So I'm at Dartington Hall in Devon, in 1500 of the UK's finest leafy acres. But no time to enjoy the peace and quiet, or the view. Because I am here with 150 social entrepreneurs from across the UK: all the students who are currently on SSE programmes in the UK: that means from Fife, Cornwall, London, East Midlands, Liverpool, Yorkshire and Hampshire....and the new Devon SSE will be based right here as well.
Having taken over what seemed like most of the train from Paddington, everyone's got here safe and well, and last night got to know each other over dinner, an ice-breaking session (a bit of 'forum theatre' with SSE Fellow Claire Hodgson from Diverse City)...and possibly some drinking and dancing. Though obviously I was tucked up in bed.
Today is a witness session with Colin Crooks (blog post to follow) and Vaughn Lindsay (CEO of Dartington), followed by some reflection time and networking.
Very exciting times: about double the size of any previous SSE residential, and the energy and enthusiasm and passion is palpable in the room. And there are loads of them: the SSE residential effectively qualifies as one of the large social enterprise conferences now.....which leads me to my title and to my final question: what is the collective noun for social entrepreneurs?
Matthew Thomson (formerly of SSE, and now of LCRN) used to say that we were a school OF social entrepreneurs, as well as a school FOR them, which might give us one answer. Or we could go surreal, like murder of crows or parliament of owls. A gaggle? A storm? A generous helping?
Answers on a postcard / e-mail /blog comment / tweet.
"An effect" ;-)
Posted by: Amanda (@RedButtonDesign) | October 14, 2009 at 12:35 AM
How about 'tribe'?
Posted by: Bill | October 16, 2009 at 10:19 AM
Came across this by accident while surfing for a collective noun for e-mails..... so how about
an enterprise of entrepreneurs
or an initiative of..., or a venture of ....
I would be interested if anyone likes those. I may not find this page again. Success all of you.
Posted by: P.A.S. Kubista | October 29, 2009 at 10:04 AM