Social Spider director, David Floyd has been named as one of the Future 50 social entrepreneurs for 2013. The Future 50 awards ‘celebrate the success of young entrepreneurs who are leading a sustainable and ethical business’.

Tuesday 9th October – The No Bullshit Guide to Social Enterprise: Organisational structures- The No Bullsh!t Guide To Social Enterprise debunks some of the popular myths and provides a short introduction to the practical realities of running a social enterprise.

This event is focused on Organisational Structures.  Questions discussed in this session will include: What is a social enterprise? Do I need to set up a social enterprise? How do I set up a social enterprise? What’s the difference between a charity and Community Interest Company?

Friday 12th October – Understanding the Health and Social Care Act 2012 – The Health and Social Care 2012 Act is bringing about unprecedented changes to the way health and social care services are funded and delivered by the NHS and local authorities.

This session provides an overview of what’s happening and the likely implications for social enterprise, voluntary sector organisations and patients.

Social Spider director Mark Brown is one of the hosts of this event as part of Social Media Week.

How do activists and corporates rub up alongside each other on social media platforms? Is there potential to collaborate or will they always clash? Are they speaking a similar language or operating in entirely different worlds? How can they influence each other or should they steer clear? This participatory workshop will be led by facilitators who operate in the social media world of mental health activism and an NHS Trust respectively. They will share their different perspectives, offer insights and facilitate co-creation of possibilities for the future with workshop participants.

More details here.

Social Spider director, David Floyd, has started a new series of interviews with social enterprise leaders for Social Enterprise Live. The first interview, with June O’Sullivan, CEO of London Early Years Foundation, is here.

Tuesday 14th August - Mental Health after the cuts - The team behind One in Four magazine provide a short introduction to the challenges and opportunities facing local charities, social enterprises and user led-groups working in mental health in 2012.

Social Spider director, Mark Brown, editor of One in Four magazine, has been in Australia talking about The New Mental Health:

“When people talk about “mental health service users” I always want to ask “which services do you mean?…

Read more of what he had to say here.

Social Spider CIC is running two training events in July 2012: one on using social media and one on social enterprise:

Thursday 5th July - Using Social Media – how to use social media to raise your profile, communicate your social mission and generate business for your organisation

Thursday 12th July – The No Bullsh!t Guide to Social Enterprise – The Social Spider CIC team – and special guests – debunk some of the popular myths and give a short introduction to the practical realities of running a social enterprise.

I’m David Floyd. I’m Managing Director of Social Spider CIC. I write the popular social enterprise blog, Beanbags and Bullsh!t. Over the past two years, the blog has developed a strong following amongst social entrepreneurs, academics, social enterprise leaders and other people who are interested in social enterprise.

Unfortunately, despite writing a comprehensive business plan based on generating a living wage through click-through advertising this business model has proved to be ineffective. So, despite the fact that book publishing has been abolished by the internet, I am traveling back in time to publish a book of the best posts from the blog.

If you’d like to support the publication of the book – and receive a copy in either e-book or paper-based book form – you can do so here: http://www.sponsume.com/project/book-full-beanbags-and-bullsht

Social Spider CIC is running two training events in May 2012: one on mental health and one on social enterprise:

Thursday 24th May – One in Four magazine presents ‘Mental Health after the Cuts’ - A short introduction to the challenges and opportunities facing local charities, social enterprises and user led-groups working in mental health in 2012.

Tuesday 29th May – The No Bullsh!t Guide to Social Enterprise – The Social Spider CIC team debunk some of the popular myths and give a short introduction to the practical realities of running a social enterprise.