Better Incubation at the SEED Capacity Building Webinar on Social Entrepreneurship

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Better Incubation

WEBINAR | “Social entrepreneurship: insight on its development, multiple nature and false friends” on the 24th of January, 12.30 CET.

The Webinar is organized by Università di Bologna in collaboration with: ART-ER, Better Incubation, Fa’ la cosa giusta, Fondazione CRT, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, Inkubator Sežana, Politecnico di Torino.

The field of social entrepreneurship is various and complex. It includes multiple actors and it’s developing more and more. The webinar aims to give insights on this field, presenting recent research data about Europe and Italy. The data helps to depict a clearer situation, even if social entrepreneurship is still growing and constantly changing. After the first introductory contribution, the webinar focuses on specific cases and approaches which favour the development of social entrepreneurship. Specific approach to sustain social entrepreneurship are presented, such as the tight partnership of a public actor with social entrepreneurs and incubators, and policy recommendations on how to sustain inclusive incubation.

Afterwards, Italian and European actual cases of social enterprises are described and commented, in order to share with participants potentialities and criticalities of social entrepreneurship.

Agenda:

Introduction by Unibo

Social entrepreneurship and social ecosystems – Paolo Landoni, Politecnico di Torino

Key regional stakeholders for social innovation and social entrepreneurship – Kristian Mancinone, Art-ER, Chiara Davalli, EBN / Better Incubation

CASES OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

• FabriQ (Italy) – Deborah Greco, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini

• Inkubator Sežana (Slovenia) – Dorijan Marsic, Director of Incubator Sezana

• Case to be defined – Zoe McDonagh, Fondazione CRT,

• Si parte dal Bosco (Italy) – Piero Brunod, Fa la cosa giusta Network

Q&A: check on Miro blackboard whether participants interact and read out loud what they wrote + open the discussion in the call for questions and comments.

Register to the event

Better Incubation Switch Pitch Series 2022 | recordings are available online!

Posted on December 29, 2022January 10, 2023 by Better Incubation

Did you miss the Better Incubation Switch Pitch Series?

Don’t worry! Recordings are now available online!

The series facilitated informal conversations between a diverse range of investors for impact and business support organisations with regards to pipeline building.

Switch Pitch with Seed Capital Bizkaia & Ship2B

In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Oscar Ugarte Gamboa, Seed Capital Bizkaia, and Xavier Pont Martin, Ship2B, explain how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses.

Switch Pitch with Cartier Women’s Initiative

In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Wingee Sampaio, Cartier Women’s Initiative, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses.

Switch Pitch with Feelsgood Capital and Portus Buda Group FMC

In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Renata Brkic, FeelsGood Capital, and Elemér Eszter, Portus Buda Group FMC, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses.

Switch Pitch with World Startup

In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Jan Verkooijen, World Startup, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses.

Switch Pitch with INCO

In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Jean Michel Lecuyer, INCO, explained how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses.

Switch Pitch with FASE

In this episode of the Switch Pitch Series, Markus Freiburg, FASE, explain how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses.

Memories from the 2022 EBN Techcamp powered by Better Incubation “Untapped Innovation Potential” | watch the event video now!

Posted on December 27, 2022December 28, 2022 by Better Incubation

One of the best memories of this year is linked to one of the flagship events organised by Better Incubation in 2022: the 2022 EBN Techcamp Powered by Better Incubation “Get ready for the future of innovation – Untapped innovation potential”.

Back in October, over 80 international business support experts, thought leaders, and innovation practitioners gathered in Lipica, Slovenia, to explore the European innovation ecosystem’s untapped potential in becoming more inclusive and diverse and how to re-strategize, upskill and expand business support services to service a new generation of impactful start-ups. It was co-hosted by EU|BIC Inkubator Sežana and was powered by Better Incubation, a project funded by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation.

Here is a 3-minute video to take us back to those incredible days of networking and peer learning around impact driven and inclusive incubation practices, tools and strategies. Enjoy!

Don’t forget that you can still access all experts’ presentations and watch the event pictures here.

Making the SEAP happen! Funding Instruments for Social Economy and the Competence Centres for Social Innovation

Posted on December 15, 2022December 15, 2022 by Better Incubation

On December 13th, 2022, Better Incubation organised the second webinar dedicated to the Social Economy Action Plan.

