Planting the Seeds of a Social Ecosystem

Ecosystems aren’t just reserved for the environmentally-minded anymore. Now, the term is being used as a way to describe the need for interconnectedness within the social enterprise sector. Still a developing field, many of these entrepreneurs and the businesses that support them don’t have best management practices for the day-to-day operations or long-term goals. In response to this need, the 2014 SEEED (Social Enterprise Ecosystem for Economic Development) Summit will be held at Brown University, April 25-26. The conference will focus on what is needed to create an effective social enterprise ecosystem that can drive economic development. This is the first national conference of its kind, focusing on the economic impacts on social networking, gathering over 500 ecosystem stakeholders.

Keynote speakers at this year’s conference are leading social entrepreneurs including Dennis Whittle, Jim Gibbons, Jeffrey Hollender, Rob Kaplan and Gar Alperovitz. Last year’s conference culminated in the first piece of national legislation calling for an extension of the Small Business Act to support social enterprises, we expect similarly big things this year. For more information and to register visit www.seeed.org/register, or on the day of starting at 8am Friday and 8:30am Saturday. Designated parking will also be available.