LONDON, July 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Leaders' Quest is proud to launch 'Discovering Invisible Giants' at UBM's Business4Better event at London Olympia today. The campaign builds on the success of the recent book by Leaders' Quest founder Lindsay Levin, Invisible Giants: changing the world one step at a time. It is designed to seek out and showcase remarkable people who are overcoming obstacles to change the world around them for the better.
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"'Discovering Invisible Giants' will call on the public to help us uncover some of the extraordinary examples of leadership that surround us every day," says author Lindsay Levin. "Too often we focus exclusively on the scale of the challenges we face, which can seem overwhelming. What we want to do is show that there is already - hidden from view - a movement of people gradually chipping away at those challenges. We want to enhance the impact of these Invisible Giants by sharing their stories, connecting them with like-minded individuals, and inspiring others to follow in their footsteps."
Business4Better, an event designed to bring together business with social enterprises and charities to share best practice, build sustainable partnerships and create powerful connections, will provide the platform for the launch of 'Discovering Invisible Giants'. Young social entrepreneur Aaron Sonson has been selected as the first Invisible Giant to represent the campaign, and will be appearing at Business4Better.
Aaron Sonson is the co-creator of the Stop & Search app, a pioneering phone app that keeps track of police stop-and-search incidents, and aims to make them fair and transparent. Aaron, a youth leader from High Trees Community Development Trust in Tulse Hill, South London, will take part in a discussion with Bill Leask, Product Director at PR Newswire Europe, about how their unlikely partnership led to a recent feature on ITV London News.
Aaron will also join 30 other young leaders from charities and businesses across London in a one-day workshop, run by Leaders' Quest as part of the event. It will focus on exploring authentic leadership and unlocking potential to have a greater positive impact.
"Opportunities like these are important in helping me develop as a person, and grow my projects to create a bigger positive impact," says Aaron. "I see myself as an entrepreneur just getting started. It's a blessing to be linked up with people like Bill, both for the expertise they bring and also for the chance to learn from each other."
Says Lindsay Levin: "We want to unearth many more Invisible Giants like Aaron, and we hope people will join us by sharing stories that demonstrate the best of human potential and are a source of real inspiration. The Leaders' Quest global community connects 6,000 leaders from all sectors, so we will be exposing these Invisible Giants to many others who can help them realise their dreams. We will also provide Invisible Giant scholarships on our leadership development programmes around the world."
To share the story of an Invisible Giant you know, please visit: http://www.invisible-giants.com/share
'Leaders' Quest presents' sessions at Business4Better include:
Tuesday 9 July, 10.00am - 4.30pm (Club Room)
Invisible Giants: empowering youth leaders to change the world, one step at a time.
Tuesday 9 July, 2.00pm-2.30pm (centre stage)
Bikeworks: a fun, interactive session with a successful social enterprise that promotes cycling in the capital and trains homeless people as bike mechanics.
Wednesday 10 July, 3.25pm-3.55pm (Orange theatre)
It's not that hard: how a successful partnership between a business leader and a young man at a charity resulted in a story on the six o'clock news.
About Leaders' Quest
Leaders' Quest is a social enterprise committed to improving the quality and impact of leaders around the world. It works with people from all walks of life - from CEOs of multinational companies, to grassroots organisers - who use their unique influence to create positive change in the world. It designs experiential learning journeys which enable them to ask tough questions about business, society and their own leadership, and look for answers together. It currently runs programmes in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.
About Lindsay Levin
Lindsay is Founder and Managing Partner of Leaders' Quest and author of Invisible Giants: changing the world one step at a time (published March 2013). She works to connect leaders from all disciplines and sectors, to explore solutions to some of the big issues in the world today. Her work ranges from searching for new initiatives that address poverty and sustainability, to working with corporate CEOs and leadership teams on the purpose of business, company values and culture change.
About Lindsay's book: Invisible Giants
Invisible Giants: changing the world one step at a time is a book about leadership, choices in life and the potential in everyone to make a difference. It tells the stories of some of the extraordinary people Lindsay has met through her work over the last 12 years; people who, whatever their background and status, are stepping up to overcome obstacles and change the world around them.
They're individuals like Anwari Khan, who lives with her children next to one of the biggest rubbish dumps in Asia. A self-taught leader who never learned to read and write, she heads a network of hundreds of women, and runs training courses for the police on responding to domestic violence.
Or Yang Xin, who runs an environmental NGO dedicated to protecting one of the planet's most precious ecosystems - the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. The rivers that start there support the lives of almost two billion people across south Asia.
John Elkington, author of 'Cannibals with Forks', calls it "an extraordinary, warts-and-all account designed to jump leaders into 21st century realities."
Anu Aga, Chairperson of Teach for India and Director of Thermax Limited describes Invisible Giants as "truly inspiring, with powerful lessons for everyone. It's not about privileged do-gooders who clamour for media attention, but 'karmayogis': people who bring about change in quiet and purposeful ways."
About Aaron Sonson
Aaron is co-founder of the pioneering Stop & Search UK App, a phone app that keeps track of police stop-and-search incidents, and aims to make them fair and transparent. Aaron is driven to make sure this invention fulfils its potential in terms of positive social impact. His main passion is creating music; he is a rap artist and co-founder of an independent music label, R.E.D.House Entertainment. Aaron sees his future in making great music and creating innovative ways to help different sections of society around the world.
Additional links
Blog about Aaron at invisible-giants.com: http://www.invisible-giants.com/aaron-sonson-co-founder-stop-search-uk-app/
Review of Invisible Giants at The Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/07/07/lindsay-levin-s-invisible-giants-changing-the-world-one-step-at-a-time.html
Media contact
For more information, visit http://www.invisible-giants.com, http://www.leadersquest.org, or contact either richard.roberts@leadersquest.org or melanie.george@leadersquest.org, or call +44(0)208-948-5208.
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