This time, with the support of DG EMPL, we focussed the conversation on the available funding instruments for social economy and the role the National and European Competence Centres for Social Innovation have in Europe to promote and enable impact-driven innovation.

00_Better Incubation SEAP Webinar 2_13 December 2022_Chiara Davalli

Dana Verbal, DG EMPL, provided a comprehensive overview of the available funding programmes. She touched upon the following ones: ESF+, ERDF, InvestEU and the Social Inclusive Finance Technical Assistance. She highlighted relevant funding streams for BSOs and incubators.

She also mentioned the Social Economy Gateway, that as of Summer 2023, will act as the main information point about EU funding programmes, EU policy, guidance documents and studies, facts and figures, best practice examples, links to relevant networks and organisations and capacity building resources such as webinars. It will also include country pages to provide country specific information.

01_2022-12-13 SEAP_ Better incubation webinar_Dana VERBAL OK

Risto Ravio, DG EMPL, presented the comprehensive framework for social innovation defined by ESF+ and explained the role the national competence centres for social innovation will have in promoting and enabling social innovation across Europe. As also mentioned in the previous presentation, many funding programmes for social economy and social innovation are run by regional and national managing authorities, so it is important to create the right environment to generate appropriate impact. As European Member States present different maturity levels in this regard, 6 international consortia have been funded for the period 2021-2023 to support the creation of the national cometence centres through international collaboration, mutual learningn aand capacity building.

02_Social Innovation competence centres 13 Dec 2022_Risto Ravio

The webinar closed with a presentation dedicated to FUSE project, one of the 6 networks of national competence centres for social innovation covering the following countries: Portugal, Ireland, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

Grainne Smith, GENIO Ireland, presented the consortium and briefly showed where the different countries are in the definition of the national blue prints/agendas for social innovation

03_FUSE overview__IR PT_better incubation WK_13.12.2022_Grainne Smith

If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recordings here.

Better Incubation Project Finale|Towards a more inclusive and impact driven approach to innovative entrepreneurship

Posted on November 23, 2022December 1, 2022 by Better Incubation

The European Action Plan “Building an economy that works for  people: an action plan for the social  economy “ (2021-2030) launched by the European Commission recognises the importance that the mainstream BSOs have in the support of social economy entities (p.14) :

The Commission calls on Member States to encourage mainstream business incubators to extend their support to social economy entities, to improve business investment readiness support opportunities. The ‘Better Incubator’ pilot launched by the European Commission can serve as inspiration’ .

Better Incubation aims to enhance the inclusiveness of BSOs by stimulating a wider cultural change in the incubation ecosystem, therefore involving regional and EU stakeholders (investors, policymakers, social actors, BSOs) that can contribute to this paradigm shift.

After 2 years of project activities, it is time to share key learnings on how to boost the promotion and support of impact-driven and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe and beyond.

Organised in the framework of the EVPA Annual Conference 2022, the session “Better Incubation: Project Finale | Towards an impact-driven and inclusive approach to innovative entrepreneurship in Europe” is structured in 4 key moments:

How BSOs can contribute to the implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan? Brigitte Fellahi-Brognaux, Head of Unit, European Commission DG EMPL
Beyond Better Incubation – Partner Networks’ reflections on the way forward A conversation with Tatiana Glad, IHUB; Roberta Bosurgi, EVPA ; Laura Lecci, EBN
“Voices of Better Incubation” We’ll hear different experiences of Better Incubation. What did the programme offer to their orgnisations, their territories and communities? What are the plans for the future?
Scaling Impact. Meet the Winners of the Better Incubation Contest 2022. We’ll discover the entrepreneurial journey of the three finalists of the Better Incubation Contest 2022| Scaling Impact. Their stories, their plans, their impact

The session starts at 14.30 CET and it is going to be live streamed on Better Incubation Twitter account, LinkedIn page and EBN YouTube Channel.

