The busy OBCD Autumn culminated in the Social Entrepreneurship Day held on November 21st in Helsinki. Social Entrepreneurship Day is the main event in the field in Finland and it gathers all the main operators of social economy in the country – politicians and decision makers, research institutions and support organizations as well as the social entrepreneurs themselves.
OBCD’s role in the event was to organize entertaining content for the day and activate the participants. The Finnish partners developed a nice game to facilitate networking and held a panel discussion of the power of networks showcasing the great work of the OBCD ecosystem in Finland.
Finnish OBCD Ecosystem Booming and Blooming
Three members of the Finnish OBCD ecosystem, the network of social enterprises developed during the project, Satu Luukkonen from Lapinlahden Lähde, Heini Maisala-McDonnell from Metropolia UAS and Helena Miettinen from Helsinki Business College Ltd shared their experiences of the power of networks in an insightful and inspiring panel discussion.
The cooperation of different organizations has brought new ideas, knowledge and skills and resources for all the ecosystem members. Last but not the least, working together in the Finnish ecosystem has been fun and fruitful!
Concrete examples of the fruits of our Finnish ecosystem brought up in the discussion were the project works accomplished in the OBCD training pilot, which provided helpful development ideas for Lapinlahden Lähde. Also, the Bootcamp in Italy was a great experience for learning and networking with international organizations for everyone.
Bingo! – Networking Made Easy and Fun
Networking was made fun and easy at the event thanks to the networking bingo developed by the Finnish OBCD partners. Making networking a game was perceived as a good way to activate people to break the ice. The bingo leaflet encouraged oneself to engage with different activities, such as introducing people to each other, making compliments and posing a question and to get a new contact in LinkedIn.
Networking is important to all enterprises, especially to social enterprises which usually work in large consortiums. Being active and putting yourself out there is worth the efforts – as could be learned from the great example of the Finnish OBCD ecosystem.
All in all, the Social Entrepreneurship Day was inspiring with new ideas and contacts to continue the work in promoting social entrepreneurship in Finland.
