Stephen King on the Skoll World Forum

'The Davos of Social Entrepreneurship' is how Will Hutton has described the annual Skoll World Forum, which took place in Oxford at the end of March. It's a unique gathering of business people, social activists, philanthropists and others who operate in what is still a 'sector' struggling for recognition and definition.

The theme explored this year were particularly relevant to the BBC World Service Trust: how local culture and context shapes our responses to development problems and makes change happen more effectively.

What is a social entrepreneur?

It's a familiar question to those who attend. Is it a business which has a double bottom line? Is it any activity which provides social benefit?

And the answers are still not clear - the common thread seems to be around making the world a better place - and using the techniques, technology and drive normally associated with business to make it happen.

Cast of characters

As always there was a cast of the committed, the enquiring and the famous; former US President Jimmy Carter gave a extraordinarily moving address about the Carter Center's work on eradicating Guinea Worm and other devastating but little known diseases.

Paul Collier, the author of 'The Bottom Billion' expounded on the ideas in his book on why the poorest countries are failing and Premal Shah, the founder of Kiva, inspired many with his story of a website which links small donors to small businesses in the developing world.

The gathering also brought together for the first time a range of media partners who demonstrate these characteristics:

• The BBC World Service Trust
• The Sundance Institute (set up by Robert Redford) to support independent films which have a social impact
• Participant Media (the company behind An Inconvenient Truth)
• Search for Common Ground, which produces soap operas around peace and reconciliation
• The PBS Foundation in the US
• BBC's US partners, National Public Radio and Public Radio International

Our discussions explored how media can make a positive impact on people's lives - in fields in which the BBC World Service Trust is already familiar and playing a leading role: health in governance and human rights.

The World Forum is becoming a 'must attend' event, and one of the rare ones which brings together people from a wide range of disciplines in an informal and collaborative way. It's also one where those attending 'get ' the role of media and communications and how it can transform people's lives.