2009 CSEP Conference
75 delegates attended this year's lively and stimulating CSEP Conference “Learning from each other in tougher times”, which took place on Thursday, 26th March at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick.
The conference was chaired by Alston Moor social entrepreneur Daniel Heery, who set up the award winning community owned co-operative Cybermoor in 2002. Craig Dearden-Phillips, founder and CEO of Speaking Up, author of the “Naked Entrepreneur” blog and one of the Cabinet Office's 30 Social Enterprise Ambassadors, gave an insightful, informative and amusing true story of how he half succeeded. Val Jones, Chief Officer of Social Enterprise North West regaled the audience with stories about her experience of developing arts and cultural social enterprises in Merseyside. She also outlined new opportunities for social enterprises in Cumbria funded through Social Enterprise North. Paul Dodson, Chair of CSEP spoke of future developments for CSEP including plans to recruit a part-time coordinator to support the sector in Cumbria.
A new DVD ‘Lesson in social enterprise’ was also premiered at the conference. The DVD features 5 very different Cumbrian social enterprises, who demonstrate some of the breadth of diversity of the sector and give an insight into how they were established and advice on how to grow and succeed in the sector.
| You can view the short films on |
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Last but not least was the first CSEP award ceremony. The Social Enterprise of the Year Award was given to Whitehaven Credit Union, who also scooped the Co-operative of the Year award.
The conference was funded by:
