The ‘Social Enterprise Means Business With Purpose’ Masterclass Series will conclude with a synopsis event in Derry~Londonderry in February as part of the Management Month initiative

Title: Business With Purpose: Synopsis Event
Date: Wednesday 10th February 2016
Time: 12.00pm – 2.00pm (lunch included)
Venue: North Western Social Enterprise Hub, 12-14 The Diamond, Derry, BT48 6HW
Cost: Free to Attend
Booking & Information: Email socialeconomy@podiem.com or call 028 9076 1030 to reserve your place. Download the event flyer by clicking Business With Purpose – LDerry Masterclass – 10th Feb
Speakers: John McGowan (The Nerve Centre and Enterprise NW), Aongus O’Keeffe (Inspiring Impact) and Professor Ken O’Neill (SSEI)

John McGowan
Having recently completed his term as Chair, John continues to sit on the Board of The Nerve Centre which has grown to become an international brand and the leading Creative Media Arts Centre in NI. As a Social Enterprise, it employs over 50 people full time and operates throughout NI. John is also Group Chief Executive of Enterprise North West, the local enterprise centre for the Derry City area. Under his leadership ENW has shown steady growth and in 2006 opened a second office based in China, John is also responsible for the 55,000 sq. ft. North West Business Complex. He is a successful entrepreneur in his own right with a separate language school business, North West Academy of English, which employs 10 people full-time. Drawing on this breadth of experience John will share his own insights on balancing commercial/social aims and scaling up a business.

Aongus O’Keeffe
Aongus O’Keeffe is the Programme Leader for Inspiring Impact Northern Ireland, a programme developed to support VCSE organisations and their funders to put impact at the heart of their work. It is an initiative of the Building Change Trust and part of a UK wide programme which has a long term vision to transform practice across the sector and among funders. Prior to this Aongus worked for the Irish Football Association and before that as a Programme Manager on one of Trocaire’s West Africa country programmes. Aongus will share his experiences and insights on the topic of social impact.

Professor Ken O’Neill
Ken is Chair of the School for Social Enterprises in Ireland and was the first person to be awarded The Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion. His most recent book ‘Understanding Enterprise’ (co-authored with Simon Bridge) was recently shortlisted for CMI’s Business Book of the Year. Ken will chair the event and offer his own reflections on social impact, scalability and balancing commercial and social goals.

The ‘Social Enterprise Means Business With Purpose’ Masterclass Series concluded in November with a breakfast session exploring ‘Scalability’.

Those who attended the event may request the event slides by clicking here and they will be emailed in due course

Date: Friday 20th November 2015
Time: 8.00am – 10.00am (light breakfast included)
Venue: Malone Lodge Hotel, 60 Eglantine Ave, Belfast BT9 6DY
Cost: Free to Attend
Booking & Information: Email socialeconomy@podiem.com or call 028 9076 1030
Speakers: June O’Sullivan MBE (CEO of LEYF), John McMullan OBE (CEO of Bryson Group), Paul Roberts (CEO of Ashton Group) and Prof Ken O’Neill (Chair of SSEI).

Dr June O’Sullivan MBE
June is Chief Executive of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), which runs 33 nurseries across eight London boroughs. An inspiring speaker, author and regular commentator on Social Business, June has been instrumental in achieving a major strategic and cultural shift for the award winning London Early Years Foundation, resulting in increased profile and profitability over the past eight years. As CEO of the UK’s leading childcare charity and social enterprise since 2006, June continues to break new ground in the development of LEYF’s scalable social business model. June was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours in 2013, for her services to London’s children. She was awarded the Social Enterprise UK Women’s Champion Award in November 2014 and in February 2015 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Middlesex. June will share the LEYF story and her own insights and experiences of scaling a business.

John McMullan OBE
John is Chief Executive of the Bryson Charitable Group which is Northern Ireland’s leading social enterprise  tackling major social and economic challenges. The group consists of 7 social business units, operates out of 34 locations, employs over 600 staff and delivers on average over 23,000 services per day to families and individuals.John was acknowledged as the Northern Ireland and subsequently the UK Social Enterprise Leader of the Year in 2011.

