https://www.inventshift.com/social-enterprise-blog/2017-social-enterprise-events-you-won%E2%80%99t-want-miss
When you’re starting out on your social enterprise journey, gaining both knowledge and contacts are invaluable. You’ll benefit greatly from sharing stories with others who are passionate about social enterprise, and the knowledge benefit you’ll both gain will accelerate your enthusiasm to a new level.
2017 promises to be another year of opportunities to meet like-minded entrepreneurs and get the latest developments in the world of social enterprise. Here are just a few of the biggest international events you certainly won’t want to miss:
- Emerge asks ‘are you committed to redefining the world in which we live?’ With over 50 speakers held over 2 days, this event in Oxford promises to be brimming with social enterprise enthusiasts. It’s held in November, and the conference offers over 20 sessions, including keynotes, panels, workshops and masterclasses.
- The Social Value Summit: The annual Social Value Summit will take place on 8 February in London and will bring together commissioners and providers from across the public, private and social sectors. It offers practical advice to bring social value into an organisation, and offers networking with expert practitioners across sectors.
- The Social Enterprise World Forum will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand on 27- 29th September. It’s an international event for social enterprises from all over the world to come together, share wisdom, build networks and discuss how to create a more sustainable future. The event attracts social entrepreneurs, policy makers, community leaders, investors, academics and more from all across the globe.
- The Social Good Summit is a two day conference attracting the world’s foremost speakers and authorities on social enterprise. It was last held in New York, and was sponsored by the United Nations Foundation. During the Social Good Summit, global citizens around the world unite to unlock the potential of technology to make the world a better place.
- The ICSE 2017: 19th international conference on social enterprise takes place in London in April from the 24 – 25th. Although it is primarily an academic conference, it covers a wide range of social enterprise topics, including ‘scaling social capitalism’ and ‘mobile solutions for emerging markets’.
- The Social Innovation Summit takes place in Chicago on June 6-8, and describes itself as attracting those ‘who are playing at the nexus of technology, investment, philanthropy, and international development’. Previous speakers include the Senior Vice President of UNICEF and the president of Goldman Sachs.
- The SKOLL world forum is one of the largest social enterprise events, an international platform for advancing entrepreneurial approaches and solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
- Although an awards event, the UK Social Enterprise Awards is filled with over 400 social enterprises, allowing them the opportunity to network with their peers, leading figures in the social enterprise sector, and corporate partners.
- The annual SOCAP event continues to garner widespread attention since it was launched in 2008. SOCAP is attended by impact investors and social entrepreneurs and has drawn more than 10,000 people, all interested in funding a social enterprise. The 2017 conference will be held in San Francisco, and promises to be just as big.