SoCap08 has officially ended. After three days of keynote speeches, panel discussions, breakout sessions, and networking conversations, attendees now head back to their respective organizations, armed with new insights, tools, and contacts.
SoCap08 was the first of its kind. Never before had so many social investors and entrepreneurs gathered in one place to explore the possibilities [...]
The third and final participant-led session that I attended today had a dual focus. The group discussed the ways in which third-party consultants can add value to nonprofits and gain value in return. In addition, the group explored how for-profit ventures can emerge from nonprofit structures.
In regard to the third-party consultants and nonprofits, the group [...]
During yesterday’s cocktail reception I had another opportunity to chat with Rob Katz from the Acumen Fund. Rob runs NextBillion.net, on behalf of Acumen and the World Resources Institute, and also blogs for the site. Rob and the NextBillion team recruited ten bloggers to make posts from SoCap08.
Rob informed me that he’ll be in Maine [...]
I just left my second session of the day. It was led by Kris Prendergast from the Social Enterprise Alliance, and it focused on the feasibility of and reasons for developing a trade association for social enterprises. Prendergast pointed out the larger role that trade associations can play in advancing a field. Associations can help [...]
The first session I chose to attend is on the topic of Seed Money for Social Enterprises, which is being led by a “serial entrepreneur.” Many of the people here are developing or working in social enterprises in the for-profit sector. However, there are nonprofit entrepreneurs as well. One individual is a nonprofit social entrepreneur [...]
The major benefit of participant-led sessions is that every attendee has the opportunity to be actively involved in developing the schedule and in leading the discussion. Participants wrote topics of their choice on sheets of paper. These topics were then announced to the attendees, who were asked to show their interest with a show of [...]
We’ve commenced the third day of SoCap08, and the format is somewhat “unconference”-like. Instead of pre-arranged speakers and panelists, today will feature participant-led sessions. Attendees are currently sitting in Building A receiving an overview of the “Open Space” conference format. We’ve been given a focusing topic: “What is the very best thing that can happen [...]
Matthew Bishop’s keynote address gave way to an “Oxford-style” debate on the following motion: This house believes you can maximize social returns by maximizing financial returns.
The four debaters, who did not necessarily believe in the arguments they were making but rather were playing parts to suit the debate format, included Alvaro Rodriguez (Ignia Capital), Steve [...]
In today’s keynote address, Matthew Bishop from The Economist discussed the theory behind his new book Philanthrocapitalism: How The Rich Can Save The World (co-authored by Michael Green). He highlighted the effective ways new philanthropists are working to solve the world’s most pressing problems.
Bishop posed a number of thought-provoking questions. He asked how we can [...]
Note: I lost my Internet connection this afternoon and have been unable to make any posts since. The below blog text was written before I realized that I had no means of posting it.
I’m in yet another breakout session—this one entitled “Funding Food Chain.” It is being moderated by Tim Freundlich (Good Capital / [...]
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