Frank Roche, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Smurfit Business School in Dublin, will address a seminar on ‘Business Planning for Social Enterprises’ on Thurs 17th May 7.30 - 9.30pm in the EDI Centre, Longford.
The meeting is the latest in an ongoing promotion of Social Enterprise Longford (SEL) and will deal with issues like keys to success, evaluation and common pitfalls.
To date over 60 people from the County have signed up for SEL proposing a range of proposals and initiatives.
According to Pat Kelleher, one of the organisers, “the programme is now moving towards a more organised assessment of proposals from a business perspective.”
Projects already identified include Catering, Recycling, Caring, Clothing, Childcare and Conservation.
“The fact that over 60 different groups and individuals have contacted SEL to date suggests a huge and to date hidden potential to develop a range of sustainable initiatives. This programme will provide detailed mentoring for proposals that provide the greatest potential to supply locally required services,” he says.
Further ideas from both urban and rural areas around the County are still welcome and may be raise at the meeting on May 17th.
Professor Roche has extensive experience of working as a Strategy Consultant and is Chairman of McIver Consulting, which specialises in working with firms facilitating the process of developing their strategies.
In the world of entrepreneurship, he is a Director of NOVA UCD, which is focused on supporting entrepreneurship in UCD and, in particular, commercialising the outputs of research through the formation of campus companies in its innovation centre on the Belfield Campus. Professor Roche has also acted as an advisor on policy to the Ruairi Quinn first Minister of the newly formed Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
SEL has been commissioned by Longford Community Resources Limited through the Rural Development Programme which is part-financed by the European Union and the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. It is being run by the Irish Social Finance Centre, Longford EDI Centre and Clann Credo - the Social Investment Fund, Ireland’s largest social finance provider.