AT A GLANCE
AT A GLANCE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
8:00 - 5:00 Pre-Conference Programming
Programming on Tuesday will be special content for our scholarship entrepreneurs, accelerator leaders, regional cohorts, and first time attendees. Also, those interested in Latin American entrepreneurs will want to reserve this day for special programming.
2:00 General Registration Opens
6:00 Special Programming
Kick off your SOCAP experience by picking up your badge and program book and networking with other members of the SOCAP community.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
8:30 – 10:30 Morning Plenary
10:45 – 11:45 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
12:15 – 1:15 Concurrent breakout Sessions
1:15 – 2:45 Lunch
2:45 – 3:45 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
4:00 – 5:00 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
5:30 – 6:30 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
8:30 – 10:30 Morning Plenary
10:45 – 11:45 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
12:15 – 1:15 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
1:15 – 2:45 Lunch
2:45 – 3:45 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
4:00 – 5:00 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
5:30 – 6:30 Evening Plenary
6:30 SOCAP Party!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
9:00 – 10:00 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
10:15 – 11:15 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
11:30 – 12:30 Concurrent Breakout Sessions
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:30 Closing Plenary
SOCAP14 Session Preview
Financial Services Innovation and Decision Making
Impact is always difficult to assess, but even more so with financial products because of a lack of standard metrics and effective measurement tools. Financial services innovators and thinkers discuss how to effectively measure success in underserved communities. Hear how these panelists measure their own work, how to build a more cohesive impact performance system, and how data actually impacts their decision-making.
Understanding Human Behavior to Advance Financial Inclusion
A significant challenge of financial inclusion is designing competitive products and services that meet customer needs. US products that intersperse incentives, credit repair and access to immediate cash while encouraging savings are essential. Learn how organizations have examined consumer behavior and needs to create products to bridge the gap to formal financial participation, using techniques such as “gamification,” “just in time” financial education, alternative underwriting models and pay day lending alternatives.
Health: It’s Where You Live
Your postal code affects your health more than your genetic code. People in different neighborhoods, states, and countries can have vastly different life expectancies and health outcomes, with similar access to health care. Violence, access to clean water, educational and employment opportunities all affect health outcomes. Understanding these “social determinants of health” can lead to innovation and opportunities, and these panelists will help point the way.
Food and Tech: How Does Technological Innovation Foster Sustainability?
Technological innovation is driving transparency, traceability, and ultimately sustainability in the food supply chain. Online marketplaces help aggregate demand and supply in new ways, giving consumers easy access to sustainable food choices, and enabling producers to enter new markets. Join some of the leading entrepreneurs in the field as they share their stories, perspectives on market developments and future opportunities in the sector.
Growing Entrepreneurship in the Local Food System: Helping Early Stage Food Startups Thrive
How can food startups create impact in their local communities and beyond? What do early stage food startups need in order to thrive? What challenges do they face and how can they best be supported? Join a group of entrepreneurs, enablers and investors as they explore the success factors in bringing local food entrepreneurship to the next level.
Lessons in Multilingual Leadership
As all business and finance becomes more collaborative (anchored in greater transparency, attention to constituency, and an outcomes orientation), the Impact Investing 2.0 project found that “multilingual leadership” will become an essential approach for individuals and organizations to master. In this first-of-its kind workshop, attendees will participate in hands-on activities to introduce the cross-sector skills for success in impact investing and social entrepreneurship. An exceptional group of “coaches” have been assembled to work with participants in small groups.
The Complex Anatomy of Social Impact Bonds
In the past year, multiple social impact bonds have been launched. The initial deals have been time-consuming, complex, and highly customized. There is hope, however, for a streamlined, repeatable process that will bring creative financing and scale to organizations with proven impact. Dive into a discussion of the toughest challenges and pivotal turning points so far, as well as the innovations and best practices that will lead to more efficient dealmaking.
What Does it Mean to be Investment Ready?
