Room For All - S2 E15 - Live at the 2025 Social Enterprise Festival - Kylie Flament

Kylie Flament Discusses the Future of Social Enterprise

Join Kylie Flament, CEO of the Social Enterprise Council of New South Wales and ACT (SECNA), as she talks about the importance of social enterprises, their growth, and impact. Kylie shares her journey, the challenges faced by social enterprises, and how SECNA is supporting and connecting these businesses to create a cleaner, greener, and kinder world. This episode also highlights the success and growth of the annual social enterprise festival, showcasing the passion and collaboration within the sector.

00:00 Introduction and Greetings
01:48 Event Excitement and Overcommitment
02:33 Meet Mika, the Amazing Volunteer
02:55 Introduction to SECNA
03:53 Kylie's Journey to Social Enterprise
05:01 Challenges and Motivations in Social Enterprise
05:21 Formation and Growth of SECNA
05:56 The Social Enterprise World Forum Experience
08:05 Future of SECNA and Social Enterprise
10:09 The Annual Festival and Its Impact
14:01 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

The Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT (SECNA) is the peak body for businesses that put people and planet first in NSW & ACT. By championing, connecting and advocating for their members, they help build a thriving social enterprise ecosystem that puts people and planet first, to create a sustainable and equitable society.

https://www.secna.org.au/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/secouncilnswact 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylieflament/

Transcript

Festival of Social Enterprise: SECNA Spotlight

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Speaker: [00:01:00] I stuffed the last one up. Hi. 

Speaker 2: The big boss of the day. 

Speaker: Something like that. The person to know. 

Speaker 2: Welcome. Kylie Flament, CEO of Social Enterprise Council of New South Wales and ACT SECNA. Welcome to and for all. 

Speaker 3: Thank you. Thanks. It's so exciting to be here and it's so exciting to have you here.

Yes, 

Speaker 2: we're having a ball. A bit of people 

Speaker: were meeting. It's unbelievable. 

Speaker 2: Yes, I know. It's good, man. I just said 

Speaker: to the last guest, there is nobody that would get me up this early in the [00:02:00] morning than this event. Ooh, I'm not a morning person. 

Speaker 2: This was a crazy idea at the start of doing what we're doing, not just with the podcast, but with a podcast here.

But the Cafe, cafe Cafe, the concert, the VIP drinks and the pasta making workshops. Soray, uh, you, you've overcommitted. You overcommitted. I didn't over 

Speaker: commit. No regret. No. No regret. You were 

Speaker 2: telling me that I was committed. 

Speaker: Who? Who has been like for, anyway, yes. Back to 

Speaker 3: you. 

Speaker 2: We love being here. Yeah. We do love them.

Shall we 

Speaker 3: tell the people that are staring in the glass that they can come in? They can. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. Come in. Come in. Yeah. Anyone can come in. Mika are amazing volunteer, by the way. Yes. With us. Unbelievable. 

Speaker: She is. Thank you, Mika. 

Speaker 2: Little, little cameo. We also, the big 

Speaker: thing behind you, which you probably see on this camera, our grads keep popping up to wave.

Speaker 2: Yeah. The kids, and they're like, 

Speaker: try to distract us. It must be a game. They heard. It's like the, the 

Speaker 2: breakfast show on television where they're, they're on the street there. So high people. Yeah. I feel like a little smile. I wanna 

Speaker: hear about 

Speaker 3: SECNA. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. Kylie, tell us all about it. Who you are and what is SECNA.

Speaker 3: Sure. [00:03:00] Uh, so I, I'm, I've been told to answer in a minute, so that's a big question. Um, we'll go with the SECNA. So, social Enterprise Council of New South Wales and ACT is the peak body for social enterprise and social entrepreneurs. So basically businesses that put people on planet first for the state and territory.

Now there are about 4,000 of those, and we've got 700 members now. So we've gone from 4,000 

Speaker 2: in New South Wales. 

Speaker 3: Yeah. Estimated 4,000 social enterprises just in New Wales. That's great. 180 in the ACT. Um, and a lot of them don't know they are social enterprises, so every week I'm having the conversation. Well, you'll have 181 next year.

