What a crazy few weeks! Is it me or does the Christmas break seem a long way off now?

On the 10^th January, I had the privilege of representing Microsoft at the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) forum in London along with our President of EMEA, Neil Holloway. The theme of the forum was how we create an environment where innovation and enterprise can prosper.

Here are just some of the people I met….

NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) with assets of £350m, aims to build a more pervasive culture of innovation in the UK to ensure we are competitive. They have already invested in over 300 businesses in conjunction with the private finance community. New programs like Insight Out (and Starter for 6 in Scotland) are particularly interesting.

Make Your Mark is a culmination of the CBI, BCC, IoD and Federation of Small Businesses. I love their campaign to help university/college students “turn their ideas into reality” and start their own business. They also run Enterprise Week.

Oli Barrett is one of the Social Entrepreneurs I met who has just launched Make Your Mark for a Tenner in schools. One of my colleagues said her daughter came home this week for £10 and is tasked with thinking up a great idea!!

Talking of Social Entrepreneurs, Tommy Hutchinson and Michelle McMahon told me about their latest venture: i-genius – speaking at the GEM conference Tommy said.. “Networks are crucial to the success of social entrepreneurs. i-genius has taken the very best features and technology of user-generated friendship and online dating networks such as myspace and Facebook to create a site which encourages social entrepreneurs from around the world to establish partnerships between people from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds. We hope i-genius will enable a new generation to follow the journeys of amazing people doing amazing things and be themselves inspired to become social innovators.”

I also met Steve Moore and later on, at another event with Liam Black met James Plummer, both of whom are involved in WT2.

Liam Black of Fifteen Foundation gave an inspiring talk at Simmons & Simmons in the City on the evening of 17^th January. You’ll probably know them from Jamie Oliver’s venture in Shoreditch where they are helping disenfranchised young people. They now have restaurants in Amsterdam and Melbourne and are hoping to open one in South Africa. So I’ve introduced him to colleagues out there. By the way if you are organising any events in London and you need catering – give them a call. Great food - and a great cause!!!!

At Microsoft, I think we have a great opportunity to contribute to the wider social and community agenda by combining our efforts around Partnering for the Future, Local Software Economy, Emerging Business and Citizenship. Make sure you check out the article on the work we’re doing with Trestle Group Foundation and our Empowering Women IT Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries partnership in the next issue of the Microsoft Partner Magazine. Matthew Stibbe is a writer on this.