Boston World Partnerships is a non-profit organization, created by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to raise global awareness of Boston as one of the world’s foremost centers of intellectual capital and innovation, offering tremendous competitive advantages to growth-minded businesses. To achieve these goals, BWP is building a global network of people who have ties to Boston’s economy, similar to an alumni organization.
BWP operates according to a simple mantra: Inform and Connect. Our network, with all of the highly nuanced human intelligence that it contains, is becoming the most efficient conduit through which to identify and access the fine-grained resources of Boston’s economy.
The BWP network brings together innovators, entrepreneurs, and a wide range of business influencers and thought leaders. It is high-caliber and very heterogeneous. Cutting across industries, disciplines, countries of origin, and cultural communities, it is built around a core set of Connectors . These are passionate business people who are formally nominated and selected to serve in this role. Connectors make a commitment to help distribute information on Boston’s economic opportunities and assets, and to be resources for their peers, helping to facilitate connections between business people and the specific resources that their respective growth strategies require.
Another feature of the BWP network is that it is focused on relationships and ideas, as opposed to simply serving as a forum for generating sales leads and other such activities that are exclusively transaction-focused. Here, self interest is married with civic interest. There is an ethic of mutual benefit, and a spirit of generosity that characterizes this community.
Boston World Partnerships was honored by Color Magazine with an All Inclusive Award as Boston’s most significant Change Agent organization for 2009, recognizing BWP’s leadership in celebrating and fostering Boston’s rich racial and ethnic diversity. Also, Boston World Partnerships has proudly signed of The Commonwealth Compact, which was designed to formalize goals and practices that encourage diversity in hiring.
