SEWF 2021: Co-hosted with Common Good Solutions (Nova Scotia, Canada)

In 2021, the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) is partnering with Common Good Solutions in Nova Scotia as event co-host to shine a spotlight on Canada, while addressing priorities and issues for social enterprises around the world. Key themes will include climate change, young people, social procurement, economic recovery and indigenous social enterprises. 

SEWF will be kicking off their new annual event programme with a Policy Forum in April. This will be followed by a Rural Forum in June and SEWF 2021 in late September/early October. They will close the year with the SEWF Academic Forum in November. All events will be in English and French and will have digital participation with their flagship forum – depending on travel restrictions – blending online and in-person sessions (to be confirmed 1st March).

The new event strategy recognises the ongoing and lasting impacts of COVID-19 on the SEWF community, as well as the opportunity digital presents and builds on the success and lessons learned from last year’s event and also the Community Consultation SEWF recently undertook. 

Policy Forum (27 & 28 April)
Join the launch of the new Social Procurement Community of Practice! Effective policy is essential to facilitate the development of social enterprise. Whether you’re a policymaker, agency or intermediary involved in policies, you will be able to connect and learn at this event. 

More information and tickets

Other SEWF 2021 events

• Rural Forum (8 & 9 June)
  • Social enterprises are often the glue that keep rural communities together. And yet they face a range of challenges that their urban counterparts do not. That’s why SEWF has created a dedicated event to support, connect and build the rural social enterprise community.
• SEWF 2021 (September/October)
  • SEWF's flagship forum is one of the world’s leading events for social enterprise. It provides a space for connection and community, conversations and collaborations. It’s also an opportunity to be informed and inspired by masterclasses, presentations and panel discussions.
• Academic Forum (November)

Learn more

An UnConference is a gathering place for people to have deep discussions, go down rabbit holes, and come back up for even more refreshing air. People who are gathering will be having conversations about trends in the charitable sector, novel systems and changes that are happening elsewhere, systemic change issues, orthodoxies that need changing and much more! 

Register for the Hopeful Economics Unconference

What to Expect?

• March 3rd – Pre-Conference. This includes 2 different streams for the community of faith folk and social purpose organizations. These streams are designed to help your get in the right mindset for the rest of the conference!  
• March 4th – 
  • Morning - "Fishbowl: Seeing Things Differently" which will help you change your perspective about who and how to collaborate.
  • Afternoon - "Mission Possible" is a fun interactive game that will stretch you to work together to address a presented social/community challenge
• March 5th – 
  • Morning - "Fall in love with the problem" is the time to lean into the challenges that impact you the most or the ones that you are the most passionate about. We guarantee you'll make new connections and generate new ideas here! 
  • Afternoon -"Local Inclusive Economies: Connect Local!" this is our final session and this is the opportunity for you to connect locally. Everyone will bring their unique experience from the conference and you'll be able to share and learn from each other.

Learn more the Hopeful Economics Unconference

12:00pm to 1:00pm Eastern Time

What lies at the intersection of racial inequality, a global pandemic, and concerns about climate change? Our democracy.

BIOGRAPHY:

Celina Caesar-Chavannes is a business consultant, coach, and international speaker. She currently serves as the Sr. Advisor, EDI Initiatives and Adjunct Lecturer at Queen’s University and was the former Member of Parliament for Whitby, Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Parliamentary Secretary for International Development.

The lecture will be bilingual. If you have any questions, please contact ilst@glendon.yorku.ca

Register for The Intersection of Racial Inequality, a Global Pandemic, and Climate Changer

Tuesday (Feb 9) 12:00-2:30pm Eastern Time

Wednesday (Feb 10) 9am-5pm Eastern Time
Optional one-hour consultation session any time between

Thursday (Feb 11) 12:00-2:30pm Eastern Time

Are you leading or part of an organization or company that prioritizes...

• small business recovery and succession, 
• social enterprise and co-operative development,  
• small business acquisitions, 
• small business or social enterprise financing/financial services, 
• economic development and business retention and attraction, 
• small business or non-profit accounting, 
• small business or non-profit law, 
• small business or social enterprise management services or consulting, 
• community economic development and engagement services, or 
• impact investing or social finance? 

Apply to attend the LAUNCH workshop

Are you interested in rapidly building and testing a new product, service, or program for your community, client, or membership base supported by expertise in design and social acquisition systems and doing this alongside peer professionals/organizations? 

The Legacy Leadership Lab is running a workshop series as part of a research project intended to generate new tools, partnerships, and research to support SME succession and social purpose conversions, and enhance the community's understanding of capacity, gaps and challenges facing SMEs with potential to be investment-ready social purpose organizations, as well as the broader ecosystem. Funded by the Government of Canada’s Investment Readiness Program, L3 will host a Design Workshop in February 2021 that can help you rapidly develop ideas, prototype, and test an innovative and ground-breaking initiative that addresses an opportunity or challenge for advancing social acquisitions in Canada. Attending the workshops will mean you are a participant in the study while you are building and testing a new social acquisition solution.

Learn more

1:00pm – 2:30pm Eastern Time

Whether you’re a social enterprise, non-profit program or collaborative initiative, keeping track of data can be a challenge! What’s important to collect? How do you bring data together to gain insights about what you’re doing, make good decisions and show your impact and value? The Demonstrating Value (DV) framework is a simple and practical approach that can help.

In this 1 ½ hour, hands-on session, you’ll learn more about the DV framework and how to apply it. Using practical examples, we’ll walk through activities in the free-to-download DV guide: Performance and Impact Measurement: Improving your Practices. Time will be set aside in the workshop for your questions and open discussion about the practical issues, challenges and solutions in measurement and evaluation.

Register for Measurement that Makes Sense

The session is facilitated by:

Cathy Lang, Consultant in Social Innovation and Nonprofit Sustainability (C. Lang Consulting)
Karen Gelb, Research, Evaluation, Knowledge Mobilization Consultant
Bryn Sadownik, Consultant, Evaluation and Learning (Vancity Community Foundation)

This workshop is directed to social purpose organizations (e.g. social enterprise, non-profit organization, impact business) and is suitable for executive directors, program staff, social entrepreneurs and others directly involved in running organizations. Feel free to share this invite link with others you think would benefit. Before the session, we’ll reach out to you with a few short activities that you can do ahead of time to get the most of this session.