The future development of the Social Economy was explored through an enlightening comparison with Australia's for-profit sector, and how its structure had evolved over the last 20 years. It was felt that some of the lessons from the corporate sector might apply to the evolution of the Social Economy.

In a lively grasp at the nature of future development in the Social Economy, one participant expressed the view that the sector would witness a continuous proliferation of small organisations together with the expansion of larger organisations and at the expense of medium sized entities (due to their incapacity to develop further, and their lack of resources).

Small organisations would persist, driven by the phenomenon of the new wave of 'young' philanthropists who tended to favour start-ups and scaling up of programs addressing disadvantage. This contrasted with the past support for well-established and older non-profit organisations.

Large organisations would face the responsibility of coordinating the activities and managing the funds of small entities as might currently be observed in the enterprise JobFutures.

It was noted that there were many forms of collaboration. Several forms [of collaboration] already existed through partnerships and social franchising.

Participants held strong views that mergers would be the least likely strategy for reducing the number of social economy organisations given the nature and resistance of these smaller organisations.