The Social Entrepreneurship Exchange is about actionable ideas.  I’ll be sharing my own thoughts and opinions on the world of social entrepreneurship and I hope you’ll share yours in return.  Socentex serves as a resource for social entrepreneurs actively engaging with the growth and development of their enterprises, whether through awareness, connections, or ideas.

My name is Auren Kaplan, and I am grateful that you have visited this blog.  My sincere hope ever since starting this blog has been to raise awareness about the most exciting and up-and-coming social enterprises and generally contribute to this space.  Since then things have blown incredibly out of proportion to my previous conception of reality, and I could not be more thankful.

I now serve as Director of Social Media for The Hub LA, a co-working space that re-conceives the 9 to 5 by providing a workspace for social entrepreneurs to come together, inspire one another, collaborate, and change the world with their ideas and their actions.  Recall how this position began with nothing but a blog post! http://socentex.com/2009/12/idea-the-entrepreneurship-hub/

After attending the Boston StartingBloc Institute in February of 2010, I was invited to join the board of StartingBloc Los Angeles, and I gratefully accepted a position on the Outreach Committee.  We are bringing a StartingBloc Social Innovation Institute to Los Angeles in February, 2010, and I hope you will attend!

I have also joined the team of Urban Social Entrepreneurs as Ambassador to the organization.  Urban Social Entrepreneurs is the Ashoka for the urban community, rebuilding our country from within by activating a new generation of urban social entrepreneurs to change the landscape of our urban centers through community empowerment and for-profit enterprise.

Finally, for my day job:  I conduct Social Media Outreach for movies, authors, and more at DBA West, based in Santa Monica.  I also own a social media coaching consultancy called InSocialize.

I am a proud graduate of the University of Michigan, a citizen of the United States, and a temporary expatriate of Detroit.  I have a background in social activism, running the voter-registration organization Voice Your Vote while in college, and a background in economic development, working on the Automotive Communities Program at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

(photo taken at the Capitol in Austin, TX while on a road trip across America)

Please get in touch with me!  I am on Facebook, LinkedIn, and all over Twitter (@AurenSays, @Socentex, @TheHubLA, @InSocialize).  I’m serious about keeping in touch.  I’d love to connect with you, become inspired by you, have a drink with you, go to the beach with you, and change the world with you.

Thank you so much for visiting this blog and in doing your part to co-create an unimaginably exciting new world!  When every human being on Earth is happy, healthy, well-read, and well-fed, I’m going to take a nap.

Yours in joy, possibility, in action.

Auren Kaplan