Businesses, charities and speakers gathered at East Midlands Chamber’s Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) summit at the University of Derby on 11th July.
2024’s East Midlands CSR Summit was made up of a series of workshops, seminars, exhibiting charities and inspirational talks from organisations including Ideagen, Loughborough University and Futures Housing Group.
The summit formed a key pillar of East Midlands Chamber’s #EMComingtogether campaign, an initiative to strengthen the relationship between commerce and communities in the region.
Research findings conducted by Derby Business School and Loughborough Business School into how East Midlands businesses approach CSR were presented by Dr Barbara Tomasella of the University of Derby and Dr Elaine Conway from Loughborough University.
Speaking afterwards, Dr Elaine Conway said of the research data: “We’re not surprised that people in the East Midlands want to get engaged with CSR but what has surprised us is that, in spite of COVID, in spite of the downturns of economy or the cost of living crisis, companies are still wanting to engage with CSR.
“It’s that commitment, that people want to carry on, in spite of everything around them. That’s a really positive thing.”
Kirsty Yates, Housing Operations Manager and Sophie Harding, Community Engagement Delivery Officer at Futures Housing gave a talk on how to collaborate with partners, businesses and employers to deliver social purpose.
Kirsty Yates said afterwards: “For us, CSR is working in partnership to enhance our communities, make them more sustainable and ensure that our customers and communities can thrive and have the best opportunities available to them.
“We’ve worked successfully with smaller businesses, large businesses and there’s been a mutual benefit to both parties as well as the overall community.”
Sophie Harding said: “If we know who our customers are and what’s important to them, what services they need, then we can do better to support them.
“For example, if a charity is working with somebody on a local level, they build a relationship with them for a long period of time. That knowledge can be passed on to us so that we can support the wider community.”
Claire Knee, Global Community and Social Impact Lead from Nottingham-based global tech business Ideagen shared experience of the social impact they’ve had across education, volunteering, technology and charity support.
Speaking afterwards, Claire Knee said: “CSR engagement gives us the opportunity to have social impact, which is important to Ideagen. Community is one of our three values, so it enables us to live out that value, enables us to be proud of the place that we work and to recognise the good that we do.
“There’s a lot of positivity we get through colleague engagement in volunteering, there’s an absolute sense of pride in a job well done for the community.”
East Midlands Chamber President Stuart Dawkins, who opened the summit said: “Getting businesses together with communities and charities to look at the best ways of developing a solid CSR approach can only be a good thing.
“Events like this are a good springboard for thought – what are you doing yourself to assist your community. As I opened the summit, I spoke of the risk to businesses that don’t prioritise CSR getting left behind. It was encouraging to see so many East Midlands businesses share great ideas of how to deliver CSR really well.”
Speakers at 2024’s East Midlands CSR Summit included:
- Dr Nicola Lynch – Head of Business School, University of Derby
- Claire Knee – Global Community and Social Impact Lead, Ideagen
- Hafsa Mitha – Philanthropy Executive, Community Foundation Leicestershire and Rutland
- Kirsty Yates – Housing Operations Manager, Futures Housing Group
- Sophie Harding – Community Engagement Project Delivery Manager, Futures Housing Group
- Dr Barbara Tomasella – University of Derby
- Dr Elaine Conway – Loughborough University
- Stuart Dawkins – President, East Midlands Chamber
