Workshops & The Zone

Risky Business?!

Sponsored by Keegan and Pennykid

How risky is your business? No, it’s not a question from the Dragon’s Den, but it is something you should seriously consider. As a Social Enterprise your business is driven by the desire to deliver a social or environmental benefit: good risk management is an integral part of that ethos. Poor Risk Management may reduce your effectiveness, increase your costs or ultimately threaten your whole viability. Risk Management needn’t be costly nor interfere with your long-term business objectives — consider it an investment.

This workshop will highlight the principal areas you may need to address when assessing the risks to your business including Security, Health & Safety and Business Continuity. In addition, it will look at how you can go about managing your business risks through the use of insurance and financial products (Key Person Cover, Group life Assurance and Group Income Protection). Risky Business?…Yours doesn’t have to be.

The Strongest Link

Sponsored by The Wise Group

Social Enterprises face growing demand for quality products or services while improving customer service, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. As a result, consider implementing strategic supply chain management to maintain a competitive edge. The Wise Group Development team has considerable experience of creating such systems and will outline the benefits that could help make your Social Enterprise more successful.

Innovation for Success (now fully booked)

Sponsored by Scottish Enterprise

Innovation is the critical ingredient for success – how we transform things we do, how we make more from the services we offer, how we improve the things we make. Enterprises that continually create, evaluate and exploit new ideas are the most likely to survive and prosper in today’s competitive economy. Emerging from an economic downturn, change through innovation can benefit your enterprise – making it more efficient, more profitable, more successful.

The INNOVATION for SUCCESS session will provide insight and point you towards better innovation in your enterprise.

Strategic Business Planning: Where are you going and how are you going to get there? (now fully booked)

Sponsored by North Glasgow Housing Association

Facilitated by Forth Sector Development

Do you find that most of your time is spent on reacting to problems rather than planning for the future?

Focusing on the everyday can make it very difficult to stand back and take a hard look at what you want to accomplish and how you want to accomplish it. This session will concentrate on how you can use strategic planning to define your goals and objectives, ensure the optimal use of your resources and increase efficiency by focusing on the key priorities.

Sales Without the Cringe Factor: Sales for Non-Sales People (now fully booked)

Facilitated by The Social Enterprise Academy

The thought of ‘selling’ or ‘closing a deal’ can make people cringe. However, managing your sales process and promoting your products and services is vital to the success of your social enterprise. Let us help you to remove the fear from entering sales conversations and closing future sales.

Social Enterprise: The Next Generation

Facilitated by The Social Enterprise Academy and Determined to Succeed

With social enterprise as part of the new Curriculum for Excellence, teachers and pupils all across Scotland are learning about, setting up and running their own businesses for good. Come and find out more about the links being made between schools and social enterprises by the Social Enterprise Academy and Determined to Succeed, creating the next generation of social entrepreneurs and showcasing careers and opportunities in this vibrant sector.

Stress at Work — A Dangerous Topic!

Facilitated by Heather Gordon, Gordon Consultancy

Stress and hard work can be sold as the price of success, so how do you prevent work overload? Heather Gordon of Gordon Consultancy and expert on Stress Management will take you through a number of areas that cause stress at work and help you develop the mindset and skills you need to manage your workload. Learning to manage the stress you experience will make all the difference when it comes to your work.

Leadership for Growth (now fully booked)

Sponsored by Scottish Enterprise

Great enterprises have great leaders. Effective leadership is central to better performance as the key enabler of growth, the route to more innovation and investment, better competitiveness and reduced business failure.

Leadership Development influences the drivers of productivity and growth, notably, investment, innovation and enterprise.

The LEADERSHIP for GROWTH session highlights how developing great leadership, as an individual and within your enterprise, can have a seriously positive effect on success."

