OneTech wins Social Impact in Enterprise Award

On the 25th November, The National Enterprise Network — a national membership body on a mission to encourage enterprise activities across the UK — hosted their annual conference and awards in Canary Wharf. This year’s conference was entitled “The Power of Enterprise – Boosting the UK Economy” and was evening of knowledge-sharing and celebrating impact.

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The conference

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The conference was attended by around 100 delegates from across government, industry and academia with a mix of public sector and private sector organisations. There were also several speakers from NEN who gave presentations on their ongoing research projects as well as from other organisations such as Shared Intelligence, who presented on their report "Adding Value Across Enterprise Support".

An insightful keynote speech was given by Lisa Cameron MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow & Chair of the APPG for Inclusive Entrepreneurship. She spoke about how SMEs made up 54% of all private sector jobs in 2020 & micro businesses made up 33% of all employment (in the UK). She also spoke about how an "inclusive economy" is a "driver economy", as it creates jobs, improves productivity & innovation and helps to build stronger communities.

Following this was a presentation by Shared Intelligence on their report "Adding Value Across Enterprise Support". This report has been commissioned by NEN to look at how effective our current support system is for entrepreneurs in different areas. This report covers an understanding of multiple factors at play that would affect economic growth via small businesses & how we can address those factors: e.g. fragmented funding, fragmented offer of support at local vs regional level, untapped unicorns, and value in supporting spin outs.

The panel discussion was next, and it covered how to get enterprise genuinely at the heart of government, as well as how to lobby for small business support. After this, everyone broke out into groups for breakout sessions on various topics like underrepresented groups, procurement/bid writing, and other topics.

We also had a motivational speech from Harpreet Kaur of Oh So Yum — she talked through her business journey, gave some great tips for small businesses looking to launch and grow, and shared some valuable lessons she learned along the way.

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The awards ceremony

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Finally, the awards ceremony began! Numerous awards were handed out across several categories. The categories included Innovation in Education, Sustainability in Enterprise and Enterprise Support Champion of the Year.

One of the last awards of the night was Social Impact in Enterprise Award - the category that we had been nominated for (and were anxiously waiting to hear about). In this category, we were amongst great organisations who are making waves across the UK’s enterprise ecosystem.

“And the award for Social Impact in Enterprise goes to…” said the presenter before a short-yet-suspenseful pause, “OneTech!” After hearing this, Gracie Jones - our Head of Programmes - made her way to the stage to collect the award on behalf of our team.

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Thank you to the National Enterprise Network for recognising the impact we have made, and continue to make within the enterprise ecosystem. Thank you to our team for their continuous hard work and belief in our mission. And, thank you to our funders and partners who make what we do possible.

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