News & Case Studies

International visit programmes are once in a lifetime experiences with inspirational social enterprises, great networking, fascinating cultural settings and outstanding locations.

From Friday September 27th to Friday October 4th, CEiS are co-ordinating a Learning and Development Programme for social enterprise leaders across the world incorporating social enterprise visits on the road from Vancouver to Calgary, culminating with The 2013 Social Enterprise World Forum.

This will be the seventh international visit programme following successful and inspiring visits to California in 2007, Berlin/Genoa in 2008, Australia in 2009, San Francisco/Vancouver and Seattle in 2010, South Africa in 2011 and Rio de Janeiro in 2012. These high paced programmes allow participants to interact with international social enterprises while spending quality contact time with policy makers, funders, support agencies and social enterprise practitioners from the UK and around the world.

The programme will:

• Provide high quality enterprise visits to outstanding social enterprises in inspiring locations
• Provide opportunities to engage with local enterprise leaders and policy makers
• Generate once in a lifetime networking opportunities with international social enterprise leaders
• Influence future investment, development programmes and policy initiatives in the UK and the world
• Provide learning and networking opportunities through attendance at the Social Enterprise World Forum

The Social Enterprise Exchange took place on March 21st in Hall 5 of the SECC, Glasgow. The event was a huge success and has had excellent feedback from exhibitors, delegates, sponsors and stakeholders.

The event could not have been possible without the 22 social enterprise suppliers who provided everything from lunch to recycling, print to chocolate and water to photography.

CEiS Events were proud and delighted to be the event managers for the second time and were pleased that the event was a success for all involved. The additional support provided by CEiS staff members, a team from KibbleWorks and student volunteers from Glasgow Caledonian and Stow College ensured that the event ran smoothly.

Lynsey Johnston, Events and Marketing Manager said “It takes 6 months of planning to run an event of this size and scale. Our team have been working closely with Social Enterprise Scotland on The Social Enterprise Exchange since October and have been rewarded with a successful day that has seen over 900 social enterprise practitioners, supporters and leaders come together to network, learn and share best practice. We managed to ensure that 22 out of 25 suppliers were social enterprises, for us that is the measure of true success because it is our ethos to trade within the sector where possible”.

For highlights of the day please watch this video provided by VideoWise -

https://vimeo.com/62690694

Gerry Higgins, Chief Executive of CEiS, spent 5 days, during March 2013, as a guest of the British Council in China as part of the “Support for Social Entrepreneurs” programme. The aim was to raise awareness of global social enterprise and the role of the Scottish Government in promoting and supporting the movement.

A major new initiative has now been launched to encourage and support social and public service innovation in Scotland. continue reading »

www.socialinnovationscotland.com

Join us for the launch and ­first networking event of Social Innovation Scotland. This inaugural event will focus minds on the big challenges facing our public services and showcase examples of innovations now catching hold across the public sector. Join other Scottish leaders passionate about transforming our public services … and willing to act. continue reading »

The Scottish procurement community’s finest celebrated recently at the Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards Scotland 2012/13, held at the Marriott hotel in Glasgow. continue reading »

Derek Mackay, Minister for Local Government and Planning at the Scottish Government today (5th September 2012) announced that five world class social enterprise’s are to set-up international headquarters in Scotland after being awarded grants under the International Social Enterprise Programme, at Community Enterprise in Scotland’s (CEiS) annual conference in Glasgow.
continue reading »

Social media has changed the way people communicate – giving social enterprises an amazing opportunity to truly engage
supporters, reach new customers, influence key decision makers and build new partnerships. But, if it doesn’t contribute to your overall business strategy then social media can quickly become a missed opportunity.

To help make the connections, CEiS is delivering a free, half-day workshop on integrating social media with business strategy.

The workshop is aimed at: Third Sector Organisations using or about to use social media but who are unsure how to approach it
strategically; and individuals with responsibility and/ or interest in the use of social media to achieve business objectives rather than have a technical knowledge of its delivery.

You can book your place now by emailing Emma Stratton – Enterprise & Communities Team emma.stratton@ceis.org.uk or call directly on 0141 425 2917

For further information Click Here to download the latest programme.

CEiS were delighted to welcome  John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, to our new social enterprise – Catalyst Catering – which was launched today.  Mr Swinney met with our new catering team and heard about the plans for this new venture.

Catalyst Catering is a trading subsidiary of CEiS Ayrshire. The business opened yesterday, in Marathon House, Dundonald servicing the business park occupants; with future expansion in late July to a second site in Kilmarnock and a contract catering operation. Catalyst Catering will
offer meaningful employment and training opportunities for young people aged 18-24 within the café from food preparation, sales,
budgeting, customer service and front of house experience to providing a contract catering service.  Clients will come from the employability programmes managed by CEiS Ayrshire on behalf of North Ayrshire Council and the Community Planning Partnership.

Catalyst Catering has taken over the operation of an existing business on the Dundonald site and was supported in this acquisition by the Social
Firms Scotland programme: Acquiring Business 4 Good.

Initially the intention is to service Marathon House and the surrounding areas.  As the model develops, the venture will explore the potential to expand its external catering operations and customer base to new areas in a small goals/steps approach. Albeit designed to enhance the individual work ethic, social interaction, technical skills, entrepreneurial ability and personal planning and development, this is a venture aimed at income generation and it will function as a sustainable social enterprise.

We would like to thank West Coast Capital, Matthew Algie, Acquiring Business 4Good and North Ayrshire Council for their support.

Book your place now for a once in a lifetime experience with inspirational social enterprises, great networking, fascinating cultural settings and outstanding locations! continue reading »