What can be learnt from the past about how to create a future in which small businesses can thrive and grow? How can global understanding of entrepreneurship be interpreted to improve the landscape for SMEs right here, right now? This month, a two-day Symposium will be held in Durham to explore these questions and the issues surrounding them. The Durham Symposium on Small Business and Enterprise Development will bring together academics, policy-makers and entrepreneurs to look back over five decades of entrepreneurial policy and practice in the UK and around the world. Organised by the team that once ran Durham’s Small Business Centre, the event will provide a platform for sharing experiences and presenting new ideas. Those attending will enjoy a valuable opportunity to debate the outlook faced by today’s entrepreneurs and discuss how the future can be shaped to better serve their needs.

Leigh Sear, CEO of SFEDI Solutions, himself one of the Small Business Centre’s former staff, will be contributing to the Symposium. He said:

“We are currently seeing more and more people pursuing self-employment and starting their own business but we need to do much more to reflect and learn from past experience in seeking to provide the right environment, so that people can access the learning and skills to survive and thrive. The Symposium provides a great opportunity to do this.”

The Symposium will reflect on how enterprise knowledge has developed over the last half century, while also seeking to define the dominant enterprise themes of today. From this standpoint, attendees will work together to identify what future developments will demand in terms of both enterprise policy and practice.

The Durham Symposium on Small Business and Enterprise Development will take place on the 15th and 16th September at St. Aidan’s College, Durham University and Durham Castle.

Note:
During its 45 years, the Small Business Centre was instrumental in shaping enterprise philosophy and practice around the world. Academics, practitioners, students and policy makers worked collaboratively to bring new learning to arenas including enterprise in education, enterprise growth initiatives and research programmes.