So I had the privilege of being a part of the 100 selected for the Brightest Young Minds 2010(BYM 2010) Summit held at Sydney earlier this month.

Folks have asked me, so how has the week been for you? In a short answer, I simply replied:

“It’s been one of the most inspiring weeks of my life”.

So how has it been inspiring?

Amazing Speakers
With a line up of speakers including Hugh Evans(Global Poverty Project), Steven Persson(CEO – Big Issue), Prof Ian Harper(Economist), Peter Williams(Deloitte Digital), Charlie Regan(CEO – Nerdsonsite) and many others, there was an abundance of wisdom and inspiration to draw from.

Fellow Delegates
Each of the nearly 100 handpicked delegates that attended are amongst some of the brightest, funnest, most passionate people I’ve met. Socially aware, responsible and wanting to go the extra mile to do something about it, the buzz in the atmosphere was electric. Project work was fun, engaging, fiery at times, but that only made it more fun!

Brilliant Sponsors / Supporting Corporates
We had the opportunity to consult sponsors such as the ATO and Tourism Australia, which to me felt like a very empowering experience. We spent heaps of time at the Google offices in Sydney too. Very Cool. They had like a whole shelf of lollies and really funky deco i.e. a whole living forest for a reception.

I came with many questions about what it means to be socially responsible, what it means to be a businessperson that cares about the earth. I came away with some answers, but even more questions. I now know how important it is to build profitable enterprises but with purpose(social, environmental and global impact). But I walked away with even more questions of HOW?

My TakeHomeMessage from this conference is simple. Be Salty and Lighty. Being salty and being bright light in this tasteless and dark earth is really about taking a good hard look at who we are, finding our place in the grand scheme of the challenges and problems that face our humanity and giving it all we’ve got in the influence and affluence we’ve been given by grace – undeserved, unearned, almost just pure ‘luck’.

As Hugh Evans so aptly put it, “Sleeping on that cockroach infested house built over a waste dump that Sunnyboy lived in, I realised that the only thing that was different between me and him is that I was born in Australia and he was born here.”(paraphrased as I can’t remember everything exactly)