Between March 16 and 21, 2011, Volans organised a UK Social Innovation Study Tour on behalf of British Council (Japan), as part of their Skills for Social Entrepreneurs programme. Participants of the tour included delegates from the City of Yokohoma government office, Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Communities (ETIC), a leading social enterprise intermediary organisation in Japan, several Japanese social enterprises such as Koto-Lab (website not available in English), and various private sector businesses in Japan.
Across the 5 day tour, participants were able to learn from key representatives from 28 organisations across the public, private and people sectors, These representatives spoke about the latest developments in their field and discussed the best practices related to multi-stakeholder partnerships and engagement to accelerate social innovation. Participants also had the opportunity to visit and meet entrepreneurs from a number of award-winning social enterprises such as BioRegional, SolarCentury and MyBnk.
The tour also featured a well-attended networking session at The Hub (King’s Cross) involving representatives from various organizations involved in London’s social enterprise space. Participants gave a short presentation during the session to share an overview of the social enterprise sector in Japan.
Representatives from ETIC also made an appeal during the session for support towards their new initiative to support social entrepreneurs and leaders involved in rebuilding efforts following the destructive earthquake and tsunami that took place a week before the tour. For more information on the initiative, and to get in touch with ETIC, please refer to their latest press release, also available for download on their website.
