PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A LIVE SCREENING FROM THE BRITISH LIBRARY. THE PANEL WILL NOT BE IN MANCHESTER

A community-driven company is often driven by bringing people together with a shared purpose or vision. This business model places a strong emphasis on fostering engagement and loyalty, while also prioritising the cultivation of a culture where members identify themselves as a part of a community. This approach benefits the company in the long term by reducing customer acquisition costs, increasing customer retention, and obtaining valuable feedback from members who feel a strong sense of belonging to a club, a solution, or a larger causeJoin us as we bring together a unique panel of entrepreneurs who have transformed the traditional consumer journey. From reducing waste to making luxury products accessible to a wider audience, to facilitating access to funding; our panel are simplifying our daily lives through their community-driven collaborative businesses.What to expect:

Learn how to build alignment between the community goals and your business goals
Discover tech platforms for the community driven business
Learn how to include incentives, resources and support within the business model for the community members
Explore the importance of establishing a strong culture for your members and business community
Find out about ways to connect communities through apps, memberships, loyalty cards and charity donations.

Panel talk:Sol Escobar, Founder at Give Your Best

Sol Escobar is a social entrepreneur, Founder & Executive Director of Give Your Best, an award winning, tech-for-good social enterprise offering the first circular platform where people and brands can donate clothes so that refugees can shop online at no cost, with choice and dignity. Give Your Best has been selected by the British Fashion Council as one their innovations of the year and has received funding from the UK Research and Innovation agency. Sol is on a mission to tackle clothing poverty while improving circularity in the fashion industry and has made the Pioneers Post Top100 Women in Social Enterprise list, Draper’s ‘Ones To Watch 2023’, The Guardian and Vogue.

Khalia Ismain, founder of Jamii

Khalia Ismain is the founder of Jamii, an online marketplace and discovery platform for Black makers in the UK. Launched in 2016, Jamii is home to more than 250 makers and has organically grown a community of more than 38,000 people keen to align their purchase with purpose. Named as one of Cosmopolitan Magazine's “24 People Genuinely Making the World A Better Place” in 2021, she is on a mission to make shopping with community-owned businesses as easy as possible.

Charlotte Morley, founder of thelittleloop

Charlotte Morley is a Great British Sustainability Entrepreneur of the year 2022, and a record breaking Dragon Slayer. She launched her children’s clothing rental subscription, thelittleloop - which counts Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden among its investors - in 2020, after leaving her role as Head of Digital Product at Not on the High Street. Since then she’s grown a community of 20,000 committed parents, 20 brand partners (including John Lewis) and hundreds of active subscribers, and is well on the way to building the best way for parents to dress their children.

Paul Henriques, founder & CEO of Pardna App

Paul Henriques has over 25 years of experience working within the field of digital design; from graphic and web design to user experience and user interface design. He has worked on large digital projects for major blue chip clients such as Unilever, Nestlé and Estée Lauder. Pardna featured heavily in his Jamaican household and his main goal was always to digitise this traditional saving system his family took part in. With banking deregulation and advances in mobile technology, he was finally able to innovate and transform the pardna experience into a new mobile application called Pardna App. Pardna App is currently featured in a Bank of England exhibition and has also appeared on the BBC, in Bloomberg and The Voice online.

This event is tailored to those who are just thinking about starting a business, are already a business owner who wants to learn more, or perhaps simply wish to establish a stronger network. Attendees will leave this event feeling inspired and engaged.

SCREENING Inspiring Entrepreneurs: Building Community Driven Businesses