Catch Up on the 2026 Sheffield Social Enterprise Conference — Now On YouTube
On 26 February 2026, Sheffield's social enterprise community gathered at Sheffield Business School for the biggest celebration of social enterprise the city has ever hosted. The energy in the room that day was real, honest conversations, genuine inspiration, and the kind of connections that keep people going long after a conference ends.
If you weren't able to be there, or if you were and want to revisit what was said, we're pleased to share that recordings from the day are now available on our YouTube channel.
Here's what you can watch.
Jonathan Warner, Aviva — Festival Launch & Opening Address
Watch now →(4 mins)
Jonathan Warner from Aviva, headline sponsor of the Festival of Social Enterprise, formally opened the day and set the tone for everything that followed. His address introduced this year's Festival theme — Building a Resilience Commons for Sheffield — and named something many of us feel but rarely say aloud: that we are living between stories. Old ways of thinking about economy and purpose are cracking, new ones are still forming, and in that gap, social enterprise has a distinctive and urgent role to play.
It's a short watch, but it frames the whole day beautifully.
Rob Hopkins at the Sheffield Social Enterprise Conference 2026
Rob Hopkins — Keynote: How to Fall in Love with the Future
Watch now →(42 mins)
This was the centrepiece of the conference, and it lived up to every expectation.
Rob Hopkins, founder of the global Transition movement, drew on his book How to Fall in Love with the Future to invite the room to do something we too rarely give ourselves permission to do: imagine. Not as escapism, but as a practical act of leadership.
Through a participatory time travel exercise, Rob asked the room to picture Sheffield in 2036, not a utopia, just better in ways that matter. What struck people was how consistent the answers were. Not flying cars. Not grand technological fixes. Just streets that felt safer, neighbourhoods with life in them, more trees, more time, more trust. A city that felt more human.
The point was simple and profound: the future is shaped by what we make thinkable. And then by what we organise ourselves to do.
This keynote has stayed with people. If you only watch one thing from the day, make it this one.
Abtisam Mohamed MP — Closing Plenary
Watch now →(7 mins)
Abtisam Mohamed, MP for Sheffield Central, joined us specifically to contribute to the closing plenary, and she brought exactly what the moment needed: a social justice lens that connected our local work to the wider national picture.
Her contribution centred on inequality, dignity, and the communities carrying the heaviest burden of the transitions we are navigating. She reminded the room that the political choices being made now, about who is protected, who is heard, and whose futures are shaped, are not abstract. They land in real places, on real people. And the work that social enterprises do every day sits right at that intersection.
Terry Murphy, CEO of SSEN — Closing Reflections
Watch now →(12 mins)
To close the conference, SSEN CEO Terry Murphy borrowed Rob's time machine and took a trip to 2036 — sitting on a bench with his nephew on a calmer, more human Sheffield street, trying to explain what we were like back in 2026. How we treated the economy as if it existed separately from society, and both separately from the planet.
It was a moment that, by all accounts, made people laugh and cry in equal measure. But underneath the storytelling was a serious handover: a reminder that the work doesn't end when a conference does. It continues in the everyday decisions and relationships that either build the conditions for change, or quietly erode them.
Watch the Full Playlist
All four videos are available in one place on our YouTube channel: Sheffield Social Enterprise Conference 2026 — Full Playlist →
The conference was made possible with the generous support of Aviva as headline festival sponsor, Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield Business School as hosts, and funding from Sheffield City Council through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the South Yorkshire Innovation Programme.
Thank you to everyone who came, contributed, and brought such honesty and generosity to the room. And thank you to those who couldn't make it — this is for you too. The work only matters if it travels.
The Festival of Social Enterprise ran until 26 March 2026, but the conversations it started are ongoing. If you'd like to stay connected with Sheffield's social enterprise community, join the SSEN network or sign up to our newsletter.
Curated by the Sheffield Social Enterprise Network. For events, resources and news, visit ssen.org.uk.