I am just back from the BiD Challenge, described by Rob in his post from last week. Several programs from WRI participated in the Challenge event - ourselves and New Ventures. The day of events included a number of well-produced and well thought-out interchanges, including conversations with a number of the corporate and institutional underwriters and competition judges, a "talk show" style review of some of the judges' favorite projects (not all were winners, by the way), an interview of past winners, and on-the-ground videos highlighting entrants. Well done.

Winners have been posted already to the Challenge site. At the end of the day, Thierry Sanders, head of NCDO, announced plans for the 2007 competition, and it creates a two-tiered system - one for start-ups, and a second for more mature enterprises. As was pointed out by several of the judges, the start-up nature of the event sets some limits on the possible impacts. NCDO has been remarkably successful in getting big banks and companies involved, and the new plan will, I think, make the BiD Challenge more meaningful to their sponsors. (BTW, a mild correction to Rob's previous post; NCDO is set up as an NGO, but it is almost entirely funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; its purpose is to engage Dutch businesses in emerging economies). At the same time, it will also allow WRI to engage more fully with their processes. Look for some announcements along these lines in the next few months.

The Columbia Business School will hold its annual social enterprise conference this coming Friday in New York, featuring speakers from a wide range of companies and organizations. There will be a bottom-of-the-pyramid panel, where Sasha Dichter, Diana Yousef, and Erik Simanis will hold court under the watchful eye of moderator Murray Low.

Registration is reasonable; if you can make it to New York this Friday, it would be well worth your while to check out the proceedings. If anyone is going and would like to blog about it as a guest poster here at NextBillion, please drop us a line.

Social Enterprise Conference 2006: Raising the Bar will bring together industry leaders, students, academics and practitioners to discuss strategies and challenges in three areas: Social and Environmental Impact, Leadership and Ethics, and Social Capital Markets. Panels will feature speakers from all sectors to challenge and deepen current understanding of topics such as global health and business, corporate social responsibility, community development finance, bottom of the pyramid business strategy, climate change and renewable energy, private equity in emerging markets, multinational and corruption and education.