Collection: Social Enterprise World Forum
Taiwan revealed as location of 2025 Social Enterprise World Forum
The next in-person SEWF will be hosted by Impact Hub Taipei in Taiwan during October 2025.
Taipei in Taiwan is to be the host city of the Social Enterprise World Forum in October 2025, it was announced today.
The event is one of the biggest regular gatherings for social entrepreneurs around the world, and it moves to a different city for each edition. The most recent Social Enterprise World Forum was held in Amsterdam in October 2023, and it has also been held in Australia, Ethiopia and Scotland, as well as being hosted entirely online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Announcing the news today, Helen Harvey, director, community and curation, of the Social Enterprise World Forum said: “SEWF is excited to be returning to Asia for the first time since 2016. This is long-awaited due to the impacts of Covid-19 on our event planning cycle. In previous SEWF events we've welcomed delegations from Taiwan and featured social enterprises from Taiwan, a leading country in the region for social enterprise development. Taiwan has a vibrant social enterprise scene and we're delighted to be able to showcase this in 2025.”
Taiwan has a rapidly growing social enterprise sector
The host organisation is Impact Hub Taipei, which Harvey pointed out was a longstanding partner of SEWF. Co-founder of Impact Hub Taipei Oliver Chang (pictured on the right of the group of three here) said: “Taiwan is home to a dynamic and rapidly growing social enterprise sector…We are proud and honoured to have the chance to work with our government to bring SEWF to Taiwan.”
As a participant in the event during recent years, he said: “We have witnessed how hosting SEWF can bring more vibrance, collectiveness and policy advancement to the social enterprise sector in the host country.” But he emphasised that Taiwan also had a lot to offer to its visitors. “We will provide an unparalleled opportunity to showcase innovative solutions from our local community, fostering the exchange of ideas.”
Taiwan’s strategic location in Asia makes it a hub for convening social entrepreneurs from across the region, said Chang. “We hope to connect social enterprises in Asia, catalysing regional collaboration and highlighting the region’s unique challenges and innovative solutions in order to drive regional growth and new initiatives.”
“Bringing SEWF to Taiwan aligns with our mission at Impact Hub to inspire, connect and enable more impact makers to drive positive social and environmental change. Hosting SEWF will significantly boost the local and regional social enterprise landscape,” he said.
Notable social enterprises in Taiwan include eye-tracking tech company Sense Innovation, whose products help disabled people to communicate, Wonder Greener, which produces drinking straws from bullrushes, and zero waste fashion brand Story Wear.
There is no in-person SEWF event during 2024, but there is a virtual Policy Forum on 23 October, and Social Enterprise Day will be celebrated on 21 November.
The exact dates and venues of SEWF 2025 in Taiwan are yet to be confirmed. It will be a hybrid event with the options of joining in person, online or via one of the SEWF community hubs around the world. Ticket sales will open in November 2024. More information here.
Header photo: The Taiwan delegation at the Social Enterprise World Forum in 2023
Thanks for reading our stories. As an entrepreneur or investor yourself, you'll know that producing quality work doesn't come free. We rely on our subscribers to sustain our journalism – so if you think it's worth having an independent, specialist media platform that covers social enterprise stories, please consider subscribing. You'll also be buying social: Pioneers Post is a social enterprise itself, reinvesting all our profits into helping you do good business, better.
