Tees Valley Social Enterprise Conference a success
The second Tees Valley Social Enterprise Conference, hosted last week by Community Ventures Ltd, was a success. The Conference featured presentations from high-profile organisations from the third sector and provided the social enterprises in attendance with the opportunity to network and question speakers from organisations and public bodies such as the Development Trusts Association and Middlesbrough Council.
The recently apponited new chief executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC), Peter Holbrook, was present at the event and spoke of the need for social enterprises to evidence their impact more effectively by exploring routes beyond SROI (Social Return on Investment) and looking to both quantitative and qualitative methods of evaluation.
Peter also highlighted the opportunities presented for social enterprises by the growing appetite amongst the public sector and individuals for more ethical ways of doing business and the need to build awareness of social enterprise in order to capitalise on this.
Peter also introduced the Social Enterprise Mark challenge for the North East which aims to have 100 social enterprises awarded with the Mark over the coming year - an interesting challenge for the North East social enterprise community.
Speaker Angela Smith MP, Minister for the Third Sector, focused on the opportunities for social enterprise in the current economic climate highlighting that the recession has brought about a distinct lack of trust of the 'old way' of doing business that focused on short-term financial gain, and that the country as a whole is looking towards more sustainable ways of doing business.
Angela also praised the successes of social enterprises and the positive impact they have had on communities, and noted that social enterprises are inspiring many mainstream businesses to adopt more ethical and sustainable business plans.
The event also featured a performance by Tees Valley based social enterprise, Earthbeat, a theatre company made up of adults with learning disabilities, who treated attendees to songs from their forthcoming production of Grease, including an energetic rendition of the classic 'Grease Lightning'.