With just over a month to go until the Global Innovation Coop Summit (GICS), we take a look at some of the key topics on the agenda
In its third in-person edition, GICS will explore how co-ops can provide solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges, from climate change and social inequality to declining trust in institutions.
Next month’s event will gather co-operators from around the world in Torres Vedras, Portugal, to focus on three main themes: empowering people to act; building trust together; and co-creating inclusive and lasting change.
Yuill Herbert, an expert in climate planning and active participant in international transition processes, will open the summit with a keynote address on the theme of tipping points, followed by a collaborative workshop on major global challenges.
“I strongly believe that co-operatives are a structural response to a potent cocktail of challenges that we face, and one that doesn’t require a violent revolution,” he told the GICS. “Co-operatives counter inequality by preventing the concentration of wealth. They counter economic insecurity by cultivating collective resilience rather than rugged individualism. As schools of democracy, they build trust and accountability in the era of misinformation.
“And they emphasise needs rather profit, a powerful frame for countering climate change and the ecological crisis.”
Herbert hopes participants can see co-operatives “not as enterprises occupying a niche in capitalist economies but as a structural solution to the great challenges of our time” and “envision a fundamentally different role for co-operatives in our societies and the pathways to get there”.
Workshops on the first topic, empowering people to act, will focus on building a culture of accountability, leveraging human capital to drive innovations, using AI for data-driven decision making, and integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles at all levels of co-operative operations.
The second topic, building trust together, will be explored via a range of breakout sessions on the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation for co-operatives and mutuals, creating strong international partnerships between co-ops, developing sustainable and impactful solutions to these global crises and building or strengthening global networks to share knowledge and resources.
Related: GICS looks to strengthen international co-op community
The third topic, co-creating for inclusive and lasting change, will be debated during breakout sessions on how co-ops can integrate concrete ecological solutions into their operations to enhance sustainability and responsibility, how artificial intelligence (AI) can support the energy transition by optimising renewable energy solutions and promoting a regenerative approach for systems and communities, and how co-ops can move beyond resilience and become key drivers of the circular economy.
The workshops and breakout sessions will be followed by a final thematic plenary which will highlight some of the key takeaways. Participants are invited to reflect on key learnings, reaffirm cooperative values, and shape concrete pledges to extend the summit’s impact well beyond Torres Vedras.
GICS is co-hosted by the International Cooperative Innovation Network and Caixa Agrícola Torres Vedras from Portugal.
Registration for the event is still open. More information is available on the event’s website.
Groups of five of more receive a 10% discount on the standard registration fee of €300 per participant.