Paul Roberts
Paul is Chief Executive of Ashton Community Trust, a community based charity working on regeneration through social enterprise. Ashton was set up in 1988 through a share drive by local people. The original centre is owned by 450 shareholders from the local community and the organisation now owns five other Centres. Ashton currently employs over 170 people in some of the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland. The group delivers a wide range of services including: childcare, health, education, training, Fablab and economic development and is recognised as one of the leading social enterprises in Northern Ireland. It won Social Enterprise of the Year in 2013.

Professor Ken O’Neill
Ken is Chair of the School for Social Enterprises in Ireland and has served as President of the International Council for Small Business, Board member of the UK’s CBI SME Council, and Chairman of Young Enterprise in NI. He was the first person to be awarded The Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion and his most recent book ‘Understanding Enterprise’ (co-authored with Simon Bridge) was recently shortlisted for CMI’s Business Book of the Year. Ken will chair the event and share his own thinking on scaling a social enterprise.

Click here to download Adrian Bird’s support slides

Click here to download David Floyd’s slides

The ‘Social Enterprise Means Business With Purpose’ Masterclass Series continued in October with a session entitled ‘Commercial v Social Aims: Striking The Balance’.

Date: Friday 9th October 2015
Time: 11.30am – 1.30pm (Lunch included)
Venue: The Yarn Suite, Mossley Mill, Newtownabbey, BT36 5QA
Cost: Free to Attend
More Information: Click here to download the event flyer which contains full details
Booking: N/A
Speakers: See below

David Floyd
Managing Director, The Social Spider
David was one of the Founders of Social Spider in 2003. He supports, researches and writes about social enterprise and social innovation, specialising in social enterprise development and social investment. He has written for The Guardian, The Young Foundation and The Pioneers Post and has lectured on social enterprise at Goldsmiths College, Middlesex University and University of the West of England. David is a Non-Executive Director of Significant Seams CIC, a social enterprise which nurtures self-confidence and community, through textile crafts and traditions. Based in London, he is also a Non-Executive Director of Inpress, the sales and marketing agency for independent publishers in the UK and a member of the Governing Council of Social Enterprise UK. Drawing upon his own research and work in this field David will explore the ‘Commercial v Social Balance’.

Adrian Bird
Director, The Resurgam Trust
As Trust Director of The Resurgam Community Development Trust, Adrian oversees the operations of six companies which comprise a total of ten trading, community-based social enterprises. These include an Enterprise Centre, a Community Gym, a Public House / Off-Sales, a Self-Build Company, a Credit Union, a Contract Services Provider, a Taxi Company, a Thrift Shop, a Property Management Company and a Business Services Provider. Adrian has worked in regeneration for some 20 years, chairing both South Eastern Social Investment Fund and Early Intervention Lisburn steering groups. Reflecting on his own experiences he will offer his insight into how to achieve the right ‘Social v Financial’ balance.

Professor Ken O’Neill
Chair, School for Social Enterprises in Ireland
Ken has served as President of the International Council for Small Business, Board member of the UK’s CBI SME Council, and Chairman of Young Enterprise in NI. He was the first person to be awarded The Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion and his most recent book ‘Understanding Enterprise’ (co-authored with Simon Bridge) was recently shortlisted for CMI’s Business Book of the Year. Ken will chair the event and share his own thinking on the ‘social’ and ‘enterprise’ balance.

The ‘Social Enterprise Means Business With Purpose’ Masterclass Series will kick off on Thursday 3rd September with a session exploring The Social Impact Equation. Suzanne Wylie, Chief Executive of Belfast City Council, is one of the speakers at this breakfast event. Click here for more information and to book your free place.

Congratulations to the 2014-2015 Advanced Diploma in Social Enterprise participants who recently celebrated their graduation from Ulster University. The students are pictured here at a special celebratory reception hosted by The Flax Trust.

Bursary applications are now open for the Advanced Diploma in Social Enterprise.

For more information and to download an application pack click here.

SSEI’s Professor Ken O’Neill is joined by Euan Isles (Deloitte), Aidan Sloane (Springvale Learning) and Amanda Johnston (SENI) to launch SSEI’s latest Masterclass series which is exploring ‘What is on the mind of social enterprise leaders’. The series will continue with masterclasses in October (The Leadership Challenge) and November (The Performance Formula) with a synopsis event taking place in Derry/Londonderry also in November. Full details on these events will be released shortly and places, which are free, will be offered on a first come first serve basis. To register an interest click here (mail to socialeconomy@podiem.com)