Toronto conference to convene, build social enterprise movement
Several high-profile speakers, including former prime minister to present at event
Wednesday November 11, 2009 -- Camille Jensen
The third annual Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise takes place Nov. 18 to 20 in Toronto and will provide a forum for social enterprise practitioners to network and learn new skills while exploring ways to further build the movement.

Anne Jamieson, program manager of the Toronto Enterprise Fund, says they have more than 300 delegates attending this year’s conference, which is a bi-annual event.

The three-day event will be separated into two different themes, including one full day of training sessions on the different stages of social enterprise development and two days geared towards the development of a national policy agenda.

According to Jamieson this type of meeting is vital to building the social enterprise movement, which consists of small and diverse business owners who are often isolated.

“I think it’s really critical for them to have this opportunity and it’s really important for us to enable that,” she says. “It’s part of our community impact strategy to help build capacity in the sector.”

The event will feature several high-profile speakers, including former Canadian prime minister Paul Martin, who will be speaking at the opening night networking event.

Martin is a strong proponent of social enterprise and has presented on the need for government to create vehicles and incentives to encourage investment in the sector.

“Financial experts ought to be developing new cutting-edge instruments to make funding available to social entrepreneurs,” said Martin during a presentation at the University of Toronto Munk Centre.

“What we need to do is to develop the right mix of risk and reward so that social enterprise becomes attractive to mainstream capital.”

In addition to Martin, Liam Black, one of the United Kingdom’s best known social entrepreneurs and author of There’s No Business Like Social Business will be presenting the second night of the conference.

Black, who is also one of U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Social Ambassadors, has led numerous successful social enterprises including most recently Fifteen, a restaurant chain with Jamie Oliver that hires disadvantaged young people and trains them to become world-class chefs.

According to Jamieson, there is a growing interest in social enterprises — which consist of for-profit and non-profit businesses. She estimate the current number of Canadian social enterprises to be close to 10,000 but adds the potential is much larger.

“There is increased recognition particularly in the business world that more needs to be done to address social issues and that using business models can be one strategy for doing that,” says Jamieson.

“(With) some improved business skills and even maybe improved access to capital, the scale of this sector is just enormous.”

Jamieson adds the best definition of a social enterprise is its common purpose.

“All of the enterprises that are coming to this conference are doing two things, they are running a business and they are trying to meet a social mission.”

The final day of the conference will include a tour of successful Toronto social enterprises.

To learn more about the conference or register, click here.

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