The Best of Times and The Worst of Times
Good Deals 2009, the Social Enterprise conference, was a huge success yesterday at the British Library. Organised by social enterprise magazine the event showcased a number of social enterprises and support organisations through panels, debates and workshops as well as pitch slots for a lucky four social enterprises. The event was hosted by Liam Black of Wavelength, and the lesser spotted social investment partridge (aka the British Library fire alarm). We were welcomed with the positive news that since the last Good Deals conference in 2008 social investment had moved from the marginal to the mainstream, much in a similar way to fair trade.
We heard from a number of speakers including Angela Smith from the Office of the Third Sector, Nigel Kershaw from Big Issue Invest and Jonathan Jenkins of UnLtd, a fan of the IPS model which Shared Interest uses. We heard pitches from four social enterprises pitching for finance, including Happy Kitchen and the Ethical Property Company. Those of us who were unlucky in getting to the stage to pitch were offered sixty seconds of video time to pitch for investment and these will be available on You Tube shortly.
Liam Black played the role of Parkinson in the afternoon hosting ‘The Big Interview’ with among others, Anne MacCaig, CEO of Cafedirect who began with a video showing Cafedirect’s work to support their producers in tackling the effects of climate change on their crops. We also experienced ‘Social Investment in Court’ where cases were made for and against a number of issues and the concept of bringing the Community Reinvestment Act to the UK was voted hugely in favour of.
The day concluded with a wine networking session and no further evidence of the Social Investment Partridge, whom I hope has gone to spread the message about social investment.
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