Last week we were please to be invited to join The ‘Social and Creative City Economy of the Future Roundtable’  discussion facilitated by Social Enterprise UK and the British Council.

As the first Social Enterprise City in the UK we understandably have a lot of thoughts and expectations around the future of a city and what it should look like. Developing ideas around those concepts is core to our decision making and the development of the network. We know that Plymouth is making huge leaps and doing incredible work, we spend a lot of time travelling around events and discussions just like this talking about Plymouth’s example. We go armed with statistics, data, and plenty of passion, ready to explain what we do to anyone who will listen. So when we introduce ourselves and find that we are instantly greeted by national representatives and vision makers from industry with not only recognition, but praise and excitement… we know that we are in the right room.

The event was hosted and facilitated by The British Council and Social Enterprise UK. The primary task being to explore a collective vision for the UK’s urban social and creative economies in 20 years time. Passionate advocates of social change and participants from numerous socially enterprising organisations from across the country filled the tables and workshop spaces. It was an inspiring place to be.

This was all set in the context of the fact that cities generate 80% of Global GDP, but are facing huge challenges around meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If you’re not familiar with the SDG’s, They are the blueprint laid out by the United Nations to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. They are a powerful and creative vision of how society should function by 2030. You can read more about them here. The outputs of this round table event will help to inform the Global Parliament of Mayors Annual Summit which is taking part in Bristol in October.

One of the points that came from discussions and stuck with us was The issue of the creative industries being easier to conceptualise and communicate than social enterprise and the social economy. There was a recognition of the challenges this can present when trying to persuade Local Authorities to procure more goods and services from social enterprises. This lack of comprehension of social enterprise is something that we’ll be addressing at events in the Social Enterprise City Festival in November, if you have thoughts or want to hold an event to look at that in your sector then get in touch.

Plymouth Social Enterprise Network
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