AGENDA

Room Orangerie, on the 2nd floor & Live Streaming

14:30-14:40	Welcome and introduction about Better Incubation, Chiara Davalli, EBN
14.40-15.10	How BSOs can contribute to the implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan? Brigitte Fellahi-Brognaux, Head of Unit, European Commission DG EMPL Beyond Better Incubation – Partner Networks’ reflections on the way forward A conversation with Tatiana Glad, IHUB; Alessia Gianoncelli, EVPA ; Laura Lecci, EBN
15.10-15.30	“Voices of Better Incubation” moderated by Lucia Radu, Impact Hub We’ll hear different experiences of Better Incubation. What did the programme offer to their orgnisations, their territories and communities? What are the plans for the future? Francisco Pizarro, EU\|BIC Fundecyt PCTEX Viktoria Soregi, IHUB Budapest Francesco Rocca, IHUB Lisbon Hrishabh Sandilya, EPIM Gerrit Jan van ‘t Veen, WorldStartup Kristian Mancinone, EU\|BIC Associate ART-ER Nayla Attas, Impact Hub Global
15.30-15.50	Scaling Impact. Meet the Winners of the Better Incubation Contest 2022, moderated by Laura Lecci, EBN We’ll discover the entrepreneurial journey of the three finalists of the Better Incubation Contest 2022\| Scaling Impact. Their stories, their plans, their impact. Fela Akinse Buyi, Founder Salubata Esra Arslan, Executive Board Member at İhtiyaç Haritası Needs Map Ondřej Kolařík, CEO and Co-founder ARBO Technologies
15.50-16.00	Closing session with the three partner networks

Empowering women through skills development | WEgate webinar

Posted on November 21, 2022 by Better Incubation

Women’s economic empowerment is a “transformational process” achieved through, among other things, skills training. At the same time, encouraging entrepreneurship and empowering women to become not only wage-earners, but also jobs creators, is one of the most impactful steps we can take in addressing some of the disparities we see today.

The upcoming WEgate webinar (on 24 November on Zoom) will focus on a series of initiatives that support the skilling process for women in business.

They will be presenting three good practices for skills development:

DITA – Innovative platform for supporting your digital transformation, presented by Loredana Flego, NeroSuBianco
TalentA – education and support programme for women farmers, presented by Margit Batthyány-Schmidt, Union of Hungarian Women
National Platform for Women Entrepreneurship – connecting & empowering women entrepreneurs and stakeholders, presented by Emilija Andonova, Foundation for Management and Industrial Research

REGISTRATION LINK

Have a look to the Better Incubation Community of Practice on Women Entreprenurship for more info and details on the topic.

2022 EBN TechCamp ‘Untapped Innovation Potential’ –

Posted on October 26, 2022December 28, 2022 by Better Incubation

The annual EBN Techcamp was held in Lipica (Slovenia) on the 19th and 20th of October. During these two days different activities took place within the framework of ‘Untapped Innovation Potential’.

Laura Lecci CEO of EBN, Dorijan Maršič, EU|BIC Sežana Inkubator Director, David Škabar, Mayor of Sežana and Cristina Fanjul, EBN President and EU|BIC CEEI Asturias Director, were in charge of kicking off these days.

During these 48h there was time to talk about innovation, impact, ecosystems, sustainable development goals, inclusion of innovative entrepreneurs, etc. and to reflect on this.

SESSIONS

Chapter 1: Why EU|BICs and other BSOs should consider promoting and supporting social and inclusive entrepreneurship in their regional ecosystems?

Insights 1 | Keynote From Vision to Execution: Leading Impact Management: led by Tobias Temmen, Venture Partner (Kellogg-WHU, Stanford Change Labs). ““A change in purpose changes a system profoundly, even if every element and interconnection remain the same,” Tobias provides a practical perspective on how thinking in systems is critical when reconsidering our incubation models”
Solution Session 2 | Deep Dive 1: The human imperative. From vertical to transversal approach to impact driven innovation): led by Ramy Boujawdeh, EU|BIC Berytech Chief Operating Officer with Krystel Khalil and EU|BIC Berytech Programs Director and Lara Elkhoury EU|BIC Berytech Deputy Programme Director. Expect to learn more about how technology, innovation, and society function in tandem, and how your organisation can re-strategize for the change happening around us.
Solution Session 2 | Deep Dive 2: Tech For Good. An ecosystemic approach to impact-driven innovation: led by Francisco Pizarro Escribano, EU|BIC Fundecyt PCTEX Business Development Manager. FundecytPCTEX presented the regional ecosystem that has been set up to promote and support impact-driven entrepreneurship and social innovation in Extremadura. Introducing two concrete tools, Francisco Pizarro, will focus on the importance of identifying the right stakeholders and establishing a new service portfolio

Chapter 2: What is needed for EU|BICs to enable change and enter the future of innovation support?

