This Sunday, the 12th of October, I will board a plane for San Francisco, where I will attend the first ever Social Capital Markets Conference, taking place from October 13th to the 15th at the Fort Mason Center.  SoCap08, as it is being called, will bring together over 500 social investors and social entrepreneurs.  Notes the event website, “This is a new, first-of-its-kind event designed to bring together the people and organizations with a deep passion to change the world through sustainable business. Investors and entrepreneurs will find themselves working to build this new community, gaining encouragement as they realize that they are not alone, but are a part of something big, important - and rapidly growing.”

I’ll be attending SoCap08 on behalf of the Great Bay Foundation.  With ten years of funding nonprofit social enterprise projects in New England states, the Foundation has gained valuable experience and knowledge regarding the flow of capital to entrepreneurial individuals committed to solving social problems and of the importance of supporting business enterprise efforts to achieve social change.  SoCap08 will enable me to explore these areas further and to meet and learn from world renowned speakers and panelists.  In addition, the event will give me a chance to catch up with field leaders already in the Great Bay Network.

The timing of SoCap08 could not be better for Great Bay.  The Foundation is preparing to embark on an exciting new period of growth and development, in which we are seeking to increase our corpus, while expanding both our funding area and the range of philanthropic/investment tools used to achieve social and mission impact.

While I expect my days in San Francisco to be packed full of thought-provoking, inspiring learning and networking sessions and opportunities, I will be making time to blog live from the event, sharing my thoughts and experiences.  The many topics highlighted at SoCap08—click here for a full schedule—will be of importance to anyone interested in the flow of capital to organizations dedicated to achieving social change.  I hope that you find value in the dispatches, and that you respond with any comments/questions that you might have.

So, please stay tuned for my first post from San Francisco, California…