Introductions and getting to know each other

Hello. I'm Steve. I love SocEnt in all it's forms...I see it as leading a pragmatic revolution to change the way we do business to be kinder, fairer, and more inclusive. I've been involved in, running, owning, and supporting SocEnts for 15 years, and am a co-founder of the QLD Social Enterprise Council. I currently work as Program Manager Social Innovation at CQUniversity at the Brisbane Campus, and in this role have started working with QSEC to help develop and broaden social enterprise networks in Regional QLD.

Hello everyone :) My name is Davinia and I live and work on the Sunshine Coast. I'm extremely excited to see this initiative come together as well as connecting with what is shaping up to be a gathering of QLD SocEnt legends. I have a Masters in International Business and am founder and CEO of a social enterprise called #MakingItHappen. We work everyday with NFPs, start ups, industry and community, to initiate and facilitate SocEnt strategy. I like describing our work as helping NFPs be more business minded, and businesses be more socially focused. In my spare time I volunteer with social enterprises and mentor purpose led start -ups .That's how passionate and convinced I am that SocEnt is the future ! I am also co- founder of the Sunshine Coast Social Enterprise Network , sit on the CQU Social Innovation Committee and an avid community worker in the multicultural, creative and female empowerment space. Community means a lot to me, and I am honoured to be able to have a career in the building of a better future for all. Its been 13 years since I escaped the corporate world, and in my 7th year of SocEnt obsession. Life is awesome !

Hey guys, my name is Trent Ker and I have been in the SE space for 6-7 years. I currently manage 5 different SE for Access Community Services in Logan, from Building services to cafes to driving schools. I also own my own private residential building business. I am so inspired by everyones experience and involvement in this group. Look forward to working with you all

Hi everyone. I'm Gayle - I am an Associate Director with SVA, based in Queensland (Brisbane). I worked in management consulting on capacity building projects in developing countries, until finding my tribe in the social sector. SVA is an intermediary organisation which has a long history with social enterprise development in Australia. There are familiar names in the group who are likely to know more about that history that I do! It’s a privilege to be in group with so many people with a wealth of experience, leadership and support of social entrepreneurship. I’m in SVA’s ventures team, working in partnership with philanthropists and early stage social organisations to help position and build organisational capacity, sustainability and sometimes scale/replication for their organisations or programs. There are many people interstate at SVA interested in the Qld SESP initiative, enabling me to act as a conduit to that broader experience and network for this group. Our impact investing team has a specific interest in social procurement, particularly around ways to enable more social impact organisations to win larger social procurement contracts. I'm looking forward to connecting and working with you all.

Hi everyone! My name's Tom and I'm passionate about helping social entrepreneurs and their communities to thrive. I'm really excited by the power of social enterprise to tackle some of our deep social and environmental problems. I'm the Founder/CEO of Impact Boom (www.impactboom.org) where many of the great people in this Loomio group have been interviewed on the blog and podcast. I'm really focussed on developing the SE ecosystem, providing capacity-building (which involves running the Elevate+ Social Enterprise Accelerator, currently with 15 SEs), growing awareness, and taking a whole of system approach to sector development. I'm also a Yunus Centre Fellow (Griffith University) and am on the Boards of QSEC and the Social Enterprise Network Logan, as well as the Advisory Panel of QUT Bluebox ImpaQt. For the past 18 months, a core project has been leading the bid to bring the Social Enterprise World Forum to Australia in 2021. I believe it presents an enormous opportunity for us to develop the sector and moving forward, will no doubt also use this forum as a way for us to co-design that together. Whilst we haven't secured the bid yet, we're working hard at it, and your involvement and contribution is certainly very much appreciated. Looking forward to meeting you in person and collaborating on SESP.

Hello everyone, I'm Melina Morrison. Thank you for the invitation to be part of this initiative. I'm excited by its diversity and inclusive approach - thank you organisers! I'm the CEO of the peak body for member owned businesses in Australia - Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals. It's a long winded name for a singular objective of raising awareness of the co-operative model. There are around 2000 co-ops in Australia, which are social enterprises with co-ownership, democracy and economic participation at their core. There's lots of these operating in Queensland and we're delighted to bring their voice to the table as well.

Hi all. I'm Sandy and I've been involved in social enterprise from the get go. I remember spending years explaining to people what a social enterprise was when I was working with the Westpac Foundation. These days I run a for purpose enterprise called Social Outcomes and we specialise in impact - researching it, designing for it, managing it ,measuring it and financing it. So I have a long history in impact investing as well. We work right across Australia and into the region. We've been having a lot of fun working on social enterprise development in the Pacific for the last two or three years as well.

Hi Everyone, My name is Celeste. I am the Yunus Social Business Centre Program Manager/Regional Coordinator for the Redlands/Logan region. I am passionate about improving employability pathways and enabling innovative approaches within academia, industry and the community that create social impact. I have a profound interest in developing social enterprise/entrepreneurship in rural/regional areas. A strong believer of collective impact to make a difference and wonderful to be working alongside you.

HI All - Ricky Bryan here form Supply Nation. our vision is for a vibrant and prosperous Indigenous business sector. Although some of the suppliers we represent see themselves as social enterprises many are for profit businesses, however their is a lot of cross over in the social enterprise space and Indigenous procurement. Its a space we need to play in and be aware of.

HI all - Michelle Baulderstone here form KPMG. I was recently lucky enough to meet a lot of you as part of the Social Enterprise report we did for the Queensland Government. It looked at the size, scale and types of SEs in Queensland, and included meeting with social entrepreneurs and enablers from across Queensland. As part of this we looked at how to strengthen and grow the sector and that is what I would most like to see in the future, especially given the passion, vision and heart of all the people we met, making a difference across Queensland.