Earlier this month Flourish partnered with SE Mark to co-design and deliver a 2-day conference which combined 3 fantastic events, culminating in their annual international conference – all held in Manchester this year!
As part of this – and collaborating with Cambio Consulting – we developed SEE Change-The Golden Thread, highlighting and creating space to discuss over a decade of social enterprise, innovation and leadership activities and support across diverse universities.
A mixture of over 30 people from universities, business, fund agencies and VCSE organisations attended the daytime event, hosted by The University of Manchester.
This part of Day 1 looked at how we unlock more talent within the University communities, enabling innovation and partnership to benefit people, place and wider localities around campuses and learning from a range of colleagues in the UK and overseas on good practice. This was followed by an evening networking and showcasing event which we convened, with over 65 people attending hosted by MMU. It highlighted staff and student ventures focussing on health, wellbeing, education & more led by social entrepreneurs including several from the Flourish Network including Mary Olanrewaju (Equal Education Chances), Amy Madden (All Ears CIC), Beth Nunn (PIE), Haleh Moravej (MetMunch) who also created the wonderful #BuySocial catering for the event.
The icing on the cake, was when Mayor for Greater Manchester Andy Burnham gave an interactive Keynote with insights and upcoming strategic opportunities chaired by long term ally of Flourish Rose Marley CEO of Cooperatives UK and Chair of the Social Enterprise Action Group we’re part of.
Day 2 brought Social Enterprise Mark holders together with wider local and national agencies including Flourish, The Business Growth Hub, The Plunket Foundation, Resonance Centre and more, to build connections and discuss policy, sustainability and highlight more inspiring talent and opportunities.
We hope this is the first of many events in partnership with local universities!
