The 19th Annual Ethnic Minority Business Conference (EMBC)
The 19th Annual Ethnic Minority Business Conference (EMBC), the UK’s benchmark event on diversity and entrepreneurship, was held in Birmingham on the 20th of October 2015.
Attended by over 125 participants from academia, the corporate sector, financial intermediaries, policy makers, practitioners, community based organisations and entrepreneurs this event was organised by the Birmingham Business School’s Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) with the generous support of Lloyds Bank.
The event provided an opportunity to reflect on the multiple faces of ethnic minority businesses, the growth strategies they put in place, as well as the sources of access to business support. The work of the Enterprise and Diversity Alliance (EDA) an innovative knowledge exchange network dedicated to the promotion of minority entrepreneurship illuminated some important outputs of the research carried out at the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC). Professor Kiran Trehan led a panel discussion which highlighted the importance of embedding research into the world of policy and practice.
The diversity strand of the ERC research was further showcased by presentation by Prof Sara Carter in relation to the diversity of entrepreneurial households, Dr Maria Villares who explored questions relating to the economic and social impact ethnic minority business play in local economies and Dr Drew Gertner, on the nature of business support for EMBs.
Leading researchers and practitioners presented new ways of partnering for the future to advance the research agenda on EMBs and its interaction with practice.
‘New institutions for business support should incorporate knowledge about the contribution and needs of EMBs’ Prof Monder Ram, CREME