Insights 2 | Keynote: The value(s) of the Sustainable Development Goals led by Prof. Dr. Andreja Jaklič, Chair of International Relations at University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences. Shared reflections on how the UN SDGs contribute to close societal and environmental challenges and bring value to local and regional ecosystems. By sharing good practices from the CEE region, she will demonstrate how the SDG framework contributes to value creation.
Solution Session 3 | Deep Dive 1: Inclusive approaches to innovative entrepreneurship. Designing Inclusive Incubation Programmes led by Dorijan Maršič, EU|BIC Sežana Inkubator Dorector Ludovica Andrialemirovason, EU|BIC Laval Mayenne Technopole Project Manager and Desislava Dimitrova, EU|BIC INNOBRIDGE – Ruse CCI.
Solution Sessions 3 | Deep Dive 2: “People-Planet-Profit” / “Society-Environment-Economy”. Incubation programmes boosting Double/Triple bottom line lead by Simone Ritzer, Wageningen Dialogues Program Leader at Wageningen University / Representing EU|BIC StartHub. A dynamic session hosted by Simone Ritzer let us explore ways to support impactful innovation, boosting the ‘triple bottom line’ among start-ups.

Chapter 3: How to enable practitioners and what frameworks, programmes and financial instruments are available for BSOs and EU|BICs?

Insights 3 | Keynote Communicating Impact: led by Flora Rosenow, Global Consultant Brand Strategy and Communication. As stated in the Better Incubation Roadmap “All incubators should communicate with the external ecosystem to promote their organisations and their end-users. The messages your incubator sends to other stakeholders should be consistent with your organisational culture and mission”.
Solution Session 4 | Deep Dive 1: Social Value Proposition and IMM – More Than a Programme. A Strategy!, led by Martina Muggiri, EU|BIC Candidate SocialFare Startup Program Manager Matteo Lupetti, EU|BIC Candidate SocialFare Social Innovation Developer. Better understand the meaning of “social impact” and how it is embedded in their acceleration programmes. Looking at the case-study of “UnoBravo” they debated acceleration methods, and we will reflect on the role international networks like EBN can support the scaling of impact driven ventures.
Solution Session 4 | Deep Dive 2: Social Value Proposition and IMM – Must-have for impact-driven ventures led by Selcen Kutku, acube | avanzi co-head and manager. They first discovered the investment strategy of the Croatian-Slovenian Social Impact Fund Feelsgood Capital. They then saw what role incubators can play bridging investees and investors for impact by listening to the methodology developed by a|cube, the incubator and accelerator of the Italian group Avanzi – Sostenibilità per Azioni.
Solution Session 5 | Deep Dive 1: How can creative industries generate impact and address today’s societal challenges? led by Dr Eleanor Browne, Coventry University Social Enterprise CIC (CUSE) Managing Director Mariama Njie, Coventry University Social Enterprise CIC (CUSE) Social Enterprise Programme Manager. In an interactive workshop, CUSE shared insights on a fashion incubation programme recently run in Africa.
Solution Session 5 | Deep Dive 2: Incubation services for Migrants and Refugees led by Maria Clarissa Pierobon, EU|BIC ITC Canarias Project Manager They saw with ITC Canarias how the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme can offer a concrete framework to support Ukrainian Refugees. During this session also Fela Kinse CEO of Salubata was presenting his business idea and sharing with the audience the difficulties he had to face as a Nigerian immigrant in France.

Check Techcamp Pictures

You can check here the photos and use them in social networks by naming Jan Antonac from VSS Sežana, and also de presentations from our speakers.

