As part of SVA’s arrangement to co-host the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) 2009 in Melbourne, SVA agreed to send speakers, or participate in the first seven of these events. Described as the premier social enterprise conference worldwide, the event moves continent each year and this year went to Latin America. Kevin Robbie, SVA’s Director, Employment, represented SVA at the gathering in Rio and delivered three presentations on scaling social enterprise, impact measurement and SVA’s work with Indigenous Social Enterprises.
SEWF 2012 attracted over 500 delegates and was hosted by NESsT, an organisation that exists to support the development of social enterprises in emerging markets (at present focus on Latin America and Eastern Europe). They currently support around 60 social enterprises in their portfolio.
A hugely successful event, Kevin’s highlights of the Social Enterprise World Forum 2012 were:
– Keynote by Anthony Bugg-Levine who was previous CEO of Rockefeller Foundation and now CEO of Global Impacting Investing Network (GiiN).
– Over 60 people, mostly large corporates, at the Investor Day to discuss Impact Investing. SVA’s work in the area received a mention with Goodstart, the SVA Social Impact Fund and Social Benefit Bonds
– The event was held in a social enterprise and over 70% of suppliers were social enterprises.
SEWF 13 will be held in Calgary.
Kevin tweeted live from Rio and you can follow him for more @kevinrobbie10