SEWF 2021: ‘A celebration of hope'
Halifax, the Canadian host city of the Social Enterprise World Forum 2021, brought the annual event to a close on the evening of 29 September, having virtually welcomed 3,000 participants from 131 countries to the event.
Hosted principally online, with several community hubs bringing people together in person in some countries where pandemic restrictions allowed, the event was the first hybrid SEWF. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic forced it entirely online.
David Upton, CEO of Common Good Solutions, the host of the event in Nova Scotia, said: "The past 18 months have been a rollercoaster for us and the SEWF team as we try to figure out how to do this." He added that in spite of the challenges, he believed that the team had created "a celebration of hope and caring and compassion, and a way for all of us to aspire to be".
- Explore our Social Enterprise World Forum collection of stories and videos from this and previous years
Handing over to next year's host city, Brisbane in Australia, K'odi Nelson, executive director of Canadian social enterprise Nawalakw, highlighted the significance of the event in bringing together social entrepreneurs around the world.
He said: "It's so important that people hear what other people are doing. It strengthens our hearts, stregthens our spirits to know that we aren't alone."
If you had a ticket to SEWF 2021, there is still time to catch up on recordings of the sessions via the SEWF 2021 platform.