And here is a short video with highlights from the event:

They speak about us

https://inkubator.si/ebn-techcamp/

https://trentinosviluppo.it/it/ELE0016836/trentino-sviluppo-in-slovenia-al-techcamp-di-ebn

https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?u=0537d5810fe70e3a2fcd44a39&id=9048527708

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/selcen-kutku-picozzi-14940230_its-been-two-wonderful-days-full-of-questioning-activity-6990387423146848256-kMoN/?trk=public_profile_like_view&originalSubdomain=it

https://www.art-er.it/2022/10/ebn-tech-camp-art-er-partecipera-alledizione-2022-del-network-europeo-di-incubatori-e-acceleratori/

https://www.tepsa.eu/prof-dr-andreja-jaklic-opened-the-second-day-of-the-ebn-techcamp-2022-cir-slovenia/

The Better Incubation Switch Pitch Series starts in June!

Posted on May 30, 2022June 14, 2022 by Better Incubation

Join our new Switch Pitch Series, where investors for impact will share insights on how they work with incubators and accelerators – and how this collaboration can be improved to better support impact driven businesses. The series is part of our Better Incubation Project.

The series will facilitate an informal conversation between a diverse range of investors for impact and business support organisations with regards to pipeline building. We will also discuss experiences and ideas on how to foster collaborations. The sessions will reflect different perspectives and country/regional contexts existing in Europe.

What can you expect?

different investment approaches applied by one or two EVPA members,
collaboration experience of social investors with incubators and accelerators
possibility to engage in discussion through an informal space, moderated by an EVPA team member.

Your ideas and insights will contribute to the Better Incubation Chart, a methodological guide for the mainstream business support organisations on how to better support impact driven businesses and connect with investors for impact.

When and what?

Date	Timing	Region	Speakers	EVPA Moderator	Registration
30 June 2022	12.00-13.00	Benelux	Jan Verkooijen, World Startup	Martijn Blom	Register here
5 July 2022	12.00-13.15	CEE	Renata Brkic, Feels Good Capital & Elemér Eszter, Portus Buda Group	Ewa Konczal	Register here
11 July 2022	10:00-11:00	Europe	Wingee Sampaio, Cartier Women’s Initiative	Sara Seganti	Register here
1 Sep 2022	12.00-13.15	Spain	Oscar Ugarte Gamboa, Seed Capital Bizkaia & Xavier Pont Martin, Ship2B	Arnau Picon Martinez	Register here
8 Sep 2022	12.00-13.00	France	Jean Michel Lecuyer, INCO	Gianluca Gaggiotti	Register here
27 Sep 2022	12.00-13.00	Europe	Markus Freiburg, FASE	Martijn Blom	Register here

About the Organisations

Feelsgood Social Impact Investment Fund is designed to invest in Croatian and Slovenian ventures that have typical private equity/venture capital for-profit-aims like commercial business models, led by strong management teams and ready to scale, but in addition can and will deliver measurable social impact. Feelsgood is spotting and supporting businesses that can find a way to address, if they already have not, one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and make measurable impact a conscious sustainable strategy of their business models.
Portus Buda Group FMC is a venture capital fund management company in operation since 2011. Our primary goal is to profitably manage capital entrusted to us while furthering the excellent reputation of Hungary. Our majority owner – Portus Buda Group – created the firm to channel and share its accumulated expertise and sector knowledge. We target companies that – with their products and services – address underserved needs in a well-defined yet broad range of customer groups.

The Cartier Women’s Initiative is an annual international entrepreneurship program that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs. Founded in 2006, the program is open to women-run and women-owned businesses from any country and sector that aim to have a strong and sustainable social and/or environmental impact. Applications for the the 2023 edition are open! Join the Switch Pitch to discover more.

WorldStartup is a collective of international entrepreneurs, experts, mentors and investors, dedicated to help the best impact-driven startups and scaleups. WorldStartup supports purpose-driven innovators creating long-standing impactful ventures and promotes the Learning Circle ‘How to find the right impact investor’.

Seed Capital Bizkaia was founded in 1989 and for more than 30 years of working history it has been firmly committed to encouraging innovation, social impact and the promotion and regeneration of the business fabric in Bizkaia (Basque Country). The Entrepreneurship and Social Impact Fund (FEIS) was established in 2014 with the aim of supporting the promotion and consolidation of business initiatives with social impact. Social innovation initiatives are supported with investments of up to 600,000 euro.

