Roundtable Impact

Location: Barton Suite - Thu, 2 Jul 2026 · 13:15 – 14:00 (Europe/London) (45 minutes)

From Good Intent to Growth

How Founders Can Build Social Value Into Commercial Partnerships

Social value is no longer a “nice to have” or something to add at the end of a pitch. For scaling businesses, it can be a practical route into stronger partnerships, better procurement conversations, investor confidence, talent attraction and local credibility.

This roundtable will explore how founders and business leaders can move from good intent to measurable action, building partnerships with charities, communities, education providers, places and funders in ways that create both commercial value and real-world impact.

Led by Clare Sweeney, founder of Keepace Consulting and curator of the Climb26 Impact Zone, the session will be a practical conversation about what works, what gets in the way, and how businesses can design partnerships that are credible, useful and commercially relevant.

Who should attend

This roundtable is for founders, scale-up leaders, investors, ecosystem partners, CSR/ESG leads, professional services firms and anyone building partnerships with growing businesses.

It will be especially useful for people who want to:

Understand how social value can support growth, procurement and investment conversations.

Build better partnerships with charities, communities, schools, places or local organisations.

Move beyond one-off volunteering or sponsorship into more strategic impact.

Make their good work easier to explain, measure and communicate.

What attendees will get from it

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how social value can support business growth without becoming corporate waffle.

They will get practical ideas for turning existing relationships, community activity, volunteering, sponsorship or place-based work into stronger commercial and impact stories.

They will also come away with a simple way to think about partnership design: who benefits, what changes, how it is measured, and how it helps the business grow in a credible way.