Aspire to Enterprise

Sponsored by the Scottish Government

The Third Sector makes a direct impact on the growth of Scotland's economy, the wellbeing of its citizens and the improvement of its public services and the Scottish Government is committed to developing the Third Sector in Scotland. The Aspire to Enterprise programme provides a range of business support services to social enterprises in Lowland Scotland, delivered by a consortium led by CEiS and Forth Sector.

To be eligible for 8 days tailored support, organisations must have a turnover of £60k-£800k, with the drive and potential to increase their trading. Aspire also provides a range of free seminars, available to all, which are designed to stimulate entrepreneurial activity for future development.

The proposed service is aimed at aspiring and emerging social enterprises that have moved beyond formation phase but have not yet developed to a stage/scale where they can effectively engage with Business Gateway services or the ‘client’ or ‘account’ managed elements of Scottish Enterprise.

This workshop will cover how participating in the Aspire programme can benefit your organisation. For example, through business health checks and support to further develop the trading capacity of your organisation. It will also give you an insight into the range of seminars they offer, including marketing and public sector tendering. Finally, the workshop will cover the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the role that social enterprises can play in maximising that legacy for communities in Scotland.

Mergers and Acquisitions: The How & The Why (& The Why Not)

Sponsored by MacRoberts LLP

This workshop will be led by Alan Kelly of MacRoberts LLP. In addition to being a Partner in the firm's Corporate Group, Alan is also a member of their Third Sector Group and has a close involvement with the social enterprise movement and the third sector. This workshop will aim to give an overview of how a merger or acquisition works in the Third Sector and explain what the parties need to do to ensure the perceived benefit of the transaction is derived. Since this will be an interactive workshop, with participants being asked to contribute to discussions, there will also be a chance to look at other issues and to share experiences and views.

Rural Social Enterprises (now fully booked)

Sponsored by Highlands and Islands Enterprise

This workshop will begin by viewing a virtual tour of a variety of successful social enterprises operating in the Highlands and Islands region. Participants in this workshop will gain from this and subsequent discussion new ideas and innovative approaches to running social enterprises. You will also spend time discussing the issues and solutions that are pertinent to rural social enterprises.

Pricing Goods and Services

Facilitated by The Engine Shed

Are you unsure of how to price your goods and services? Then this is the perfect workshop for you. Dereick Rushton, Catering Manager at the Engine Shed will take you through the best methods for pricing your products and services, including working out profit margins. So get your calculators at the ready!

*** FOR NEW SOCIAL ENTERPRISES ONLY ***
Learn to Network Effectively

Have you been operating for 2 years or less? Are you a new social enterprise or aspiring social entrepreneur?

If YES then Firstport and the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition have created a special opportunity to enable you to attend S2S (Scotland’s largest social enterprise gathering) at reduced rate and with an additional workshop.

If you’re new to networking and events then we have designed a special session that will run for an hour before you head into S2S where the opportunity to pitch your idea. The session will run at Link Housing (right next to the Corn Exchange) where we will also take on registration for S2S attendance.

Usual costs for attendance are £15 + VAT for members and £20 + VAT for non members if booked before Feb 19th. If booked through Firstport you'll receive a special discounted rate. To book your place please contact Elaine at Firstport on 0131 220 0511 or via email at elaine@firstport.org.uk.

Social Enterprise and Youth - Be the change that you want to be in the world!

Facilitated by Senscot and the Youth Social Enterprise Network

Are you aged 16-25 (ish) and either involved in running a social enterprise, have started up your own social enterprise or are interested in starting one? If so then this workshop is for you! The workshop will include:

• Inspirational and informative stories from peers who have been through the process of setting up a social enterprise
• An overview of the wide range of support and opportunities available
• An Introduction to the Youth Social Enterprise Network
• An Interactive opportunity to feed in with your thoughts and questions

To book your place please email karina@senscot.net. Drinks and goodies will be provided!