INCO is a global organization that is building in 50 countries a new economy that is environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. INCO invests and supports innovative companies that are the future leaders of the economy. INCO provides training and support to those who wish to work in this new economy.

FASE has the vision to create a thriving ecosystem for social innovation by boosting impact finance across Europe. FASE is passionate about building bridges between outstanding social entrepreneurs and investors inspired by the idea to create a sustainable, positive impact. By helping their clients to raise capital in a highly professional way, we improve their chances to achieve impact at scale. So far, we have channelled more than 45 million EUR with 65+ successfully closed transactions to the sector. FASE also initiated the ESIIF and teamed up with avesco Financial Services and the European Investment Fund (EIF) to offer this new impact investing option for German semiprofessional and professional investors
Ship2B Foundation’s mission is to boost Impact Economy, an economic model in which the main purpose for startups, businesses, investors and organisations is not only to maximise profitability, but also to improve their social and environmental impact. At Ship2B we have the support of the European Commission to boost Impact Investment in Spain, a financing model based on investing in startup capital with the intention of generating and measuring economic, social and environmental impact. To do this, our team of analysts constantly studies impact startups from all over Spain to invest in through the different tools of the Foundation.

Interested in the Social Economy Action Plan? Join us for the Webinar on 19 May

Posted on May 2, 2022May 4, 2022 by Michaela Lednova

Webinar

‘Social Economy Action Plan : Opportunities for BSOs’

European Business Innovation Centre Network (EBN) on behalf of

the Better Incubation programme is hosting a webinar

on the European Commission’s recently released Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP)

on Thursday 19 May, 15:00 – 15:45 CET.

Our speakers will be:

Guy Lejeune, Senior Expert on Inclusive Entrepreneurship from DG Employment, European Commission.
Karel Vanderpoorten, Policy officer – Proximity, Social Economy, Creative Industries from DG GROW, European Commission

Webinar Objectives:

Besides providing the summary of the key aspects of the SEAP, the Webinar “Social Economy Action Plan : Opportunities for BSOs” will focus on how we can increase the impact of the BSOs in the implementation stage of the SEAP, looking at the following :

how to maximise the potential of the BSOs to translate some of the recommendations in the SEAP into practical initiatives on the local, national and EU level.
what are the existing and future synergies of the SEAP with other EU programmes/initiatives which will enable BSOs to foster social innovation, local development, and green and digital transition while reaching social impact.

There will be 15 minutes dedicated to Q&A from the audience.

Venue:

This is a virtual event. Participants will be able to connect via Zoom, after receiving detailed instructions on how to connect and the link to the webinar https://bit.ly/BetterSocEco

The webinar will be recorded.

Email michaela.lednova@ebn.eu for more information

First Silver Economy Conference in Spain

Posted on April 4, 2022April 4, 2022 by Michaela Lednova

Better Incubation Project presented at the 1st Silver Economy Conference in Spain

The member of the Better Incubation Community of Practice – Seniors, Centre of Business and Innovation CEEIAragon is a business support organisation and the member of the EBN network based in Zaragoza, Spain.

On 6th April CEEIARAGON will participate in the Conference ‘Silver Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ organised by the Ibercaja Foundation and the San Jorge University in collaboration with the organization Seniors Leading. CEEIARAGON will share its experience with two initiatives on the silver economy it has been implementing, one of them being the pilot programme for senior entrepreneurs in the Better Incubation project.

Better Incubation Inclusive Entrepreneurship Workshop Series

Posted on March 8, 2022March 10, 2022 by Better Incubation

Discover how to make your incubation services more inclusive and supportive of entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups.

The transition to an inclusive and green economy is gaining momentum. To build a better future, one that’s good for people and the planet, we need better business. Now is the time to bring your services closer to the whole of society.

If you have responsibility for designing and implementing entrepreneur incubation services or support programs, this curated series of online events will help you identify ways to modify your offerings for people from groups underrepresented in the enterprise sector.

