Why SEWF 2021 was a fantastic opportunity for SERI: Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland

In 2021 we developed a network of Community Hubs to support groups from around the world to self-organise and hold local events (virtually or in-person) during our flagship forum SEWF 2021. The Community Hub model continues into SEWF22. Read all about SERI ⏤ Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland’s ⏤ experience hosting a Community Hub in 2021.

Describing the SEWF 2021 experience

“SERI’s SEWF 2021 experience was a thoroughly enjoyable one. As we are a new organisation, it was SERI’s first time participating, although many of our Directors and members have partaken in SEWF events before. SEWF 2021 was a fantastic opportunity for SERI and our members to listen, learn and interact with a wide variety of social enterprise thought leaders and changemakers across the world.”

Why we decided to host a Community Hub

“As the Irish Community Hub host for SEWF 2021, we felt it was important to offer Irish social enterprises the opportunity to interact and learn from SEWF 2021. We wanted to open up the experience so that we could reflect and learn from each other. It was an ideal opportunity to engage with both new and existing social enterprises.    

SERI’s main goal was to have its Directors and Practitioner Council members attend a variety of sessions over SEWF 2021 and bring back their key learnings to our Community Hub session. While attendees picked sessions of greatest interest to them, we also sought where possible for more than one person to be there. This was to enable different viewpoints and learnings to filter through”. 

The impact of hosting our Community Hub

“The main impact was facilitating detailed discussions to take place. We arranged the Hub so that attendees gave an overview of the sessions they attended, then opened for Q&A and in particular how it was applicable to Ireland. It offered SERI an opportunity to engage with members on specific topics and hear how it was relevant to them. Some of these conversations have continued”.

Would we recommend others to consider hosting a Community Hub this year? Yes!

“We at SERI would highly recommend engaging with SEWF as a Community Hub as it is [not only] a fantastic opportunity to engage with your stakeholders on topics that are important to them, but [also] in the context of hearing from leaders around the world. What’s not to love about learning, making connections and giving space to discuss important topics”?

New projects at SERI

On Friday 5th March, The Irish Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) announced that the SERI, Amarach Research, and ILDN consortium was the winner of the Tender for the first-ever Irish social enterprise data collection exercise. This is a key piece of work for the social enterprise sector in Ireland as it will provide much-needed data for the success of the sector. All details can be found on our website here.

Want to bring this global social enterprise conversation to your community in 2022? Why not send in an Expression of Interest to host an SEWF Community Hub here today!  Deadline: 11 April 2022.