That's right. In January 

Speaker 2: as off the 1st of January. But we'll have 

Speaker: 181. Do we 

Speaker 2: get counted twice in was very excited. 

Speaker: Yeah. Can we be in or twice? I dunno. I don't know. Counting. Interesting. 

Speaker 2: Okay. And what, what motivates you to do what you do? 

Speaker 3: I, oh gosh. Um, I loved business. I, I really love how business [00:04:00] moves resources and people, and, and you can coalesce around a business, but I wanted to make the world a better place with it, and I didn't think that was possible when I did my undergrad.

And even in my MBA, it was like, you can either make a difference or make money. That's a binary choice. And then I discovered social enterprise. So at the time I'd gone from corporate. Australia to running the cardiac department of the children's hospitals in Sydney. And I thought that was sort of the binary choice.

And then I discovered social enterprise and went, oh my goodness, there's a whole, that's great. There's a name for this, there's a whole sector. Um, so I ran a social enterprise in Wollongong, uh, for five years called Green Connect, employing young people and refugees to do environmental work. And we became multimillion dollar 200 staff and volunteers.

Like it was quite a big undertaking and it was, yeah, bring connector here. They are Green Connect Farm. So the farm has spun out on its own. Mm-hmm. And Green Connect Farm is, yeah. Rub is gonna be here. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. Fantastic. On stage, isn't it? And so you said now it's time to actually affect the sector in a bigger way, in a different way.[00:05:00]

Speaker 3: Also two things. Um, running a social enterprise is really hard. It is one of the most difficult things you can do. Uhhuh, um, you know, walking that line every day between commerciality and impact. Yeah. Um, and it was lonely. Like running Green Connect every now and then you'd stumble across another social entrepreneur, but it was hard to find people.

And so part of our motivation in forming SEC was to be able to find each other. But the other thing was that more and more we were hearing from government in particular, yeah, we know that we know that social enterprise works. We know that place-based solutions work. We even know you're good value for money, but we don't know how to find you or talk to you as a sector.

So that's why we formed seca to find each other. Yeah. And to allow government to have a door. Basically into the sector 

Speaker 2: and New South Wales was lagging a little bit behind in terms of organizing ourselves right in, in the sector compared to other states. Yeah. 

Speaker 3: So, um, Victoria, so we've definitely 

Speaker 2: caught up now.

Speaker 3: Victoria came together first. They've been around for a while, Vic, and then Queensland followed and then there was [00:06:00] really, um, there was interest, but the Social enterprise World Forum came to Brisbane and that 

Speaker: became, that was unbelievable deadline. That was my first intro into like full on social enterprise.

'cause I hadn't been in the role that long and I was just like.

Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah. Wired. Yeah. You know, like 

Speaker: the No sleeping, you've got ideas happening. I loved that event. Yeah. 

Speaker 3: Well, funnily enough, I had left Green Connect two a week, two weeks before that event, and I decided to just take a moment to figure out what I wanted to do next.

And I got on the bus to go to Social Enterprise World from the 51 of us on this bus. Yeah, I did hear about that. Yeah. The bus is insane. Three day trip up to Brisbane from Sydney. And I got on the bus and there were two SECNA directors and they said, oh, you know, we're hiring a CEO. And I was like, nah, like I helped establish SECNA.

It feels like I'm going back again. Um, and anyway, by the end of, so social enterprise, so it was an interview that lasted three days entire, it was like a five day interview, but that forum is just. I, yeah, I came outta the social enterprise world for, I'm going, these are my [00:07:00] people, how can I help? And the role was up.

Speaker 2: And you're doing a sterling job, I have to say. Oh, thanks. 

Speaker 3: Very 

Speaker 2: well done. Funny. I have to admit that, that I always use you as a quote all the time, all the, I don't if it was your original quote if you borrowed it from someone else, but whenever I describe social enterprise, I always use your quote of, if you're social, charity, business and a charity business had a baby that will be a social and.

