ligado, a mobile-based job-matching platform focused on the massive “blue-collar” workforce in Brazil:
  
  
  • @JacobRosenbloom: ‘Just a job’ challenge is not big enough. #Millennials want to get paid to change the world. 


• Adam Smiley Poswolsky, Author of The Quarter Life Breakthrough, a career guide for twenty- (and thirty) somethings to get unstuck, pursue work that matters and change the world:
  
  
  • @whatsupsmiley: #Millennials are innovative and fearless. Whether entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, they want do the impossible. 


• Nicolette van Exel, Director of CSR at SAP - responsible for social enterprise development, including the Emerging Entrepreneurship Initiative:
  
  
  • @nvanexel: #Millennial generation is connected, everywhere, all the time. Technology must #RunSimple, experience must be seamless 

For the Storify summary and additional information -- keep reading.

The conversation itself generated over 1,000 tweets using the hashtag #SAPsocent, coming from over 170 participating Twitter accounts. The estimated number of accounts reached was nearly 500,000, and the number of impressions generated soars into the millions.

Key participant quotes:

• @konstant_g: (George Konsta): Look at #SAPsocent #Millennials very insightful twitter Chat! Spent 1 year on the topic as PG researcher :) 


• @JohnFriedman (John Friedman): All generations have something to contribute to workplace & society. Multi-generational teams lvrg all strengths


• @apolack (Amira Polack): If we had no idea how our world should work, how would we make it work? This is what we should ask.


• @LeonKaye (Leon Kaye): My 2cents: engaging millennials like @sapcsr & @msftcitizenship is smart business, smart long-term thinking.


• @MilindaMartin (Milinda Martin): This requires each of us to vote w/our wallets MT @apolack  Demand the world align what we value monetarily 2 our values. 

This Twitter Chat was facilitated by TriplePundit's Founder and Publisher, Nick Aster (@NickAster); Editor-in-Chief, Jen Boynton (@JenBoynton); and Director of Social Media, Marissa Rosen (@MarissaR1).

Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with locations in more than 130 countries, SAP is the world leader in enterprise software and software-related services. The company has a 42-year history of innovation – and boasts that we must believe in millennials to survive!