Women Working on Wonders: Moral Fairground creates an all women board to lead and create the 2020 Ethical Enterprise Conference and Festival

In the last decade we have seen women rise to the occasion of leading and growing social enterprises, with a large percentage being run by women. We have seen how women have gotten to work on changing how business is done, by establishing businesses with purpose and nurturing seeds of change. We at Moral Fairground have been inspired by the way that women approach business, and approach what needs to be done, and needs to be done now, and so we decided to make 2020 a year in which we are led by women, to experience the shifts in trajectory that women can create.

On Tuesday 21st January we met at the quirky offices of our great host BlueRock accountants in the CBD, beginning our meeting with an acknowledgment to the original custodians and caretakers past and present on the land in which we met, followed by introductions, left to right of the photo: Melanie Raymond, Youth Projects; Abiola Ajetomobi, Innovation Hub Asylum Seekers Resource Centre; Sandy McDonald of Sandy McDonald; Amber O’Connell – Economic Inclusion and Department of Jobs Vic Gov; Susanna Bevilacqua, Moral Fairground; Alex Tullio of Alex Tullio Consulting; Lauren Smyth, BlueRock; Felicity Green, Spark Strategy and not pictured: Bianca Stawiarski, Warida Wholistic Wellness; Peta Granger, LUSH Cosmetics Australia and Kem Tenkamenin of Moral Fairground, not pictured.

We began to excitedly hash out some ideas for the Women-Led Ethical Enterprise Conference 2020 and it was amazing to see the potential of what we could create together, who we can serve and how we could change the narrative of social enterprise and ethical business.

There are no bad ideas right now

- Sandy McDonald

Brainstorming and letting the creative juices flow for this years Ethical Enterprise Conference brought many ideas and social issues to the surface. Issues that not one of us from one background could effectively tackle alone. In our meeting we noticed the degrees of separation between groups of people within an industry that has mostly the same goal of working towards a more ethical and equitable future for all.

Collectively we realised that there are certain barriers to business that are faced across the board. From a lack of network to a lack of awareness of one’s own skills, we aim to provide a space in which participants will be able to leave feeling capable of broaching both obstacles and climbing over them with confidence, or at the very least knowing who they can call on to help guide the process. We aim to foster an environment and awareness that we can all win here and that we only win when we all do.

Social enterprise does not belong to Carlton and Brunswick

- Melanie Raymond

The selection of this year’s board was not accidental and comprises of 10 wonderful women who are making waves in their industries and who also represent cultures and peoples from diverse backgrounds and abilities. Together we are working toward sharing everyone’s stories and increasing the visible representation of the people behind social enterprises and ethical businesses in Australia. We are working towards sharing knowledge and networks to those who may not usually have access to it. We are working on helping others learn how they can be a part of the new narrative. It’s not always who you’re used to seeing that may be creating huge change and has great value to offer us all. 

 We look forward to sharing more about the development of the 2020 Ethical Enterprise Conference and can’t wait to creating change with you! Together we can create a positive and bountiful narrative for 2020!