Every single time I say explained, see the faces light up. Lock one of our staff 

Speaker: members. I said, all right, you're about to go into the world of social enterprise. I said, and this is what it is. I used it this morning. It's such 

Speaker 2: a simple metaphor. It's such a simple example. It always lands. So is it your It is not my 

Speaker 3: cry.

I was about to say I need to reference, so Carl Champagne, who now runs Grow the Future down in Bega. Okay. He was the farm manager at Green Connect and he said it one day to a group that we were taking on a tour of the farm, and I just. 

Speaker 2: Right. But you made it famous though. Sure. And I'm helping to make it more famous.

He says it 

Speaker 3: everywhere all 

Speaker 2: the time. And now I've started all the time. All the time. Yes, all the time. Um, [00:08:00]

Speaker: you've lost the question. 

Speaker 2: No, I'm just thinking I'm not, I've What to best ask, um, 

Speaker: where do you see seconder in the next 12 months? 

Speaker 3: Oh, 12 months. Um, I mean, our, our role has really not changed. So to connect champion, advocate for social enterprise, um, we've gone from.

I think when I started two and a half years ago, we had just under a hundred members. Now we've got 700. Woo. Wow. And there's still only three of us. That's huge part-time. That's huge. So it's like we do a lot with the little, um, don't we all? Yeah. Yes, that's very true. It's very social enterprise. It's very social.

Um, 

Speaker 2: yeah, you thought running a social enterprise was hard. Try and run an advocacy and a member based organization within the social, and then you, 

Speaker: I, I guess you would also be our listening ear. Like you're one of those ones that we could just call and go, oh my God, the day. I can imagine you get a lot of that.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I get a lot of everything, which is really fun. Everything from, oh no, we think we have the long, the wrong legal structure. What should we do to, I wanna start a [00:09:00] social enterprise. Do I wanna join one to We think we're about to close the doors. Yeah. Um, it's a hard time in the sector. Yeah. I mean, it's a hard time for business everywhere.

True, true Economically. It's tough. But, um, the joy I get from, I, I talk to people about. Sometimes it feels like I'm living in that movie slum dog millionaire. Like I've worked in corporate, I've worked in government. Love it. I've, I've worked in health and education and project management and all these different things.

You know, I've, I've run a farm, I've run zero waste services. I'd love to run a farm. So to bring all of that to the fore, anytime someone needs something, be like, oh, I know who you need to talk to, or, I've seen this before. That's great. And be able to just help in one small way. You're 

Speaker 2: such a great connector.

You're such a great connector yourself. Yeah. Second in general, but you, you've been particular like you. You've, you've thread the needle. Yeah, I 

Speaker 3: enjoy it. I really enjoy connecting people and ideas and even, um, Patrick from Cercle jumped in the car on the way up from Wollongong today 'cause buses replace trains anyway, [00:10:00] uh, so he said something and that sparked an idea and I was like, oh, you need to talk to this person and this person.

And they'll both be at the festival and, 

Speaker: yeah. Great. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Um, I'm gonna ask one more question. Yeah. Tell us about the festival. Yes. 'cause we actually haven't explained it. We're waiting for you and this year is huge. 

Speaker 3: Yes. So, uh, when I came into this role two and a half years ago, um, the board were like, oh, by the way, we've got this little grant from City of Sydney to run.

Like a little market, just, just, mm-hmm. I was 

Speaker: there that first year. Just 

Speaker 3: put a few tables in a room. It will be, it'll be grand. And, um, I don't really know what happened, but I was like, we're not putting a few tables in a room. We are gonna do this properly. Let's see what what's possible. And um, it was all done with volunteers that first year.

And it was already, I think the first year we had 63, I wanna say social enterprises here. We had 800 people through the doors. It was mega on, on nothing, you know, we just created out of, 

Speaker 4: and then second year what happened? So second 

Speaker 3: year we got a slightly bigger grant from City of Sydney. [00:11:00] And I was like, yeah, great.

