the best thing about Atomicon isn't Atomicon..?

There's an annual national event called 'Atomicon' that lots of small business owners and freelancers like me rave about, for how it's energised and enabled them to give themselves the kickstart they needed to launch their new thing, chase the dream client, or generally just do more of what they love (but never felt able to before).

It's geared around a very big day out for people, with multiple stages, speakers from across celebrity, different sectors, etc - and I've always booked a ticket to it for the last 3 years (including having already advance bought my ticket for next years' already too). But I've never signed up to it for the big day event. Because over the last 3 years, I've found that the official speaker line up doesn't really do anything for me - so surely it seems bonkers that I'd buy a ticket for something I don't get anything from?

The part of Atomicon that's better than Atomicon

But there's part of Atomicon that happens in the run up which is far more low key in comparison, and can be easy to miss - a week of on-line 'round tables', where people who've bought a ticket to attend can offer to host a 1-hour gathering around a topic of their choice: either as presentation with Q&A; open discussion; or other creative formats within the time.

And you don't know what there will be in that week, or who'll be leading them, until a few weeks before they happen.

In all of the 3 years I've been doing Atomicion, I've found these round tables have offered a real 'lucky dip' in terms of experience, insight, encouragement, and practical stuff - but I've always remembered and valued far more from these than I have any of the main day big name presentations (so much so, that I've written some of them up from previous years: https://thirdsectorexpert.blogspot.com/2024/07/blending-running-business-with-being.html). 

Another reason I'll never be (allowed to) attend Atomicon in person?

I know this sentiment may not land that well with the organisers of Atomicon - or even some of my peers who I know make the pilgrimage each year for the big day event. But as I'm already never able to attend the event in person owing to a social media post from several years ago that involved my mankini (the day's sessions are live streamed and recorded for watch again later for other people who can't attend in person for all sorts of other legitimate reasons), I figured what else have I got to loose?

How you can get in on the action

If it sounds like I've piqued your interest in this event, the lovely Andrew and Pete who are behind it all offer a discounted pricing scheme (the further ahead you buy your ticket, the cheaper it is) - and the next Atomicon in 2027 is in Manchester, on Friday 2nd July - with tickets available through this link: https://atomic.site/?aap=363 *

*other ticket links are available, but if you use this one here, I may be able to get a small recognition from Andrew and Pete, which I can put towards the costs of the stamps I need to buy, in order to be able to post Christmas cards this year...

 

Is social becoming less enterprising and more charitable?

Some people may know that I like both data and legal forms (amongst other things). I can play with both in isolation, but I particularly like combining the two because of the new insights it can offer us.

Each year I try to check in with the respective regulatory bodies who oversee the principal legal forms in use in the social economy (Charities, CICs, Companies, and Co-operative Societies), to skim through their annual reports and pull out the latest numbers on formations and dissolutions.

changing trends in who's registering what form

I share visual charts of these numbers in workshops I deliver on legal forms - not to try and influence people's choices about what they should 'be', but to offer an additional and alternative perspective that can help prompt more critical thoughts and questions so that they can ultimately be more comfortable and confident in whatever they end up being. I've been tracking this data since 2017 (nearly 10 years), and this years' spreadsheets highlight:

• the long-term trend for 'sustainability' (how likely you are to be wound up based on your legal form) shows CICs and Companies remaining roughly equal with about 12% of each being de-registered each year. This compares to charities and co-operative societies that are wound up at 3% each.

• But what's seemed to 'jump out' this year is the figures for 2025 compared to the previous trends: new CICs have been registered at a rate that's 20% higher compared to 2024, with no change in companies, (and a halving of the rate at which new co-operative societies have been registered). But the registration of new charities was double what it was in the previous year.

Which means if we're using legal forms as a proxy indicator (of sorts) to understand what social enterprises and social entrepreneurs are experiencing in their business models, this seems to suggest that there's a growing difficulty in their generating traded revenue (hence the static or reduction in the growth of 2 of the 3 legal forms that are designed to encourage trade), and a growing need for financial support in the form of maximising eligibility for grants and reducing tax liabilities (based on the doubling of new charities being registered).

less faith in the social enterprise model?

Most of us in the sector are aware of it being the worst time in living memory with regards to being successful in grant funding applications, but with wider economic pressures that we've seen growing over the last year, are we starting to also see the trading models that new social enterprises are considering reflecting this pessimism in marketplaces too? 

As always, I don't post and share these notes as a definitive position, but to offer perspectives that may hopefully help us have better conversations - and better conversations can help us create better impact (and can also include me changing my mind, as I have in the past!).