I recently attended the first-ever Social Capital Markets conference held in San Francisco – a jam-packed 3-day event that was billed as:
“Bringing together the investors and entrepreneurs who are accelerating the flow of capital to good.”
It was an amazing inaugural event, so hats off to Kevin Johnson, who founded the event, Amy Bezinger, its associate producer and Halloran Philanthropies, the event’s principle sponsor. I jotted my initial thoughts from the conference in a previous post and in my live tweets onsite, but now that I’ve had a few days for my experience to truly set in, I thought I’d share some additional feedback…so here’s the skinny:
THE GOOD (actually, Great)
The UnConference: To me, the third and final day of the event, led by facilitator extraordinaire, Jerry Michalski, was by far the most useful, engaging portion of the conference. Dubbed the “unconference”, the day was comprised of over 50 sessions proposed and led by participants, facilitated, like BarCamp Africa, in an open space style. As a former management consultant with my fair share of facilitation experience, I’d wholeheartedly recommend this format to anyone looking to surface and explore great ideas that might otherwise go undiscovered, develop collaborative teams, and create a fun, truly engaging environment that enables each participant to contribute meaningfully. Not only did this day result in some of the most interesting conversations and topics of the entire conference, but it also pulled together people with similar interests and provided, IMHO, the single best networking format of the event.
Live Pitching: During this session, four social entrepreneurs gave 8-minute pitches to a panel of VCs & potential funders who provided meaningful real-time feedback. Apart from the unconference sessions, this was by far the most useful breakout session because it focused on hands-on, real-world scenarios.
Live Tweets: Peter Deitz (@SoCap08 and @peterdeitz) was a madman tweeting the event live; it was truly incredible to watch him engaging in conversation while simultaneously typing 140-character microupdates on Twitter. Mark Grimes (@neddotcom), Glenn Strahan (@glennstrachan) and several others enhanced his coverage with their own insights. I believe the Twitter backchannel enriched the participation of those of us attending the event, and certainly broadened the conference’s reach beyond boundaries demarcated by the geography of Fort Mason and a healthy registration fee. (For those wondering, I didn’t use Epic Change donations to cover a dime, but instead used my trusty personal credit card, coupled with hotel points and airline miles, to foot the bill. It was certainly a worthwhile expense, but until we get a little more established, we simply can’t afford to divert funds from mission-critical objectives. To their credit, there was a much-needed 50% discount for non-profits. Kudos for that!)
Incomparable Catering: Perhaps to some it’s a small detail, but not to me. Food counts – and if my chub earns me nothing else, I hope it grants me some authority on the subject. Truly, the catering throughout the event was scrumptious, healthy beyond compare and served 100% guilt-free on totally recyclable ware with a splash of Honest Tea and Adina. I believe the caterers were Acre Gourmet, and they were perfetto.
THE BAD (or just not as Good)
Keynotes: Many of the keynote speakers were extraordinarily insightful, and their business acumen was beyond compare; in particular Katherine Fulton of the Monitor Group and Matthew Bishop, author of Philanthrocapitalism and columnist at The Economist were quite interesting and informative. That said, I was waiting to be truly inspired. While there was an extremely talented viola performer who wordlessly connected the audience to the humanity of our mission, few speakers really touched on the purpose of our work, but seemed to gloss over it as a foregone conclusion.
I was twice reminded in the context of the conference of this potential problem. During the Building a Business Plan breakout on the first day of the conference, the presenters pointed out (and I tweeted) an irony often seen in the business plans of socially responsible businesses: in an effort to overcompensate for the perceived “softer” side of our efforts, or because we mistakenly believe our audience is as connected to our cause as we are, we ironically underplay the power of our mission. Likewise, in a Calvert Foundation discussion during the unconference about a forthcoming documentary, one participant heartfully explained that very few in the room are actually in this for the money; it’s the passion and the purpose behind our work that gets us up in the morning. I couldn’t agree more – which is why I think that at least one of the keynotes should have been by an entrepreneur with compelling stories of communities and causes transformed by their work or, better yet, someone whose life had been impacted by the efforts of those in the room.
Networking Opportunities: First of all, let me say that the Connection Concierge tool offered by assetmap.org was a great service, and I think it may become even more useful as we move forward. As for the networking sessions, the one on the first evening that had grouped us by interest area had the potential to be fruitful, but was cut tragically short. In its place, I’d definitely propose a lengthier networking session on the first afternoon or evening so that we have time to make connections that will last throughout the event. Perhaps some version of the unconference, a connection & conversation cafe, might be an alternative for the first day. Smaller conversations on topics proposed by participants, with drinks and snacks, could prove very successful – like a lengthened version of speed dating: 30-45 minutes per topic, 3-4 topics.
THE UGLY (yep, actually not pretty at all)
Inclusivity & Diversity: On the final morning of the conference, Jerry Michalski asked us to look around the room and think about our experience at SoCap08. As I did, I noticed something: I was sitting in a sea of white people, many of us seeking to “help” communities around the globe, very few of whom seemed to be represented in the room. Earlier that morning, I had posted a note to the blog from our Tanzanian partner, Mama Lucy Kamptoni, explaining her thoughts on poverty. She wrote:
“[Sometimes people] think that because Africans are living in poor countries, therefore they cannot think about themselves. They think that since they don’t have money, so they can’t be able to plan, implement, monitor and supervise anything even if given chance or supported. They should know that, even if a person/community is poor, the best way to help is to listen and give chance to the beneficiaries to know what really is their problem, and what they think is their priority. You may think they need good road first but their priority is school, hospital or water. If you’ll not give them chance, you’ll end up doing their last thing at first. Poverty cannot be eradicated by just the ideas of one side. Sharing ideas of both sides can help and bring changes easily.”
