A little help from our friends...and an event to remember

Numerous bottles of wine, a welcoming venue, two inspirational speakers, around 180 guests, and more than a little help from our friends.

Such were the ingredients that combined to make On Purpose's second annual event an evening to remember. Last night, friends and colleagues from across the social sector and beyond came to The Spring in Vauxhall to celebrate On Purpose's second year. Part birthday party, part networking event and part 'thank you' to all those people who make the programme possible, it was certainly an upbeat affair.

John Elkington and Charmian Love from Volans made a distinguished panel, and they explored with the audience the future of the social enterprise movement. They both agreed on the importance of people power in building - and maintaining - momentum, and Charmian also emphasised the value of technology as an enabler. The risk of a social enterprise 'bubble' was raised, as was the need to learn from failure when things don't work out. There was also some healthy debate around the nature and desirability of scale, and the problems that social enterprise might just be destined to solve.

We also saw the first screening of the On Purpose 2011 film, designed to give an insight into the whys and hows of On Purpose - if you missed it take a look on our facebook page. (Personally, I'm also looking forward to the outtakes version (coming soon!). Having both been filmed and done a couple of stints on the other side of the camera, I'm not sure what proportion of the 40-odd hours of footage were taken up by colourful language and hysteria, but it's got to be quite a lot....) Huge thanks to our friends at Cantos for their help in crafting this eclectic selection of footage into a great tour of On Purpose.

Many more 'thank yous' are certainly due - to the lovely folk at The Spring for hosting us, to The Black Dog pub for working the bar, to Tom Hughes of MicroRave for the lights and technical stuff, and of course to our brilliant speakers. Jordyan, one of this year's associates, also did a sterling job shepherding the rest of us to get everything ready on time (with a background in, among many other things, the wine industry, she was the natural party planner in the group!).

As another of this year's associates, last night reinforced to me how privileged I am to be part of this unique programme. The brilliant support (from mentors, coaches, managers and of course Tom himself), our great placement opportunities and the quality of the training available is really quite amazing. Such a lot of people (many of whom it was great to see last night) give their valuable time for free, and it all adds up to a truly inspiring experience, so again - thank you!