UK-Japan Social Entrepreneurship Symposium
– Memory of Tomoatsu Godai –

Our society is facing many problems associated with poverty, cultural conflict, health, environment, technology management and so on. One of the approaches taken to tackle these major issues in modern days is social entrepreneurship, where entrepreneurs intelligently blend profit and social return to establish a sustainable platform in a form of start-up company or other type of enterprise.

The UK is the founder of the concept of Social Entrepreneurship, where Japanese social entrepreneur Godai Tomoatsu studied 150 years ago. On his return to Japan, through his own business with a social entrepreneurial vision, Godai led the city of Osaka to “Manchester of Orient”. The aim of the symposium is to discuss the past, present and future of social entrepreneurship, starting with revisiting Godai’s vision, with representatives of academia, local government, business accelerators and actual entrepreneurs.

The symposium will start with a keynote lecture by Prof. Nick Tyler (UCL Transport Institute), which will be followed by 7 talks about various aspects of social entrepreneurship.

Following the symposium, UCL-Osaka reception will be held in UCL North Cloisters.

The symposium is free of charge but prior registration is required via Eventbrite.