TEDxChange: A Must Attend Webcast for Your Responsible Career

Building a responsible career means getting business done better, by generating economic value while making a positive impact on our society and the environment. If this is your goal, then mark your calendar, and make sure that you attend the TEDxChange webcast offered through a partnership between the TED Talks and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The webcast will take place on September 20th, 2010 at 11am EDT! TEDxChange will focus on the progress made by industrialized and developing countries around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The webcast will include speakers such as Melinda Gates, Graa Machel, and Mechai Viravaidya. Don't worry if you cannot attend, the webcast will be recorded so that you can watch these unique talks at your convenience!

As an aspiring or established responsible professional, you surely know of the MDGs, which were introduced in the United Nations (UN) in 2000. The MDGs are 8 areas of high priority that the UN, governments of industrialized and developing countries, as well as a number of businesses and nonprofit organizations have agreed to tackle and eradicate by 2015. The MDGs include lofty goals such as ending poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, achieve environmental sustainability, and build mutually beneficial global partnerships. Several multinationals, including Unilever and Nestle, have revamped their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) websites to reflect how their CSR initiatives align with the UN MDGs. However, the buzz and momentum gained around the MDGs over the last 10 years has been limited. This has been confirmed by aUN report released in June 2010, in which the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, wrote that "It is clear that improvements in the lives of the poor have been unacceptably slow, and some hard-won gains are being eroded by the climate, food and economic crises."

If you are dedicated to build a responsible career that contributes to getting business done better, the MDGs should matter to you. Indeed, the MDGs provide a range of topics and measurements that can accelerate your socio-eco impact as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) professional, as a professional working for a social enterprise or if you are a nonprofit management professional. Being able to measure the results generated by your responsible career by articulating how your socio-eco innovation initiatives at home and abroad positively support the MDGs might provide you with a unique edge in your next interview, and with a greater ability to generate socio-eco results once hired. A number of amazing professionals have done so, and being part of the TEDxChange conversation might enable you to connect with mentors and like-minded professionals that can help you further build your responsible career! So make sure to attend, or even better, organize an event that will enable like-minded professionals to get together, discuss and debate the topics and stay connected moving forward!