It was a profound disconnect for me…and she’s right: the communities we seek to transform absolutely must have the power to participate in the decision-making that impacts their lives. And yet, there we were, absent their input, at an incredibly exciting conference that would benefit “them”.
Let’s face it, the people who have the most power and who reap the most significant rewards in any marketplace are the investors and entrepreneurs in the market. They have the power to determine where funds will be invested and receive the lion’s share of the income from transactions. If that power and potential profit remains concentrated in wealthy white hands, I think we’ve missed at least part of the point.
If we are, as it seemed at the conference, in the early stages of developing a socially beneficial marketplace, the market makers must be diverse. If those with power in the marketplace remain a sea of white faces, we’ve missed a key opportunity to build a system that brings benefits – and equality – to people across the social & geographical spectrum.
In short, I believe people from many communities, and especially those who would be impacted by our efforts, deserve both a voice and access to the capital they need to transform their own communities. To Mama Lucy’s point, many times the best ideas for healing a community come from within – or at least in partnership with those whose lives are impacted by poverty, pollution and other social ills. So, my challenge for SoCap09 would be to find ways to give a voice to entrepreneurs & people with great ideas from communities we seek to impact, and to drive capital in their direction. At the unconference, I led a discussion on the topic of inclusivity & diversity (I know, perhaps not my primary area of expertise, but someone needed to say it). During the conversation, we came up with two ideas for ensuring that SoCap09 is more inclusive & diverse than this year’s event. Thanks to Sergio Almarza Alamos and Sergio Almarza Grez from Chile of RedAlmarza, Uganda-based Jon Gosier of Appfrica, Steve Vitka of Blacklight Ventures, Marianne Bellotti of the Small Hands Fund, Justin Bean of Sustainable Initiatives, and consultants Jennifer Carter-Scott and Marian Doub, who participated in this conversation and helped to develop these ideas.
- Pitches from Abroad: Either pre-recorded, fed live or held onsite, the opportunity for entrepreneurs from across the globe to share their ideas with an audience of potential collaborators and investors would be both incredibly interesting for the audience, and a rewarding experience for the presenter. To ensure non-native speakers of English, and those who may be unfamiliar with the art of pitching, could participate successfully, presentation preparation may need to be supported, so I’d recommend that entrepreneurs be paired with partners who have attended the conference previously, or who have some expertise in the field.
- Fellowships: Amy Bezinger explained at the conference that the price was intentionally set high to ensure that only the highly-motivated would attend. While I think the decision was likely wise in many ways, the $1,195 price tag was quite high and, with travel costs for traveling from places like Africa, Asia and South America, and hotel, the cost would be absolutely prohibitive for entrepreneurs and, especially, potential entrepreneurs from developing countries. I’d recommend that a fellowship, including, if possible, travel expenses, be offered. To fund it, paying participants could opt-in to give an additional $25 donation to cover the cost (or an additional fee could be baked into the conference price for paying participants, as their presence would certainly improve the overall conference experience), sponsors of future events could be required to donate to fund fellowships and hotel/travel partners could be sought to defray costs.
This year’s participants would likely have access to potential candidates in their networks for either opportunity. I know I do.
I’m sure there are many other brilliant ideas for ensuring a more diverse pool of participants at next year’s event – what are yours? If you attended SoCap08, what feedback would you add? I’ll be sending a link to this entry to the conference team, so please leave your comments and suggestions.
Posted: October 29th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 5
We’ve been working feverishly on this season’s holiday products. Early in November, Epic Change will launch a beautifully designed line of holiday cards and gift items that feature stories of the children of Shepherds Junior school. Not only will these items incorporate artwork by the students and beautiful images like these by photographer Tim Llewellyn, who joined us on our last trip to Tanzania, each purchase will also make possible one or more of 1,000 bricks that will be needed to build the school’s next classroom.
We’ve just established an exciting partnership with Appfrica International to assist us with improving our website and blog. Appfrica International is an incredible organization based out of Uganda that incubates, facilitates and mentors entrepreneurs in software from the region. These are often recent computer science graduates or students who can’t find opportunities because of low job prospects. Appfrica works with them to help expose them to new skills, to collaboratively work on projects that earn them money and to help them develop strong business plans. Find out more at Appfrica.org.
Additionally, Exquisite Safaris will begin offering opportunities for travelers to visit Mama Lucy and her school as part of their safari excursions to Tanzania. The Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel experience integrates indigenous local culture into every personalized experience they recommend. These personal introductions create authentic cross cultural friendships that generate trust, respect, and generous donations funding philanthropic travel projects worldwide. Exquisite Safaris was mentioned in a recent article published in the New York Times. If you or a friend are planning a trip to the region, we hope you’ll consider booking through Exquisite Safaris and incorporating a visit with Mama Lucy.
PS: My favorite member of the canine species, Millicent the Magnificent, is feeling festive today & wanted me to wish you a Happy Halloween!!!