Social Enterprises and Entrepreneurial Activity

Social Enterprise - Getting Started & Getting Support

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/c/6/2/event_86932322.jpegIncreasing numbers of people are interested in social enterprise – defined by the government as “businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.”

But how do we get social enterprises going and what help and support is there for those who want to get started. This meeting is about that. It will look at

What social enterprise is How to take the first steps to get started and What help- and support there is. In this we will be working with Dr Douglas Morrison who is involved in the 6W2X project which is a new incubator for social enterprise startups.

One distinctive feature of these startups is that they will be designed to have an exit at only six weeks. The end product could be a business that can be replicated by others, possibly as a franchise. Mentoring and workshops will be provided to ensure that it is a worthwhile learning experience.

It is an idea that is suitable for students to carry out in a summer vacation, members of our network interested in awareness, start up and support, and companies that actively encourage their staff to develop social enterprises.

It can also be extended to helping marginalised groups to gain entrepreneurial skills, or the social impact could be directed towards helping the marginalised help themselves.

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/a/3/c/event_86931772.jpegThe meetup will be led by Dr Douglas Morrison who began his career as a research medical physicist, developing medical applications of ultrasound. He then joined the Scottish Home and Health Department, as a scientific advisor to the Chief Scientist. In 1997 he set up Y2Ki, an information service on the Year 2000 problem. He is now an information architect, promoting more widespread use of DITA and founder of Mardi (http://mardinet.org/), an international organisation to help university students and alumni work together to make the world a better place.

We will also involve two other key resource people in this meeting that will help to give advice about mentoring and support groups.

This meetup will be followed in the next few months with webinars on social enterprise and marginalized groups and also we hope a meeting in the House of Commons in June on Social Enterprise and the Equality Agenda.

We are thankful to the following who have helped us put on this meeting.

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/c/9/0/event_92268272.jpegTo MessageBase (http://www.messagebase.co.uk/telephone-answering-service/overview) who have supported us for this event and to

Central Station (http://www.centralstation.co.uk/notice.html) for providing the premises.

Although membership of our site is free we do expect all those who attend our events to pay a subscription of £10 for a whole year that covers attendance not just to one meeting but also to the vast majority of our meetups and webinars for any one year. It also allows you to bring one guest free to every meeting or webinar.