One fortnight in the life of the HES team

The HES has been extra busy these couple of weeks getting key messages out to new and established networks, so I thought I’d share a snapshot.

Today, Professor David Kirby, myself, and Paul Ranson, our very skilled HES advisor teamed up to present at the UWTSD Nexus + 2021 educator conference. Presenting ‘Harmonious Entrepreneurship for Resilient Communities’ which drew in references to Professor Brian Cox, Ed Sheeran, and Will Smith, we talked our audience through the what, the why, and the how, of HES’ endeavours. Through some engaging content, we aspired to give a flavour of how our forthcoming MOOC supported by Paul’s phenomenal bespoke creativity and skills targets our participants. The MOOC which covers the foundation principles of Harmonious Entrepreneurship will serve as a precursor to educators supporting learners in developing a Harmonious Venture, or for direct employ by learners themselves.

Recently David also presented at the International Council for Small Business’s online Humane Entrepreneurship Conference which addressed also the broader issue of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability. Having been invited to provide a keynote address, David contributed to the sustainability track by sharing the concept of harmonious entrepreneurship and challenging the traditional business model that suggests that enterprise is about “making as much money as possible” (Friedman, 1970). David instead pointed out that what Friedman actually said was that it should do this whilst also conforming to the law and the ethical customs of society. He then demonstrated an ethical systems approach coupled with the principles of harmony offers new model for business that will address Elkington’s Triple Bottom line of Profit-People-planet and the SDGs. Over 150 people attended the webinar from around 15 countries.

David also spent time with students from the University of Surrey. Teams of students who aimed to solve problems relating to the SDGs that had been posed by local charity GRACE Gynae-oncology Research and Clinical Excellence, the University of Surrey Sustainability Team and the Environment Agency. David had the joy of listening in to and helping score the pitches, before crowning the team winners and individual champions.

Also, engaging with the EntreCompEdu global community Paul Ranson and I championed our Harmonious Entrepreneurship goals through the EntreCompEdu global café, focusing on how we make use of the entrecomp competences to bring harmony to the world.

I also spent time with Dafen Primary School in another café session to help share how a whole school has used its entrepreneurial learning EntreCompEdu CPD journey to help embed its commitment to sustainability, ethical practices, community engagement, and resilience. A theme I also revisited with Dr Nisa Omar, of the International University of Malaya-Wales at the Nexus conference this week, when we showcased two entrepreneurial learning case studies.