Are You Going To Miami This March?

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-01-06 15:10:00 UTC
Topics:

I am, and it's to attend the Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference, a first of its kind event focused on the regional social innovation in Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

I've been in touch with the planners of this event for a few months now, and they were part of the reason I named "Regional Innovation Ecosystems" the #2 trend I thought would shape social entrepreneurship in the coming year. They saw the success of events like SoCap and made a bet that there was both a need and an opportunity to focus the conversation around a specific and important regional hub.

With something like 500 registrants, it's pretty clear that they're on to something. The three day event is chock full of interesting speakers and conversations. Although there is an attempt to bring specific attention to the region in question, there's also a generalist approach and something for everyone. The speaker list includes folks from companies like IDEO, Gray Ghost Ventures, Social Edge, and many many more.

I'm fascinated by the Latin America social entrepreneurship case study particularly because the complicated history of politics, democratization attempts and Cold War controversy. Latin America still has strong socialist leadership in many regions which, I think. That political mindset tends to view more of the services provided by social entrepreneurs as the business of the government. That perspective could be both a great challenge for social entrepreneurs who in other parts of the world (sigh, San Francisco) may get a lot of philosophical boost even before they've gotten a huge amount done. It could also be a significant obstacle if people are more wary of markets.

It should be a great event. There are only a few more registration slots at the current price. Visit the SVC/SE Miami website for more information.

(Photo: joiseyshowaa)

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Three Things To Watch With The Social Innovation Fund
NEXT STORY:
Facing Forward: The End of the Social Entrepreneurship Blog on Change.org

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.