Aotearoa Social Enterprise Forum coming to Wellington

The Ākina Foundation is gearing up for this year's Aotearoa Social Enterprise Forum, which is being held at Wellington Zoo in October.

The forum is aimed at anyone involved in social enterprises, including practitioners, business, intermediaries, not-for-profits, corporates, public servants, policy makers, and other whānau interested in learning and connecting around the social enterprise kaupapa.

"This year's theme speaks to the core value of social enterprise and its ability to grow an economy that regenerates the environment and creates social foundations for the people and communities of Aotearoa New Zealand to thrive.

The event will include engagement opportunities such as panel discussions, interactive discussions, practical learning workshops, and networking.

While full details of the programme will be released next month, there will be 14 sessions.

The programme's website gives a taste of some of the sessions, which includes a mini plenary on the topic of impact investment; a participative session about policy changes and their effects on social enterprises; and a workshop on the social procurement certification process.

"Whilst the morning plenary will be an opportunity to look at the big picture, exploring how far we have travelled as a sector in the last 12 months and envisioning the year ahead, the breakout sessions will be practical, participative and interactive and will cover a range of topics for learning, debate and co-creation.

Last year's Social Enterprise Forum was held in Christchurch, and the Ākina Foundation says the Wellington event will be the first gathering of people from the social enterprise sector since.

"One year after hosting the Social Enterprise World Forum, how much progress have we made together," the event's website asks.

"What identity have we developed as a more unified group of people striving for a more impactful, more sustainable and more inclusive economy? What do we need to do to further empower and support social entrepreneurs? What do we want to achieve together in the coming year?

The event also comes with a green focus this year.

"Sustainability is a key focus for the event. The Ākina Foundation are working with event partners Ekos to offset carbon and have chosen a venue that is CarboNZero certified.

Tickets for the event range from $175-270 per person. They are sold on the social enterprise ticketing platform Humanitix, with ticket fees supporting their launch into the New Zealand market. The Aotearoa Social Enterprise Forum will be held on 19 October from 8:00am-5.30pm at the Wellington Zoo in Newtown.