Social entrepreneurs require capital to create impact, and impact investors with capital are looking for investment ready deals. But how can investment readiness be measured and understood by both entrepreneurs and investors? The Capability Assessment Matrix (CAM) is a benchmarking tool for social enterprises, designed to guide and measure where an enterprise is along the continuum of conception to implementation, which also helps inform how investors evaluate whether a social enterprise is investment ready.
Breaking Good: Creating Second Chances for America’s Most Overlooked Talent Pool
What would it be like to be known for the worst thing you’ve done? Millions with criminal histories live with this question every day. Defy Ventures is breaking that cycle, and helping ex-convicts become successful, legal entrepreneurs. Hear some of these entrepreneurs share their remarkable journeys.
Building a New Economy: What Does Love Have to do With It?
Building the case for a more compassionate, sustainable and place-based economy, Judy Wicks describes the value of investing in businesses that grow deeper in their communities to build local self-reliance and resilience, as well as greater health and happiness. With examples from her own business career, she shows how cooperation, sharing and making business decisions with a balance of head and heart are necessary to address the urgent challenges of our times.
Investing in the Margins
How can investments break the cycle of poverty that some urban neighborhoods have experienced for multiple generations? What are the cutting edge strategies in working with residents of underserved neighborhoods? What are the roles of capital, time, mentorship, and access? Join this rich discussion to hear inspiring stories of what is working, discern the challenges that might surprise you, and meet colleagues dedicated to investing towards holistic renewal and localized capacity.
When the Community is the Crowd: Place-based Crowdfunding
Social media is transforming finance, ushering in the age of crowdfunding. While the term ‘crowd’ conjures up anonymous masses, some of the most innovative models are taking root in place-based communities, where residents are inspired by a sense of civic pride and a desire to revitalize the places they call home. This panel will explore some of the new funding models that operate at the intersection of crowdfunding and community, and the impact they are having on local entrepreneurship and job growth.
Access and Equity in the Sharing Economy
The sharing economy holds the promise of a new, distributed, and community-driven economic model. However, in order to fulfill this promise, we need to ensure that the sharing economy is not recreating old power systems, but rather building responsible marketplaces. How do we thoughtfully design a new market system with fair and equal access at the foundation? How do we make sharing platforms inclusive of, and empowering for, all communities?
The Reinvention of Mentoring: Activating Our Community’s Wisdom
Entrepreneurs around the world are seeking access to advice and industry expertise to help scale their companies. Many of us have wisdom to share and care deeply about fueling the growth of world changing entrepreneurs. Hear from those building new networks that accelerate collaboration among change makers, deliver the power of human capital to where it’s needed, and enable each of us to share our wisdom to accelerate impact.
Social Innovation: Inspiration & Perspiration
Thomas Edison is famously quoted as saying that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Social innovation today is driven by new ideas but also by the execution of those ideas. The best teams have what it takes to innovate and execute with great strategy, talent, mentorship, partnership and collaboration. This session will explore several personal/entrepreneurial experiences from those who have been in the trenches and emerged victorious.
Chicken/Egg: Which Comes First, Resilient People or Resilient Systems?
Just as insights from psychology and biology are illuminating markers of resilience in individuals, more and more businesses and social enterprises are looking to create and support systems that allow people and communities to respond to adversity in healthy ways. How does individual resilience bridge to community resilience and vice versa? This panel discussion explores resilience science and systems thinking to illuminate practical top-down and bottoms-up approaches that support human flourishing, for individuals and at scale.
Building Regenerative Economies and Businesses vs. Just Saying You Are
As evidenced by “greenwashing”, individuals and organizations are tempted to rename current work by the words of the new trend or idea, without real reflection. Even mission driven businesses and leaders are susceptible, which matters because it slows real change and allows dumbing down and co-opting of new pathways to responsible business. Discover the core criteria of regeneration and its application to economic development and business from two established leaders in this field.