It’s that time of year again: the clocks go back, trick or
treaters roam the streets, bonfire smoke gets in your eyes, and, oh yes, it’s time
for Plymouth’s annual Social Enterprise Festival.
This year festivities run from 17th to 21st
November and are held, as usual, during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The
festival is hosted by Plymouth Social Enterprise Network and we are thrilled to
be part of something happening all over the world where people will be celebrating
the passion and inspiration behind business.
Our take on this is that we need to go a step further than ‘business
as usual’. We want to see how we can harness the best of entrepreneurial
thinking to tackle the world’s - and Plymouth’s - social, economic and
environmental problems.
The week itself is packed full of thought-provoking and
practical activities. We have secured some of the nation’s top social
entrepreneurs to share their stories with us. People like Jenny Dawson of food
business Rubies in the Rubble; Cecilia Crossley of children’s clothes firm From
Babies with Love and Jess Smith from the ethical PR company Poached Creative.
There are practical sessions on marketing and proving social impact. We will
celebrate the rising stars of the social enterprise world in Plymouth. The CEO
of Social Enterprise UK - Peter Holbrook - will talk to us about how the social
economy is set to transform public policy. There will even be a ‘liveblog’ at
Rumpus Cosy café on Derry’s Cross. This will all be served with a hearty dose
of social enterprise beer, bread and chocolate.
The festival is made even more special by the fact that
Plymouth is the world’s first and finest Social Enterprise City. We want to
celebrate this and also to explore what’s next. We want to see how social
enterprises can be more influential in the economy of our city and how they can
solve the big issues of today. Let’s not forget that social enterprise in
Plymouth is already big business - PSEN members have a combined turnover of half-a-billion
pounds and employ 7,000 people.
This is also the last festival before the next round of political
elections in May 2015. If you want to influence the people who will be shaping
economic and social policy for the next five years please come along and share
your opinions.
