The First Idealists Forum
June 27–29, 2025 | Jijiadun Ideal Village, Kunshan, Jiangsu
2025 Idealists Forum
The first Idealists Forum was jointly hosted by NPI and Xiangban at Jijiadun Ideal Village in Kunshan, Jiangsu. It was a different kind of social-innovation gathering: there was no elevated stage, and every topic stayed close to the field. Every attendee was both a participant and a co-builder.
Essential Needs, New Solutions
‘Essential Needs, New Solutions’ is not an abstract theory, but a way of acting that begins with real livelihood needs. It asks how social entrepreneurs can turn the problems they see into sustainable products, services, organizations and partnerships when philanthropy, business, communities and technology meet complex reality.
Keynotes: Surfacing the Real Questions of Our Time
On the evenings of June 27 and 28, ten keynote speakers brought their most grounded reflections to the stage. Nine keynote quotation posters on this page capture the intellectual energy of the first Forum.
Twenty Forums: Those Unpacking the Problems Curate the Conversations
Twenty forums addressed real issues. Rather than abstract methodology, they focused on how solutions can emerge from complex conditions. Six representative topics on this page illustrate the range of questions explored at the first Forum.
Social Enterprise and Impact Investing
Social Enterprise and InvestmentHow can investment create both social good and financial returns?
Disability Employment and Dignity
Disability and EmploymentHow can one meal help rebuild dignity?
Solo Social Entrepreneurship in the AI Era
AI and Social InnovationIn the AI era, can one person launch a social-innovation initiative?
Self-sustaining Community Services
Community Services and SustainabilityWhen subsidies and donations are uncertain, how can community services sustain themselves?
Care for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities
Intellectual Disability and CareWho will address the overlooked essential care needs of adults with intellectual disabilities?
Community Meal Services and Digital Transformation
Elder Care and Community ServicesHow can digital tools reshape community meal services and create a viable revenue model?
Nine Special Events: Facing Hidden Essential Needs
The special events were not add-ons; they responded to hidden essential needs through embodied experience, perception and action.
A Little Wild, Imperfect, Beyond Expectations—and as Real as You and Me
A downpour, backup plans, sunlight breaking through the clouds and strangers holding umbrellas for one another became the most vivid memories of the first Idealists Forum. Its meaning lay not only in a few hours under the lights, but in a new imagination of value quietly taking root.
Content Archive
View all →A Little Wild, Imperfect, Beyond Expectations—and as Real as You and Me…
From an opening in the rain and co-creation by 500 people to 43 issue-based exchanges, this review looks back at how the first Idealists Forum became a real social-innovation experiment in Jijiadun.
Read the original →Twenty Forums: Those Unpacking the Problems Curate the Conversations
Twenty forums addressed real issues, setting aside abstract methodology to ask how solutions can emerge from complex conditions.
Read the original →Nine Special Events: Facing Hidden Essential Needs
From a village run and a death-experience workshop to cultural-restoration practice and an animal-friendly community exhibition, the special events responded to hidden essential needs through embodied experience and action.
Read the original →Continue Exploring
The first Idealists Forum has ended, but its topics and actions continue.