Meaningful business: Driving growth and positive impact

What’s on offer?

Are you ready to take your business beyond just profits and create lasting value for your employees, customers, stakeholders and the wider community?

A meaningful business creates value for all stakeholders—employees, customers, communities, and the environment—while making a positive social impact.

Join us for an engaging panel discussion featuring local businesses, including Brightsparks, Ellers Farm, and Whitby-based Nature's Laboratory. These industry leaders will share their insights, best practices, and real-world examples of how implementing meaningful business strategies has driven their success.

Discover why meaningful business matters: Learn how purpose-driven companies are thriving in York and North Yorkshire, creating stronger brands and more loyal customer relationships.

Network with forward-thinking businesses: Connect with like-minded professionals committed to making a positive impact while achieving business success.

Walk away with actionable steps to incorporate meaningful practices into your own business and make a real difference in contributing to something greater than day to day business concerns.

We will also be launching a meaningful business podcast series, in which you will be able to hear more detail around meaningful business success stories from local business leaders.

Don't miss this chance to elevate your business to new heights of purpose and meaningful business.

The event is part of the Festival of Social Science 2024, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

The roundtable event will be held at the Guildhall in York City Centre on the 22nd of October, 10am to 12 noon. The agenda is follows - 

9.45 Registration and refreshments

10.00 - Introduction to the event

10.05 What is meaningful business and why is it important?

10.15 Meaningful business in York and North Yorkshire - an overview

10.30 Meaningful business panel - Q&A with meaningful business practitioners from York and North Yorkshire.

11.30 Meaningful business podcast series launch

11.35 Concluding comments and finish

What’s it about?

Everyone seeks meaning in life, whether that’s through relationships, culture or work. Research conducted all from over the world shows that people value meaningful work more than they value pay, promotion or even working conditions. Our current concerns about sustainability, our environment and social impact, and the quality of our working lives highlight not only our individual search for meaning but also a collective questioning about the purpose of business in addressing these concerns. Many people working across different business sectors, from large scale multi-nationals to small-scale social enterprises, have already begun to take steps to address these concerns. This is a chance for some of those different perspectives and practices to be shared and to explore these issues from a regional as well as a local perspective.

Also a useful resource will be introduced in the podcast series, which can be referred back to giving detail and inspiration of how meaningful business has been delivered by successful local businesses.

Who’s leading the event?

The event will be led by business leaders from the York and North Yorkshire region and experts on meaningful business from the University of York.

Open to

Open to all – especially Business people and practitioners in the field of business and management in York and North Yorkshire.

Of particular interest to

Business people and practitioners in the field of business and management. 

Anyone with an interest in business and sustainability.

Event Booking details

Event registration coming soon