Özlem and I attended House of Impact in Helsinki on 18-19 November, for the second time this year. I want to share our experience at House of Impact because it exemplifies how intentional gatherings can spark meaningful change, foster collaboration, and provide valuable insights for anyone passionate about creating a more sustainable and equitable world.
House of Impact started last year as a side event to Slush, which is one of Europe’s largest startup ecosystem gathering. The intention behind House of Impact was to create awareness and gravity around impact among the visitors of Slush. It is organized by The Impact Office (TIO) and supported by members of TIO network, many of which are principles of small medium size family offices that have known each other from their Next-Gen years in Family Business Network International.
The space where the event is held, Puistokatu 4, is owned and operated by TAH Foundation, which is a non-profit family foundation based in in Finland with the goal to support and promote social welfare, culture, environment and science. Known as “A Space for Science and Hope”, Puistokatu 4 is in itself a great example of how business families can step up to be part of the change they want to see in the world.
As many alliances and friendships were formed, startups funded, projects initiated and collaborations started following the first house of Impact, this year it returned with a 2 day program, hosting a wider community. Here are some examples of how this beautiful house have impacted our journey at Light Eagle:
2023:
-We met with Toniic for the first time at HOI, we had plenty of follow up conversations and then met with the team at Katapult Future Fest and finally became members in July this year.
-We met with DOEN Foundation for the first time at HOI. We were so inspired by the work done by this Dutch Foundation we visited them in Amsterdam next year to get to know them more. Our relationship with members of the team remain to be a very valuable resource, as the Fund have deep experience in various fields of impact and philanthropy across a variety of areas.
-The dinner gathering at HOI provided the spaciousness to get to know the Founders of Seedstars, a fund that was already in our radar. Having the opportunity to understand the intentionality behind starting this fund, and to connect with the founders had a profound effect in our decision to become investors, later in the year.
-We held the first “Introduction to Wisdom Council” at HOI, an ancient way of governance that allows all the voices of life to be heard, and can be an essential tool to support humanity in navigating towards the future. What we have learned from this experienced informed us to start a new initiative.
2024:
-Returning back to the community after a year, provided us insight about the current state of many of the projects and initiatives that started the year before. It is important to understand that impact ecosystem is a recent field and it is growing through a lot of experimentation. Keeping in touch with each other allow all of us to build on each others work.
-We have been searching on examples of how philantrophy and impact investing can work together, and had the chance to attend an excellent session where practitioners of this field shared their experience of using philanthropy and catalytic capital to de-risk impact investing. In more human terms, donate with the intention to inspire others to join, to areas that have the potential to thrive as self sustaining, impactful iniatives/business.
-Listened to experiences of systemic investing initiatives where multiple family offices and impact investors collaborate to address complex problems, allocating not only their financial capital but also their social and political capital. As we are preparing to step forward to lead a systemic transformation initiative in spring, we made new friends to whom we can ask many questions as we set sail on this new journey.
In conclusion, House of Impact continues to serve as a dynamic and inspiring hub for fostering meaningful connections, sharing knowledge, and catalyzing impactful initiatives. For Özlem, myself, and the LightEagleAG team, this event has been instrumental in shaping our journey and deepening our commitment to systemic transformation. It has provided us with a unique opportunity to learn from the experiences of others, collaborate with like-minded individuals, and contribute to the growing global impact ecosystem. We leave this year's gathering with a renewed sense of purpose and an even stronger network to support our vision of creating sustainable and meaningful change in the world.
The next day we participated at Slush.
