On the afternoon of March 25, 2013, SSDPP's social innovation course was opened as scheduled and the first open class was jointly held by SSDPP's Social Enterprise and Social Innovation Lab, the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy and the "Social Entrepreneur".

Mr. Gerry Higgins, founder of the Social Enterprise World Forum was invited to deliver a lecture themed "Social Innovation and Social Business: the British Case and Experience". Mr. Gerry Higgins reviewed the key breakthroughs in the course of development of the British social enterprises over the past 15 years and stressed the importance of social impact measurement and evaluation, the pursuit of social effects rather than economic benefits, leadership development and global information resources sharing to the development of social business.

As the practitioners of Chinese social businesses, Mrs. Zhang Shuping, the Director General of Rabbit King Research Center of Poverty Alleviation, and Shen Shen, the cosponsor of EV and the incubation project of SSDPP’s Social Enterprise and Social Innovation Lab conducted in-depth exchanges on their thinking concerning China’s social enterprises and social innovation. In the three-hour class, more than 30 experts from social innovation-related fields exchanged views on the development direction of global social enterprises and social innovation as well as the path for China’s innovation.