All good things must come to an end, including NextBillion.net's coverage of last week's Social Capital Markets conference.  SoCap was a 72-hour firestorm of ideas, conversations, impromptu meetings and a lot of blog posts – 22, to be precise.  But at the end of the day, what does it all mean?  I've been thinking hard on this, and have boiled it down to three key takeaways:

1. The tent is big, and growing
2. Measurement matters
3. Show me the money

Allow me to explore each of these in a bit more detail.

The tent is big, and growing

Social entrepreneurship continues to be a broadly-defined term – sometimes to its detriment.  There were more than a few conversations at SoCap that left me wondering, "how is this project different than traditional social activism or charity?"  Anyone interested in social entrepreneurship really must read Sally Osberg and Roger Martin's 2007 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, in which they make a case for definition.  

Despite this, most of they people at SoCap were true social innovators or entrepreneurs.  And unlike many other conferences, the panel sessions and plenary sessions went beyond anecdotes and one-offs to discuss real trends and results.  It was refreshing.

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Tomorrow morning, I return to Maine for the annual Pop!Tech conference.  For the second consecutive year, NextBillion.net will be live-blogging the event, which brings together 600+ thought leaders for three days of inspiring presentations, performances, discussions and declarations.  (I am humbled to be part of this small cadre of bloggers: GigaOM, Fast Company, GOOD Magazine, and White African.)  Here's last year's conference preview for a little bit of context and history.

After last year's Pop!Tech I wondered aloud what its 'net impact' would be in 2008.  Well, we're about to find out. 

Pop!Tech has launched an ambitious campaign that appears to be moving the conference away from the narrow tech-innovation space and into the change the world space.  Seriously - they've invested heavily in a Social Innovation Fellows program, which I will cover extensively this week in addition to my analysis here on NextBillion.

So what should you, the NextBillion reader, anticipate from this year's Pop!Tech coverage? 

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