Francisco Noguera

Friday Roundup: “The Future We Make”

From the District of Columbia, to Colombia and back to Columbia, my new home. It’s from here that I write the first of what will be a weekly, Friday column offering a summary of noteworthy events, articles and resources for all of us into the Next Billion idea. It’s also here that I expect to form a new community of friends and colleagues interested in the NextBillion idea.

I’ll start today’s with a couple of New York City events coming up soon. Te first one is the Columbia Business School Social Enterprise Conference. As usual, this year’s conference will offer a wide array of speakers and panels, as well as a great convening for all of those in the New York area with an interest in social enterprise and innovation. NextBillion will be on campus covering the conference; we’re looking for Guest Bloggers to help us on that purpose, so email me if you’re interested.

The second event I want to point your attention to is TEDxChange, themed “The Future We Make”. Co-hosted by TED and the Gates Foundation, it will bring together thought leaders and practitioners to discuss the progress against the Millenium Development Goals. I’m especially excited to hear Melinda Gates and Hans Rosling among other speakers, as well as the follow up discussions curated by Chris Anderson himself (not usual in the smaller TEDx events, in case you’re infamilar with this particular format).

I’m eager to hear a thorough discussion around the MDGs, which are not often brought up on these pages nor at the social enterprise events we usually attend; a wide, unfortunate gap exists between different development conversations, and this venue will hopefully give us an opportunity to frame the discussion of markets and entrepreneurship differently, using the lens of the MDGs. Make sure you register and watch the entire 90 minute program, which will be webcasted on September 20.

Lastly, I want to point your attention to an article on the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review. Written by Bill Drayton and Valeria Budinich, it goes in depth to explain Ashoka’s work on hybrid value chains, illuminating many of the concepts and ideas that Staff Writers Stepanie Schmidt and Shivani Manaktala have brought up lately on NextBillion. It also serves as an introduction to the new and excellently designed Ashoka Full Economic Citizenship website, which will surely enrich the conversation on market-based approaches to poverty.

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