CHARLIE PINDER

The first day of February this year brought with it the annual Social Enterprise Conference which was being held in Cardiff’s International Arena – you could be forgiven for thinking that Cardiff had a secret service agency but then again that would be daft wouldn’t it??!

Heading over the Severn Bridge to get there was in itself a piece of comedy. Its on the M4. So you don’t have to pay to get over a bridge do you? Wrong. I was getting closer and closer with signs increasing saying £5.50 to cross – CASH ONLY, NO CARDS. Great i thought. I don’t have any cash on me. I’ll just have to blag it. Well i got to the toll booth. they wouldn’t take cards. “Any cheques?”. No. “Any Euro’s?”. I was going to Wales remember. In fact i did have, by pure chance, a €10 note in my wallet. “Yes”. Phew. “Give me that then”. Double phew. So it is clear that you can buy your way into Wales with Euros. And its still free to get out.

Anyhow I got to Voice and the CIA in good time to shoot some set up shots. They’d turned the place into a kind of big top:

Voice 2010 - The Big Top

It was awesomely colourful with 4 areas to distinguish between different sectors of Social Enterprises and it worked really very well. Not only as a spectacle but as a good talking point and ice breaker. People poured through the doors when they opened and people pored over the programs to decide on who to speak to and who to listen to:

Loving the catalogue...

The big part of the day was, obviously, saved until last. This year was the launch of the Social Enterprise Mark. Working along the same principles as the Fairtrade Mark (which in itself is a social enterprise) it means that the “Mark” can be applied to Social Enterprises if they meet specific criteria. You can read more about it here. And to launch it they had organised a few circus acts based around the rings of yellow theme. There was a hula hoop artist who wooed the crowds which was followed by a trapeze artist. The crowds were wooed and the cannons blasted yellow confetti everywhere and so it was. The Mark was launched. And i rather liked this shot of the trapeze artist….

The beautiful trapeze.

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