Some of the most creative and inspiring people in social entrepreneurship and urban innovation from across the world are now lining up to participate in the British Council’s Innovation for Urban Challenges event in Warsaw, 21-23 March 2010.

Attended by young leaders of socially-driven businesses and initiatives from across Europe, the event in Warsaw is designed to share first-rate practical advice on how to run and grow social enterprise and innovation.

Participants will include:

Entrepreneur (and former record producer) Tim Smit CBE – founder and chief executive of the Eden Project, a giant botanical garden and educational facility on the environment that has become the U.K.’s fifth largest tourist attraction and is credited with generating over £500m of new investment in to its deprived local economy.

Designer Rob Hopkins – co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Towns Network, a fast-growing, ground-breaking global movement that is innovating the design, delivery and organization of local services that equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil. Rob was nominated as a ‘Resilience Leader’ at TED 2009.

Alongside participants in the event, masterclasses and workshops will be led by:

Michael Pyner – Chief Executive of the Shoreditch Trust, an individual at the epicentre of the world-renowned urban renewal of Shoreditch and Hoxton, East London, through the creation, guidance and support of a series of new social, creative and community enterprises and initiatives. Michael is a Board Member of many charities in the U.K. and a key advisor to the U.K. Government on social enterprise.

Blake Jennelle – co-founder of Philly Startup Leaders, one of the largest and most active communities of startup entrepreneurs in the U.S.A. Blake is formerly the founder and CEO of Anthillz.com, an online marketplace for freelance projects. He is Founder of the Missioneurs Movement, a new hybrid approach to startup and social entrepreneurship, on the advisory board of Good Company Ventures, an incubator and accelerator for social entrepreneurs, and he is an alumni and team member at DreamIt Ventures, a seed stage investment fund for technology companies. Blake blogs here.

Jonathan Robinson – co-founder and Executive Director of The Hub, a multi-sited incubator for social innovation currently located in twenty-two cities across the world, a social enterprise that is networking imaginative and enterprising initiatives across the globe and is an exceptionally successful initiative in its own right.More on Jonathan here.

Saeeda Ahmed – co-founder of Trescom, a social enterprise based in the former industrial town of Bradford, England that runs accredited training, employment, equality and diversity services for local people. Saeeda is a trained accountant, a Director/Trustee of the Adventure Capital Fund, a National Advisory Group Member on Measuring Social Value and is on the board of several charitable organisations, including the Playspace Association. More on Saeeda here.

The event will be facilitated by David Barrie. David is principal consultant at David Barrie & Associates, a production company in the U.K. that creates and delivers social, economic and urban renewal programmes. David’s work focuses on city development, social inclusion and sustainable living. He has designed and delivered initiatives valued at over £14m and credited with enabling over £250m of new inward investment in low-income neighbourhoods. David is co-founder of The People’s Supermarket, a new co-operative social enterprise in London, and is also actively involved in broadcast and digital media production.

This is a first bulletin on ‘who’s who’ at the Warsaw event.

The next post will highlight some of the outstanding founders and managers of social enterprises from across Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Scandinavia, the U.K. and South East Asia who will share their knowledge and expertise at the two-day series of masterclasses, workshops and networking events.