Why You Should Attend
At an ordinary event, the content on the panels and keynotes reflects the conversation in the halls. At a good event, the content on the panels and keynotes guides the conversation in the halls, helping it go further, focusing the passion of the participants on the key challenges and opportunities in front of them. At a great event, the conversation in the halls becomes the content on the panels and the main stage, the network connections become the narrative for the commons - and a new industry will begin to form. SoCap08 will be that kind of event.
Big Change is Coming
Doing well and doing good is the mantra of a new generation of entrepreneurs and the organizations that invest in them. And Social Capital Markets 2008 (SoCap08) is a new event designed to bring together all of the people and organizations with a similar deep passion to change the world through sustainable businesses.
We're at the cusp of a massive sea-change in the ways that businesses can impact global and local problems. In the past, startup profit-motivated businesses were funded by risk capital, and socially-focused organizations were supported by philanthropy. The profit-oriented were rarely allowed to let a social mission intrude, and the socially-oriented were discouraged from building sustainable businesses. But a new breed of entrepreneurs - and a new mentality of those who fund them - is changing the landscape of business, investing and philanthropy.
At SoCap08, attendees will learn what works and what doesn't in this new world of social capital and social entrepreneurs, which hybrid social & business models reach sustainability and which don't, and where this emerging industry is headed. Attendees will be able to network with their peers, discovering a whole new realm of people they had hoped existed - organizations, groups, and individuals who share the same intention to launch and support sustainable businesses designed to impact global and local problems. Investors and entrepreneurs will find themselves helping to build a new community, gaining encouragement as they realize that they are not alone, but are part of something big, important - and rapidly growing.
Bridging Silos
SoCap08 will include speakers and attendees from across the broad range of social business constituencies, including Fair Trade, "Base of the Pyramid," Digital Inclusion, CleanTech, Microfinance and New Capital (mission-focused investments and new philanthropy), and health/education/workforce initiatives. Each of these groups has often traditionally worked in isolation. But at SoCap08, everyone will have the chance to understand the commonalities between their work, highlight best practices, and build the connective tissue between their entrepreneurial and funding activities.
We'll also explore a variety of "horizontal" issues affecting each of these groups. For example, one of the biggest problems in the emerging industry is the lack of expansion capital beyond the "seed" funding entrepreneurs can raise from family and friends, or from "proof of concept" funding from foundations. A systemic exploration of supply chain and distribution issues in fair trade will also be on the community agenda. One of the goals of SoCap08 is to highlight the need for new kinds of funding, and to bring together some of the smartest financial and entrepreneurial minds around to design new ways to expand financial options for social initiatives.
Enabling a New Ecosystem
In fact, SoCap08 is designed to thrill everyone in the social capital ecosystem. Entrepreneurs will hear practical and more engaging content, and have the ability to network before, during, and after the event. Funders will participate in working sessions, and have time to figure out which capital structures are likely to effective, how funders can work together, and what their intended impact will be. Consultants will get the opportunity to showcase their knowledge and market their services. Corporations and universities will be associated with this growing, brandable movement, and learn how to integrate it into their offerings. And everyone will get more high-quality contact with each other.
SoCap08 will also be a learning platform for people new to the social capital arena. Those outside the world of social enterprise want to understand what it's all about, so SoCap08 includes a track for "newbies," where practitioners can bring their college roommates who have become hedge fund managers, McKinsey partners, and corporate executives. They'll learn about this new world of doing business and doing good - and walk away knowing how they too can have an impact.
Unique Workshop Day
After the two days of structured sessions and receptions, there will be a special "open space" workshop day, designed to bring together all of those from the conference who want to coalesce around action. Participants in this followup "unconference" will be able to partner in real time with others from different arenas to determine what can be accomplished in the coming year.
Convening SoCap08
The conference is produced by Xigi Media (ZIG-ee), a new kind of media company that's encouraging innovation and sponsoring dialog in a variety of emerging markets, in partnership with Xigi.org, creator of the leading social capital networking and market discovery site. Xigi.net is a grass-roots platform where thousands of participants have put themselves on the map to "connect the dots" to discover who is doing what in all of the various aspects of the social capital market. Xigi.net will be a powerful tool for SoCap08, putting relationships and organizations in context, and showing how the entrepreneurs, startups, and funders in attendance all inter-relate.
World-Class Sponsors
SoCap08 will be sponsored by a range of world-class funders and other organizations partnering with Xigi Media to deliver this watershed event. A variety of sponsorship packages is available. Organizations and individuals interested in sponsoring SoCap08 should contact Kevin Jones or Mark Beam.