Looking back at successful symposium
On 18 and 19 November 2015 ICS organised, together with partner Ka Tutandike Uganda, the first regional symposium on scaling social businesses in East Africa. For two days, the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala (Uganda) formed the stage of the search to balance between people, planet and profit.
A social business differentiates from a ‘regular’ business by aiming for social impact as much as financial profit. ‘Responsible investing’ is a concept growing in popularity while change makers dare to include economic return in their initiatives. However, as owner of three social businesses ICS knows how difficult this can be. Because how does a promising impact business make the step to a mature enterprise that still has social impact? And when does a social enterprise become an interesting incentive for investors? The symposium gave insight into and potential solutions for financial and organisational challenges. Best practices were shared and common bottle necks discussed.
With contributions of dozens of organisations, including Acumen Fund, Ashoka, Aspen and USAID, we created two valuable days. The symposium has been attended by more than 200 participants: entrepreneurs with (interest in) social businesses, impact investors and representatives of multinationals, government, financial institutions and non-governmental organisations. Debates were strong, speakers of high quality and the response of the public very positive. On www.scalingsocialbusiness.com you can find the opening remarks, all Powerpoint presentations and photos of the symposium.
Moreover, the symposium formed an important meeting point for entrepreneurs on the one hand and investors on the other hand, to promote collaboration between the two. Thanks to the event ICS has been able to contact many interesting parties and got the chance to promote itself as a pioneer in setting up and accelerating social businesses. ICS plans to organise a smaller symposium in the Netherlands in 2016 on the same topic. Keep an eye on this website for more information. 
