Regional Social Enterprise Knowledge & Partnership Symposium: Social Enterprise for a Sustainable Future in Asia

โพสโดย Anonymous เมื่อวันที่ 9 พฤศจิกายน 2010 19:43

Date: Time:

Monday – Tuesday 15 – 16 November 2010. 08.00 – 18.00

Venue:

Landmark Hotel, Bangkok

Background:

Social enterprise as a model for sustainable development is emerging in East Asia. These are businesses whose purpose is to bring solutions to unmet needs in society as well as advancing the balance of social, environmental and economic benefits. These businesses are at the forefront in addressing key challenges such as homelessness, poverty, climate change, sustainable agriculture to name but a few.

However, social enterprise as a concept is fairly new in East Asia despite fragments of success cases and a multitude of emerging new social enterprises. These enterprises are facing similar challenges throughout the region, from issues such as capacity development to access to finance and partnership opportunity. In order to ensure that social enterprises are able to reach their full impact potential, regional level connection building and coordination in various areas are needed. The region can also leverage the learning and capacity of global players such as those from the UK in order to leapfrog the development of the regional social enterprise market as well as explore international collaboration potential in areas such as access to finance, market access and mentorship.

In early 2010 a ground-breaking regional collaboration was initiated by the British Council. With support from British Council Thailand and Japan, a group of social enterprise supporters from East Asia embarked on a learning trip to the UK in February 2010. Following the trip, these organizations had expressed an interest in forming Social Enterprise Asia Network as the regional network of social enterprise-related entities with Mr. Hideyuki Inoue from Social Venture Partners as the first chairperson.

This regional symposium emerges as one of a number of joint initiatives promoted by the British Council and the Thai Social Enterprise Office (TSEO) with the aim of fostering knowledge sharing and partnership development across the region. This is in line with TSEO’s mission to facilitate the growth of social enterprises and intermediaries in Thailand as well as forging a regional partnership for social enterprise sector.

Purpose and Objective:

The purpose of the symposium is to facilitate a network of social enterprise related organizations in East Asia in order to foster the development and growth of the sector in the region. The objectives of the conference are as follows;

1. Knowledge sharing among social enterprises, supporters, financiers and interested individuals within East Asia as well as transferring knowledge and tools of global best practices for regional adaptation.

2. Partnership building among synergistic organizations in order to develop regional infrastructure support for social enterprises in areas such as financing, access to market, recognition body, and capacity development.

3. Provision of a platform for the exhibition of regional social enterprise market opportunity, both in terms of trading and investment potential.

4. Establishing East Asia firmly on the global social enterprise map as a region with a unique and differentiated style as well as methods in social entrepreneurship and social innovation.

Target audience & size

The audience is expected to be around 200 people, predominantly from the East Asia Region and from Thailand as well as global participants.

The audience will consist of: