Seminar at the Reboot Britain Conference 11.30-12.00 in the Mountbatten Room http://rebootbritain.sched.org/event/e8d7aeddeefbca7929dc815a2cace59d   Fibrecamp @ RebootbritainAccess to Next Generation Broadband will be vital in building “Digital Britain” and delivering public services but a third of rural & urban areas will miss out on BT & Virgin’s...

Cybermoor selected as a Community Shares pilot: promoting enterprise, equity and engagement through community shares and bonds. We are one of five community-owned enterprises have been selected to participate in a Government funded two year action learning research project which...

I attended the launch of the SEIF  last week.  Listen to what Phil Hope had to say about it here - http://audioboo.fm/boos/33352-minister-for-health-social-care-phil-hope-launches-the-nhs-social-enterprise-investment-fund It provides funding to social enterprises engaged in social and/or health care. The fund provides funding primarily in loan form...

http://www.nlse.org.uk/marketplace.htm - just spotted this event which I may try and get along to tomorrow in Lancaster...

The report on rural broadband I’ve been working on with colleagues at Community Broadband Network was launched today - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8114694.stm It promotes local social enterprises as a way to deliver superfast broadband in rural areas....

Tuesday was manic with a trade stand and presentation at the Social Enterprise NW conference at Aintree Racecourse and the launch of the government's Digital Britain report.  You can hear the presentation here:http://www.ipadio.com/phlog.asp?section=&phlogid=2282&phlogcastId=3335   http://www.ipadio.com/phlog.asp?section=&phlogid=2282&phlogcastId=3336 and watch the video below:...

“All those in favour of defining social enterprise?”   Over 75% of the 400 people in the audience at the Social Enterprise North West Trade Fair yesterday voted in favour of clearer definition.   For years it’s been the one subject...

At the moment I'm trying to get the start-up money together to get our new landscaping social enterprise off the ground.  I've often complained of the difficulty of finding relatively small sums to seed finance new ventures.  So it has...

Last Thursday I gave a presentation to a group of high achieving private school students in Lancashire. Despite my best efforts, I single-handedly failed to convince them that social enterprise was a real choice for them! Why? Well frankly because...

You may have heard recently that Spandau Ballet are reforming and going on tour. One of their many hits (they were one of my `guilty pleasure’ bands as a teenager, alongside my more public following of the Smiths etc) was...

I keep getting asked to do pieces about how to beat the recession at the moment so I thought I'd start by blogging about it.My main response to the recession so far has been to fear it but not actually...

In December I gave a speech at a Social Enterprise Conference in Blackpool which, it turns out, is a town with an amazing FORTY social enterprises. During my speech I mentioned that it would be great if ‘Blackpool became...

I don't think we've ever really thought of ourselves as big players and that's right because we are not....we at sunlight are just local people trying to make a difference, using ways we know work...that process forced us down the...

Worth a brief note to say that there are a few social enterprise ambassadors starting to use Twitter, if that's your thing.You can find them here:- Julie Harris @Cosmic_UK- Sam Conniff @SamConniff- Matt Kepple @MattKeppleYou can also follow some of...

Today saw the release of `A Good Childhood', produced by the Children's Society following a three year study and 30 odd thousand submissions examined by a panel of international experts.Its conclusions are, as these studies often seem to be, totally...

Cybermoor, a community owned co-operative in Alston, Cumbria, is building its own superfast broadband network using fibre technology, and in doing so is creating a pioneering model for others to follow. Cybermoor, a member of Co-operativesUK, was one of the...

Its been a busy couple of weeks since the launch of the Digital Britain report (pdf) which showed that Cybermoor was an example of best practice in developing the next generation of superfast broadband. We were also visited by the...

Amid all the bad news for the third sector, here's some more.Last week,a body I hadn't heard of before called the Association for Public Service Excellence released `Insourcing: A Guide To Bringing Local Auhority Services Back In-house claiming a "strategic...

Winning the best new social enterprise of 2008 was a real highlight for the team here at Sunlight....when we made the shortlist we were offered 2 hotel rooms and four tickets to the event. We soon traded those in with...

I'd like to start by remembering two people who sadly passed away over the Christmas break. Kath Jones was a wonderful, caring, counsellor who worked for Sunlight in our Alzheimer's and Dementia family support project. I'd known Kath for 8...

About a year ago, following discussions with those who know me and care for me, I decided to raise my own profile as a third sector leader. It made sense. I had things to say, a book coming out and...

Peter Mason who I met yesterday took a year to build a social business which now turns over 4.3 million pounds (it took me ten to do the same). Secure Health Care provides nurse-led health services to inmates at Wandsworth...

I have spent the last week talking to bankers, VCs, donors, millionaires, entrepreneurs and academics. I have also, of course, been reading the papers and watching the telly. What is abundantly clear is that we are in the middle of...

