conferencereport

Most successful year ever is icing on the cake at anniversary party

Employees, board members and conference delegates celebrate the 10th anniversary of Co-operative Futures

A business development agency that encourages the formation of new co-operatives and other community owned enterprises in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire celebrated its 10th anniversary this weekend with the news that it had experienced its most successful year ever.

Jo White, a director of Gloucester-based Co-operative Futures, told delegates the company had registered, or was in the process of registering, 30 co-operative start-ups – about the same number that it registered during the entire period from 2000 to 2009.

The company celebrated its anniversary at the Alexandra House conference centre in Swindon with a cake made by the Oxford Bread Group, a co-operative set up with the help of Co-operative Futures. It makes bread from ancient forms of grain, which are grown organically.

The following day, Co-operative Futures hosted its third annual conference – Think, Walk, Talk Co-operatives – which attracted businesses from across the country.

The conference was sponsored by the Midcounties Co-operative, which founded Co-operative Futures and the keynote speaker was Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK – the central membership organisation for co-operative enterprises – who presented The Case for Co-operation.

Ed, wearing a shirt from the Tamworth Co-operative Society, – “but I expect you know that,” he told delegates – said the appointment was his “dream job”.

“This is an incredible time to be talking about co-operatives, and this is the time to have confidence in the model that we have, and our vision of how markets and economics should be organised,” he said.

“Bankers are raiding our hospitals and schools with wheelbarrows to fund their services. Public service cuts will pay for the bailout.

“It’s a mad situation and the need for co-operation in this context is huge. People say it’s a dog-eat-dog world, but dogs don’t eat each other, they work together. Human beings have evolved to work together, but the trouble is we’ve had years and decades of being told humans can only compete, rather than co-operate.

“The time for co-operation is now.”

The conference was also addressed by a co-operative success story which, in its first 10 years, has gone from a bedroom-based operation to a company employing 40 people and with a turnover of £8 million.

Vivian Woodell, chief executive of The Phone Co-op, invited co-operatives to share in the company’s success story by joining an affinity scheme and receiving payments for business referrals.

And the event saw the national launch of The Hive, a new social networking site for co-operative workers, employees and customers, presented by Ben Rieveley and Marc Oppizio of The Co-operative Group.

The Hive can be found at www.hive.coop. Anyone interested in starting or growing a business that is a co-operative or community owned enterprise can contact Co-operative Futures on 0845 456 2506 or at info@co-operativefutures.coop

Marc Oppizio and Ben Rieveley The Co-operative Group launch social networking site The Hive

Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK and keynote speaker at the conference