Hunter Foundation partners with new FutureX Impact Summit

Sir Tom Hunter’s Hunter Foundation has put its financial backing behind Impact Summit, the latest project from Leith-based startup FutureX, the team behind Scotland’s Startup Summit, at which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced £4 million in support for entrepreneurs last year.

FutureX cofounders Zoi Kantounatou, Adam Purvis and Bruce Walker are seasoned contributors to the Scottish startup scene, who have long advocated purpose-led entrepreneurship as not only the most ethical way to run a business, but the most profitable.

With a new Impact Summit, the FutureX team are now turning their disruptive, values-based approach beyond the world of business towards the reinvention of society as a whole.

Three venues in Glasgow’s iconic Barras have been chosen for the summit as both modern and historic focal points of creativity, culture, commerce and celebration. Over 300 delegates representing community groups, business, education and government are expected to attend on the day and to take part in rethinking the economy of tomorrow.

Unlike a traditional conference format, Impact Summit will have an interactive programme that maximises delegate participation: channelling the ideas of everyone present into actionable recommendations that will feed into new projects and an Impact Summit memorandum to Scotland’s leaders.

The FutureX team plan to hold an Impact Summit every year, inviting innovators from Scotland and around the world to form new partnerships that inspire action for meaningful change and contribute to a global economy that lifts up everyone. Specifically, each summit will focus on the four themes of how we live, learn work and play. This year’s speaker line-up includes author, artist and columnist Darren McGarvey aka Loki, Steve Dunlop CEO of Scottish Canals and Leah Hutcheon, CEO of Appointedd.

Sir Tom Hunter said: “These Impact Summits are about relegating processes, organisations, dogmas and vested interests to the past and promoting a movement that puts the individuals and communities in Scotland at the forefront of our thinking. Only by casting aside what we have always done can we change what we as a nation will become.

As a small nation competing with the biggest we need to use agility, speed of thought and action to win; we need to move from a nation of deliberators to a nation of activists with the common good at the forefront of our thinking.”

Scottish Enterprise have also committed to support Impact Summit as part of their work to make Scotland an entrepreneurial destination with a difference, namely a place where sustainable economic growth and ambition deliver benefits to all of society.

FutureX cofounder Adam Purvis, said: “Impact Summit is an invitation to make Scotland the testing ground for nothing less than the transformation of society. By giving those present a unique chance to rethink how we live, learn, work and play we hope to bring fresh energy to everyone invested in making Scotland the world’s first regenerative economy and we’ll do this once a year, for as long as it is needed.”