Now we can pay an event management. Um, person, company, person, and it, but it was still just utterly exhausting. I remember standing on stage and someone saying the annual festival, and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is just, this is just a second attempt. Um, and 

Speaker 2: this is third year, this year. But yeah, then 

Speaker 3: we got a little bit more money and the momentum and the stories that started coming out, like people were saying to me.

That was my biggest sales day of the entire year. 

Speaker: I will say this, I spent so much money, so I, I'm a little bit glad that I'm in here all day because the first year 

Speaker 2: couldn't control yourself. 

Speaker: He, I don't know where you were, and I ran the store. Just Harry and I, one of our graduates, and I spent so much money.

I looked at my bank account, I was like, oh. 

Speaker 4: Yeah, 

Speaker: it's a write off day and I said to my, one of the staff members that are here, I said, you be careful 'cause you will like, the stuff that is here is unbelievable. 

Speaker 2: So how many ex, how many participating this year? So 

Speaker 3: 80 this year. 

Speaker 2: 80 social enterprises? Yeah, I think 

Speaker 3: it's 53 stalls.

30 speakers, [00:12:00] 21 workshops. 

Speaker 2: But there's also a depth right? Podcast. There's more workshops. There's a podcast. Podcast, of course. But there's, there's so much more happening. It feels like it's unbelievable. So a big shout out, not just to you, but to Rebecca. Oh my goodness. She's amazing. Please, please, can you do the shout out to Rebecca because she's, um, unbelievable 

Speaker 3: how she did this.

I spoke about it in the, in the opening session. Um, I didn't realize she would be in the room and, um, I put her on the spot. Here she is now. Aha. We're talking about you, Rebecca, about 

Speaker 2: you. Please do a little cameo as we are recording because you are being recorded through the camera. That was big shout out to you.

Big shout out to you. This is Rebecca. 

Speaker 3: Um, well done. This woman has made this event possible. Like I, I honestly think if we didn't hang, have, hang on, Rebecca. I That's all right. Would've caught like probably if, if this year was as crazy for me and the team as last year, I think we would've called and 

Speaker 4: gone.

Not only too, but she doesn a smile. No, always. It's just been incredible, honestly. Like she thrives on stress or stressful situation. 'cause you don't look stress ever. Pick it up. 

Speaker 3: Love it. 

Speaker: Well done. I didn't [00:13:00] come in to chat. Great job. I came in to take photos of you. Oh, well take photos. Yes. Um, I will say this, we nearly matched today 'cause I was wearing a green skirt, so we could have been identical but changed.

Okay. Stage back to Kylie, but well done. 

Speaker 4: Well done. Incredible. Um, so, yes. Uh, how many people are gonna walk through the door today? 

Speaker 3: So we've got far as, you know, 1200 registered. Wow. But we, I mean, even. As I was turning people away at the door at nine 30 saying, I'll just come back in half an hour have you registered?

They're like, oh, no, not yet, because you don't 

Speaker 2: really need to register to walk in. Right, because 

Speaker 3: it's free. Yeah. So we, we honestly dunno. We know that free events also have a drop off rate. Of course they do, but then we have this enormous. Crowd. I know. Turn up. Anyway, it's a great, so like you can see heads 

Speaker: walking 

Speaker 3: across here, it's 

Speaker: pretty busy.

Yeah, it's really good. 

Speaker 2: Really, really good. Unbelievable. So we hope that we're gonna sell lots of coffees upstairs if they fix the machine. I don't know if they, yes, they fixed the machine. I believe they fixed the machine of slices, lots of sandwiches and stuff, which is, um, a great opportunity for us to promote what we do.

Speaker: I'm kind of hoping they have food left when I go up there. [00:14:00] Like I'm starving. Yeah. Good luck. What's one 

Speaker 2: thing that you would like to communicate to the listeners that we haven't asked? We only have a couple of minutes left. Uh, but yeah, the biggest message that you would like to give. Stage is yours.

Speaker 3: That's a tricky one. Um, someone, so I was asked to go back to my MBA school last week and someone said to them, what, you know, what does the future look like? And I said, I think, I think in a generational or two, we will look back at the last couple hundred years as just such a blip in human history where we just, we, we got it wrong.