I slagged Nick Clegg off the other day for a fairly bland speech to ACEVO members in Sheffield. However, this week he launched an excellent new tax policy for the Lib Dems. Tax cuts and smaller government. He's not the...

Our work to look at upgrading the Cybermoor broadband network has really started to pay off over the summer. A customer survey carried out at the beginning of the year confirmed that at the top of customers' 'Wish List' was better speed and...

It seems a strange question, but lots of social enterprises sell something to customers who have little interest in the social outputs created by the business.   Auction My Stuff is a prime example - very few of our customers buy...

Hello its me again, sorry about the delay since my last entry I've been dealing with a range of IT questions which left me temporarily baffled. With thanks to Nick at School for Social Entrepreneurs I'm back and able to...

A representative group of social enterprise ambassadors wrote into the Guardian the other week, to respond to a government committee's findings that the third sector's added value for public services was difficult to see currently ("The assumption that charities and...

Since moving to the North West I have been very keen to visit my fellow social enterprise ambassadors and so went to see Clare Dove within the first few weeks of moving up. It took a little more planning to visit...

Say the name Simon Duffy to most people in our sector and they won't know who you mean. That bloke who played Bobby Ewing in Dallas? Father of that Welsh girl with a voice like Dusty Springfield? However say `personalisation...

Its been a week since I last blogged. Not been feeling that well. Feeling ground-down by one of the million bugs I seem to pick up from the kids. I used to get a cold a year. Now I feel...

Over the last two weeks I have worked with an incredible charity, Go-Givers, who as part of the Citizenship Foundation run days and workshops for 8-12 year olds on topics ranging from knife crime and gang culture to child soldiers....

We launched the website for Chain Reaction yesterday - an event to bring people who wouldn't otherwise meet, together to change the world.  The idea is that people passionate about social change, from business, government and charity get together to...

For once, a proper weekend. You know, the ones that seem to last that bit longer. Where you lose yourself, just for a while, in something other than the mental Inbox. Family has been the focus. Plus other people's families....

Whatever you think of Tesco, they run their business around the things that matter to their customers: Full shelves, clear aisles, good value, helpful staff. The whole thing, from top to bottom, is built around these four basic customer-pleasing ideas....

It is that sort of week in some respects. Two major `pitches' to potential social investors will determine how much of a success 2008 will be for me as CEO. Sometimes things really are that simple. Get the money and...

All the ambassadors are meeting up next week to look back (briefly) at year one, and to concentrate on the concrete tasks to move year two (and three) forward. From a partner organisation's point of view, it's been a year...

Cambridge. Nottingham. Bury St Eds. Barnsley. York. Bury St Eds. Nottingham. This has been my week. Blatted from one point on the map to another. And back again. Needless to say the effect on my head has not been great....

I think that everyone of us were astonished to be asked to host a visit by David Cameron & Co. Our shock was even greater when we learned that our HQ was the chosen venue to launch of the Tory...

My Blackberry buzzed on the short walk from Bury St Edmunds station to my home. The message said `Futurebuilders'. Ah, the email rebuff, I thought. But no, they want me for their Investment Committee, just what I wanted too. I...

He stood out a mile did Vlado Krystovski. He was one of two hundred or so people at a conference in Brussels all about reducing social isolation for disabled people. As the Eurostar pulled in, I knew an interesting time...

So I spent the day today clearing seven years of shit out of my office… We’re moving office next week, just around the corner in Brixton, and I’m behind in preparing for what is proving to be one of the...

We are holding an event for existing social enterprises and new ones in June as part of our business with altitude project and you're invited! You will have a  “behind the scenes” look at some of Cumbria’s most innovative co-ops...

This was the question posed by a group of business people at an event by Business in the Community last week. Well it was nice to be asked, but it got me thinking.  What do social entrepreneurs want from our...

  I feel a bit like I’m in “Life on Mars”…   “My name is Matt. I left my social enterprise, and woke up in the North West. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in a charity?”  ...

Just a quick post to note that Ambassador Sam Conniff hosted an event with Nick Hornby recently as part of an iTunes podcast (opens iTunes!). Note that the conversation turns to Hornby's mission-driven work on autism towards the end.In other...

Well I have finally got around to blogging. I've had a busy few months, like Ken Orchard, I've spoken about social enterprise - specifically about my own social enterprise, at a breakfast meeting (yawn!), yesterday at a funding lunch, at...

[Originally posted on Belu blog]Tap water is unquestionably the most eco-friendly source of water (unless you live next to a pristine stream). It is for this reason that Belu recommends tap water as the most environmental choice if you want...

HiMy company, Mid Devon Community Recycling, has just had its application accepted to become a holder of the Social Enterprise Mark. This means we'll be licensed to use the badge on all our paperwork and our vehicles.My quote for the...

It's been a crazy month and a long time since my last entry - I feel like I've neglected you. If anyone has been waiting with bated breath for my next post then I'm totally amazed. (and erm sorry).When we...