Like
Tony Bennett, I once left (a bit of) my heart in San Francisco.? That was in 2004, at
Eradicating Poverty Through Profit, the first major conference to discuss market-based approaches to poverty alleviation ? the "bottom of the pyramid" idea.? Now, nearly four years later, I am again heading west for a conference ? one with the same sort of potential to change the way we think; this time, about social capital.
The aptly-named
Social Capital Markets conference is the brainchild of
Kevin Jones, a participant in that 2004 conference and a longtime NextBillion ally.? For three days next month, a group of investors, venture capitalists, businesspeople, practitioners and academics will gather in San Francisco to think about how and when to deploy social capital.?
Acumen Fund ? my current employer ? and
World Resources Institute ? my previous one ? will both be in the room.? And I'm proud to announce that NextBillion.net ? co-managed by those two organizations ? will be live-blogging the event.Social Capital Markets ? SoCap08 for short ? will be held October 13 to 15.? I'll post a conference preview about a week prior; during the event, I'll report from plenary sessions and as many panels as possible.? Since it's impossible for me to be everywhere at once, I've recruited a stable of top-notch guest bloggers to contribute to NextBillion from the event as well:
Staff Writer
David Lehr will be at SoCap08; more guest bloggers will be confirmed in the coming week.? If you're planning to be at the event and want to meet up, let me know (comments below) - I'd love to hear your feedback on NextBillion.net and the development-through-enterprise sector as a whole.