Come together with practitioners, social entrepreneurs, subject matter experts and leading impact sector organisations to be:

Inspired by a range of best practices and insights related to specific underrepresented groups
Connected with like-minded peers, with whom you can learn from and collaborate with
Enabled to modify your services with knowledge and methodologies you can implement your teams

We start the workshop series with an exploration of common cultural and structural barriers facing groups underrepresented in the enterprise sector, taking a more intersectional perspective before moving on to deep dives on specific groups, offering inspiration and guidance based on actions and methodologies already successfully implemented on the ground across Europe, to support implementation of inclusive practice.

Introduction to Inclusive Entrepreneurship	Inclusive Entrepreneurship Deep Dives
Introduction to Inclusive Entrepreneurship	Migrants and refugees	Women	Youth	Seniors	People with disabilities
29 March	20 April	10 May	31 May	22 June	12 July
10am-12pm CET	10am-12.30pm CET	10am-12.30pm CET	10am-12.30pm CET	10am-12.30pm CET	10am-12.30pm CET

Who should you expect?

Introduction to Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Join a panel of impact sector leaders to explore cross-cutting barriers to underrepresented groups in the enterprise sector, and participate in a discussion about what has been and can be done to change things for the better and to create a just and inclusive economy. You will also connect with and learn from peers from other business support organisations.

Panel: Max Bulakovskiy, Policy Analyst, OECD; Tatiana Glad, Executive Director, Impact Hub Network; Shannon Pfohman, Policy & Advocacy Director, Caritas Europa.

Inclusive Entrepreneurship Deep Dives

The next five workshops will each focus on a specific underrepresented group – Migrants & refugees; Women; Youth; Seniors; People with disabilities. Each workshop will create a safe and supportive space to offer inspiration and guidance for business support organisations, based on actions and methodologies already successfully implemented on the ground across Europe, to support implementation of inclusive practice.

You will learn from subject matter experts, social entrepreneurs with lived experiences of the challenges being explored, and business support organisations leading the way in developing and delivering inclusive incubation services. Line-ups for each workshop will be announced soon.

Who is this workshop series for?

These workshops are designed to support people with responsibility for designing and implementing entrepreneur incubation services or support programs, for example program or service managers. If you work for an organisation that provides business support to entrepreneurs, and you are interested in how you can develop new or modify existing services to make them more inclusive, then these workshops are for you!

There will be a range of experience in the room, from people with years of experience supporting people from underrepresented groups to grow their businesses, to people who are only just starting to think about how they can make their offerings more inclusive of social entrepreneurs and people from underrepresented groups. Some may be building a service from scratch while others will be modifying existing programmes.

Please note that the workshop content is based on European practice, perspectives and knowledge. However, if you work for a business support organisation operating outside of Europe, you are still very much welcome to participate and hopefully find value in the space created.

What is Better Incubation?

Better Incubation is a 2-year programme (2021 – 2023) funded by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation, and is led by three network organisations: The European Business and Innovation Centre Network, Impact Hub and the European Venture Philanthropy Association.

The aim of Better Incubation is to foster inclusive and social entrepreneurship in Europe by mobilising and empowering Business Support Organisations (BSOs) with capacities to effectively help the social enterprises and potential entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups to grow their businesses. Read more here.

How can you participate?

Please sign up here for as many sessions as you wish!

After completing the sign up for, you will receive joining details enabling you to register for the workshops that are of interest to you.

If you have any questions about this workshop series please reach out to: info@betterincubation.eu.

How inclusive are our labour markets really? Caritas Europa announces the Caritas CARES! European poverty report

Posted on February 11, 2022 by Better Incubation

The new Caritas CARES! European poverty report on inclusive labour markets focuses on the challenges that should be tackled urgently to make European labour markets more accessible and more inclusive, based on our vision for sustainable social models.

This latest Caritas report looks at the challenges that should be tackled urgently to make labour markets more inclusive and accessible, based on Caritas Europa’s vision for sustainable social models and on existing EU and Council of Europe processes, programmes and legal instruments. It also includes an overview of different measures being proposed at EU level to address these challenges and to respond to the lasting consequences of COVID-19 and concludes with Caritas’ policy recommendations.

On February 21st, Caritas Europa will present the report and its findings and recommendations, and will debate with strategic partners and EU policymakers on how to truly make labour markets in Europe more inclusive.

Join Caritas launch event “How inclusive are our labour markets really?”, with Helena Dalli, Commissioner for Equality.