Youth Pitch to Panel

Facilitated by Senscot and the Youth Social Enterprise Network

Sponsored by Firstport and Alloa Community Enterprise (ACE)

Are you aged 16-25? Want to make a difference to people and communities? Are you an individual with energy and passion to succeed? Do you have an enterprising idea and will it make money?

If the answers are yes then you could pitch for £500 at this event to help get started. An iPhone is also up for grabs. For guidelines and an application form, or to register your interest in attending, contact karina@senscot.net. Entries must be received by Tuesday 6th April. For more information visit http://www.senscot.net/networks1st/shownotice.php?articleid=146.

This is an excellent opportunity to either take part or watch pitch and is a great way to practice your pitch and learn from each other.

Winners will be announced and prizes presented in back in the main arena.

Business Development Support

Your chance to ask the people at Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway questions on all aspects of business development support.

Storytelling with Jim Mullan of KibbleWorks

KibbleWorks is the enterprise and employment training arm at Kibble. It offers a spectrum of training and employment opportunities within social enterprises for young people who have been in care or are preparing to leave care. Staff at KibbleWorks need a unique blend of personal characteristics combining existing experience and expertise with the ability to sell a service and build a business. Using a traditional pre-apprenticeship model, they also need to support young people who have a range of social, emotional, behavioural and educational difficulties, they must demonstrate leadership skills whilst acting as a role model and must achieve all this whilst providing structured boundaries. Come along and hear more about how they run their business from Jim.

You Can Cook presents Food as Medicine

Many people consider food as fuel - they need it simply to keep them going through the day. But food can also prevent and treat illness, offering an amazing medicine - chest of natural remedies available to all.

Storytelling with Brian Tannerhill of The McSence Group

In 1988 after the miners strike Brian Tannerhill set up a Community Business in Midlothian called McSence. No funds were available so he raised £7000 from the local shopkeepers to start the first business. Now with 8 success stories, a turnover of £6 million and 150 employees Brian is happy to share his experiences and his plans for the future. Check out the website - www.mcsence.co.uk.

Repositioning Social Enterprise

Antonia Swinson, Chief Executive of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, describes how the Coalition came about and reveals the thrills and spills in telling the remarkable story of social enterprise to Scotland's movers and shakers.

Business Development Support

Your chance to ask the people at Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway questions on all aspects of business development support.

The Bread Maker

The Bread Maker is an artisan baker and coffee house in the heart of Aberdeen offering adults with a learning disability meaningful employment in a fully sustainable business. Today their highly skilled confectioner will demonstrate the art of cake decoration, he may even let you have a go on the bread maker stall!

MUSIC AS A MEDICINE - "There's More To Music Than Meets The Ear"

We all love music and enjoy listening, dancing and relaxing to it. But how many of us are aware of just how our brain responds to sound and what affect this has on our physiology and our health? In this session, music composer Punit Yaatri will share fascinating insights into the potency of sound frequency vibrations within music and will demonstrate the power of his own BrainHeart Music Therapy - music that has already enabled a silent 4 year old autistic boy to speak for the very first time in his life. Punit will reveal how the Brain acts like a pharmacy and will show us how daily listening to peaceful music can help reduce stress, enhance well-being and allow us to enjoy greater inspiration, clarity and creativity. Please visit www.BrainHeartMusic.org for further information.

Storytelling with Susan Aktemel of Impact Arts

Impact Arts was established in 1994 by Susan as a small business. She identified the need for the development of excellent projects that make a difference to individuals and community groups, and the opportunity to create work for freelance artists who are committed to operating within the community environment. 15 years later, they are the leading community arts company in Scotland, specialising in youth arts, employability and regeneration. Hear Susan's story.

Tips for using Mainstream Media with mediaco-op

Does your social enterprise deserve more coverage in the mainstream media? Practical insider tips on how to get journalists from the papers, radio and TV news interested in your stories. With Lucinda Broadbent from the social enterprise media co-op.

Youth Pitch to Panel Winners Announcement

Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network Prize Draw