Inspiring. Funny. Moving. Awesome. These are just some of the words event attendees used to describe Be An Idea's Vision 2.0 event which profiled talented thought-leaders from international non-profits to local social enterprises.

The event was held on Orchard Road at Ya Kun Kaya Toast, who generously donated their space for the evening. Speakers presented ‘PechaKucha’ style, with twenty slides and just twenty seconds per slide to share stories of their organisations and social causes.

Highlights of the event included hearing from social enterprise Food Playground Founder Lena Tan. Lena was a high-flying professional who encountered difficulties returning to the workforce after being a full-time mom. Determined that talented mothers should have a place in the working world to grow their talents, Lena founded Food Playground, a unique creative cooking school with a staff of former homemakers.

‘Many people do not think of housewives as a group with difficulties,’ said Lena, ‘yet many of these women find themselves cut off from society and with low self-esteem after giving their families so much.’

FAiTH founder Dr. Vani Khare is also concerned about the fate of women and children, particularly in terms of preventing sexual violence. She reminded audience members that they can empower children against sex abuse by having early, age appropriate discussions about healthy and unhealthy touch. While the topic is uncomfortable, only by being open about sexual abuse can we begin to combat its reach.

Kyle Neo, a cancer survivor and author of ‘The Monk Key’, is also unafraid of getting uncomfortable. He believes when encountering life's challengers we must accept, take action for change, and stop worrying. Citing his book’s monkey metaphor, Kyle reminds us, ‘when life gives you a rotten banana, you cut away the bad parts and enjoy the rest!’

Other speakers commented on the growing social impact movement in Singapore. Aseem Thakur of charity crowd-funding site Give.Asia spoke about how crowd-funding is a simple yet powerful tool to raise funds for worthy causes, and discussed how Give.Asia is serving over 500 Asian charities and has raised over $7.5 million to touch countless lives.

Derek Ong of the nonprofit leadership initiative ‘50 for 50’ explained how the organisation is creating an exciting new initiative, '1 for 1' to encourage as many people living in Singapore as possible to donate just $1 to charity and demonstrate that a huge impact can be made by many small efforts

Finally, Jeremy Nguyen-Phuong explained how his organisation and global NGO, Ashoka, is on a mission to identify and invest in social entrepreneurs, including those in Singapore. He shared stories of how Ashoka fellows were reducing bullying in American schools, bringing solar lights to remote Indonesian villages and creating positive change throughout the world.

In hearing from local changemakers, audience members were excited to see what their peers were doing and learn how they could be a part of the movement.

‘I never really thought of myself as being able to help much…’ said one audience member, ‘but after attending Vision I see I have so much more to offer!’