For a number of years now Geoff Mulgan has been talking about bees & trees.

In a report published by The Young Foundation in March 2009, titled The voluntary sector, public services and innovation, Mulgan puts it simply:

“Innovation comes from connecting bees and trees
Bees: small groups, individuals with insight and ideas (communities, social entrepreneurs ...)
Trees: big organisations (governments, companies, foundations) with power and money
Intermediaries – decisive role, but often lacking”

This wonderful metaphor is very helpful in describing the role of ASIX; because our network was formed with the vision of creating a forum and catalyst for high impact social innovation - the important role of intermediary that Mulgan has identified as being too often absent. In fact the image of bees and trees was the inspiration for the SIX logo, which we have adopted as our own.

Big charities, corporations and government bodies, like well established trees with their deep roots, protective canopy and high visibility, have the infrastructure and assets to implement widespread change. But often they are resistant to new solutions, with resources committed to existing programs and established ways of thinking.

New and disruptive solutions are often conceived as grassroots initiatives by activists, frustrated service users or other creative ‘bees’ with very few resources or powerful networks. Even the most brilliant ideas only translate into high impact solutions when their value is recognised, they secure resources and are widely adopted.

ASIX’s goal is to make sure the community of innovator bees get a chance to pollinate, and cross-pollinate, the trees - as well as to support bees in their initiatives.

Australian for-profit leaders often view other organisations working in the same field as rivals rather than potential collaborators. Perhaps this is an understandable by-product of the constant scramble to secure limited funds from the same pool.

Many good pilot programs never receive the ongoing support to go to scale. Many good projects also run into government policy roadblocks. Bad as these disconnects are between bees and trees, there’s even less knowledge and resource sharing amongst the trees - within and across government, business and nonprofit sectors; that’s another area where ASIX seeks to have a positive impact.

Helping the bees and trees connect encourages organisations, and whole communities, to operate more sustainably and find better, faster and less costly ways of solving some of the critical challenges we face – climate change, poverty, an aging population. That’s what social innovation is all about and we believe it is a responsibility of every member of our community.

On August 31 registration will open for the inaugural Australian Social Innovation Camp, to be held in Sydney 5-7 March 2010. It is a project that will use the internet and power of social networking to respond to social needs faced by our communities. Ventures like Get Up, Reach Out, Wikipedia, Patient Opinion are working examples of web-based social innovations.

This intensive weekend will be physical gathering of bees and trees, with the express purpose of working together to affect change around a group of great ideas, rapidly. It’s not a conference; we’re going to act on this stuff, not just talk about it.

Visit the Social Innovation Camp site to see how you can lodge your idea or apply to participate to come along and contribute your expertise.