30th September 2016
The CEIS Policy and Practice Conference is always a highlight of the conference calendar, and this year was no exception. 2016’s conference marked the tenth such occurrence, and this year they had a number of international delegates attend through the British Council, from places such as Canada, South Korea and more.
The conference itself was as excellent as ever, and saw the launch of the Scottish Government’s social enterprise strategy for the next ten years. Entitled “Internationalising Social Enterpriseâ€, it gives a pretty comprehensive outline on how the Scottish Government wishes for social enterprise to evolve and expand internationally over the next decade. Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance, opened the event and delegates were given a copy of the strategy at the end of the day – it was worth waiting for!
A common theme I heard throughout the day from various attendees was not how we could adhere to the strategy, but how the social enterprise community should try its very best to do better than the strategy, so that we may look back at it in ten years’ time and comprehensively say that the goals outlined were not only achieved, but were absolutely smashed.
I think, given the wonderful growth of social enterprise in Scotland since the turn of the century, that this is something we are more than capable of doing.
Kibble was one of the sponsors, and we played host to attendees and delegates in The Experience for an evening reception prior to the event. Guests seemed to be struck by the quality of the venue, and of course the wonderful food on offer.
I was lucky enough to catch up with a couple of Canadian delegates and some of those who are close to CEIS to ask them a few questions about the conference, social enterprise and what they were most looking forward to learning the following day.
What follows is, I think, a pretty good collection of short interviews with interesting people.
I hope you enjoy the episode.