The theme of this year’s conference was how we maximise our impact on the big challenges and barriers to a fair and resilient economy. It may seem that a small number of NGOs, individuals, investors and journalists are tilting at windmills in attempting to change something as huge and all-encompassing as how the economy interacts with society. However, that is what we all are attempting to do with our time, energy, money, skills and networks. Although there is no single answer to the question of how to maximise our individual and collective impact, it felt a good opportunity to explore the issue and consider how we might – together – move the dial. Within this loose theme, our conference explored new questions, enabling those attending to understand each other’s work better and providing some practical tools for planning future action.
Our speaker line-up included Kate Pickett FRSA, author of The Inner Level and Gurpreet Bola, Interim Director of Medact.
We hope the event offered an opportunity for our grant holders, partners and investees to network, to meet the Friends Provident Foundation staff team and trustees with time for exploring specific topics in workshops. It has been an important year for the Foundation as we reviewed our own impact, specifically the Resilient Economies Programme, and as we look ahead to building our next programme, the conference offered an invaluable opportunity for us to hear your views.