We took money, which was always meant to be a tool and turned it into a goal. You know, we went against First Nations cultures everywhere that know that greed is one of the worst sins you can commit. But we made greedy people our heroes and put 'em on the front of magazines. Like being a billionaire is a good thing.

Like, you know, we, we separated business from people and the planet in a way that was never intended. The first businesses actually had [00:15:00] to prove their worth to the community before they could form as a business in the 1600s. So I think. We've woken up to the fact that you can't just exploit and extract Yeah.

And take all the profits, but push all the negative externalities, all the plastic and all the pollution and all the, you know, slave labor onto the community, the government and charities to fix. We've gone, no, that actually, that's not working. That's not working for anyone. So I think, um, we have this great opportunity to course correct and social enterprise does exactly that it's saying.

Okay. We don't need to throw it all out. We don't need to start from scratch. We can take the tools of business, but instead of having profit as our goal, have a, a social or environmental goal impact and use the profit as the tool. 

Speaker 2: And you sound like an optimistic person. So you think it's not too late to be able to do that.

You're positive about the fact that we can turn the ship, the Titanic around before it hits the iceberg? I mean, 

Speaker 3: look, every now and then, like every time there's an IPCC report, uh, I rock in the corner for a [00:16:00] couple of days and think, oh God, like it, it's, it's hopeless. But, um, you know, it's kind of like the Titanic going down.

Are you, are you gonna just give up or are you gonna do everything you can to save what you can? I don't think it's inevitable. I don't think it's over. I think there's always a chance to course correct and so, um, until my dying breath, I will be doing everything I can to make this world cleaner and greener and fairer and kinder and surrounding myself with people who are doing the same.

Speaker: We'll be right there with you. Excellent. Yes. I'm not alone. Not alone. This, this festival proves that you're not alone. Um, which is. It's one of my favorite. And 

Speaker 2: just to close, um, where can people learn more about, I mean, we're probably gonna, we're talking to the converted. 'cause most of the listeners on this podcast, we all have heard about, I think SECNA.

But how do people find out about seca? What's the best way of getting in touch, which we'll then pull on the show notes and everything. 

Speaker 3: Yeah. Um, so our website, um, SECNA, S-E-C-N-A, dot org dot au. Um, but [00:17:00]also SECNA is not a service provider. We're not an organization that does things for you. We're a peak body that brings people together to do things for each other and for themselves.

Yeah. So it's not about, um, signing up so much 'cause getting involved, but you do lot come to events, do lots of education, you do back 

Speaker 2: advocacy, you do a lot, reach out, 

Speaker 3: and we, you know, one of the best things we've done, which, um, we weren't expecting would be so valuable, but it's turned out to be is oh. It sounds so dumb.

A weekly email. So I was becoming a bottleneck. Um, I knew all hundred members personally when I joined, but 700 is a lot to know what's happening. Absolutely. Um, and I was becoming a bottleneck. I can't be the one that everyone calls for everything. And so we said, just put every, every opportunity, every ask, every job, every volunteer opportunity, pull it all into this one.

Place and once a week we'll send it all out to everyone. Mm. And the feedback we get from that, like just to have one email where it's got all the funding, all the jobs. Yes. Yes. All the [00:18:00] asks and things like, Hey, does anyone have, um, a really stellar privacy policy? Has anyone developed, um, you know, a, a.

Policy around the use of AI and meetings, like all the things that we know that social enterprises are so generously sharing. Yeah. We can just bang that into one email. So all of the 700 members get that. Very good. And yeah, we get really good open rates. So the keyword 

Speaker 2: is collaboration and sharing.

Absolutely. And that's what second is about, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, very, very good. Well, Kylie, I hate to keep this so short, but you'll probably come back as a, as a full fledged guest for a full episode one day. This is my trial run. Yeah. But, uh, we'll see. That's right. Did you pass? You passed the test.

You've passed the test. I don't know if we've passed. Lemme know that. But you've passed the test. 

Speaker 4: Thank you. So have a great day here. 

Speaker 2: Thank you.

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