ABSTRACT
The focus of this book is special events organized with a social mission, purpose, or cause, often by nonprofit organizations, government agencies, public-private partnerships, or some other collaborative effort. In order to better understand these events, we turn to social enterprise, which has been broadly defined as an organization or venture that advances a social mission using business methods or market-based approaches (Kerlin, 2010; Social Enterprise Alliance, 2013). Special events can be seen as ventures that advance a social mission using business methods or market-based approaches. While events have been around in some form for thousands of years, social enterprise is a relatively new concept, emerging in the 1980s. This chapter intentionally places special events in the modern era into the conceptual framework of social enterprise, and it highlights important theoretical and practical connections.
