Sustainably Creating Change Through Educating Businesses and Creating Collaborative For-Purpose Networks

In the lead up to International Women’s Day, the Women in Social Enterprise Event, and with the formation of our extra-special 2020 ten women strong committee, we will be bringing to you a series of 10 stories from 10 women.

Are you curious about what drives the women striving to create change? Have you ever wanted to hear the voices of women in your local communities speaking out about their views, sharing their ideas on current social issues? Well, we did, and we wanted to see what would happen if we chose to create a women’s lead Ethical Enterprise Conference for 2020! In that, we want to see what happens when women share their thoughts and ideas, come together to take action on things they believe in and support each other’s success.

We have the privilege of being able to create a diverse committee of 10 women, and through this series of 10 women, 10 stories, we’d like to welcome you to our table to get to know the women that have come together to plan an insightful and impactful conference.

Our previous post featuring Bianca Stawiarski was the first installment of the series, as one of the women on our women-led Ethical Enterprise 2020 conference committee, and today we’ll be diving into part 2 of the series in which we’ll be pulling up a seat at the table, home-brewed coffee ready, with Susanna Bevilacqua, founder and director of Moral Fairground.

Q: How do you define what you do in your own words?

One person described us as being “The Societal and profit-for-purpose pulse of Australia”, I was very flattered by this. The aim of the work and the reason I established Moral Fairground is to connect individuals, communities & businesses and encourage engagement and actions that create positive impacts from their local communities and out into the world. We aim to inspire care and responsibility for people and planet through our events which serve as networking hubs for messages to reach a larger community.

Q. What inspired you to begin working in the industry/begin your own business?

I’m an avid traveler. I love visiting other countries and other cultures, exploring the landscapes and the people, what sets us apart and what brings us together, our differences and our commonalities. After having traveled through some of the poorest countries in South East Asia and witnessing first hand the working conditions and the environmental and social impact of mass consumerism in 2009 I realized that the only way to create positive impact was by creating opportunities for people from all walks of life to connect, share our stories and knowledge and best practices.

I believe that every action should have a positive impact on people and the planet. I’m passionate about exploring how purpose-driven enterprises and citizens can lead to positive change and create vibrant and collaborative communities. Works with purpose-driven enterprises and diverse networks, delivering initiatives and projects that encourage collaboration, shared value and impact.

Q. How does the work you do contribute positively to society and the planet?

It’s through the actions I take every day in creating a discourse around better business practices, creating events and programs that allow for people and communities to come together to share stories of average people doing amazing things, advocating and raising awareness of businesses with impact and remaining optimistic about the future and carving out a path for future generations.

Q. What excites you most about the concept of ‘shaping the future’?

Shaping the future is having the freedom to create our destiny, it is about allowing our heart and soul to be included in the decisions we make in order to create a better world, via our actions, the way we do business, the decisions we make, the lives we choose to live and the good we want to leave behind. It allows for open dialogue, it allows for creativity, it allows for innovation and transformation.

Q. How do you achieve a healthy work-life balance?

When you run your own enterprise work and life intertwine because the work is based on your life values. What I have to say about this is that it’s extremely important to love the work you do as it will not feel like a weight, don’t just set up an enterprise to make money, because, it’s the in-between that counts.

Collaborate with others, this means that you might need to be prepared not to take all the credit, but by collaborating, it not only opens up other doors for you, it also allows you for skills you might not have.

What’s really important for me is as the world of events can be very stressful it’s important to spend time in nature, I like spending time with family and friends going hiking, spending a lazy day at the beach, day trips in the country amongst nature and when times allows, traveling to other parts of the world and learning and immersing myself in other cultures.

“Leadership is not a thing that happens alone, true leadership is a community affair.” – Susanna Bevilacqua

Q. What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring others?

Apart from my passion with Moral Fairground, I have also had a long-standing career of over 27 years as a professional in the banking industry with experience in managing and leading teams, developing Marketing and Sales Strategies, incubating and delivering community initiatives and numerous volunteering roles on boards of a number of community organizations.

What I have learnt is that leadership is not a thing that happens alone, true leadership is a community affair. I have seen far too many people thinking of themselves as leaders by being the loudest, the most arrogant, being critical and belittling others, disregarding the opinion of others and the list goes on. I’ve also seen many leaders spending time managing, focusing on facts and figures, never acknowledging the human element.

Leadership is about the ability to bring together a community, (colleagues, partners), sharing the same vision and allowing room for innovation and entrepreneurship, and this can only happen if you are able to adopt a distributed leadership model, some might consider this as risky, but leaders need to be prepared to take some risks.