The Social Capital Markets Conference gathers thousands of impact investors, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and innovators from around the globe to catalyze social change. This year, we’re excited to share the SOCAP panels that will include voices from Acumen’s community. If you’re in San Francisco from October 23 – 26, come find us for breakfasts, panels, evening cocktails, and everything in between.
—
Chocolate for Breakfast: Resilient Food Chains and the Cacao Industry
Time: October 23, 9 – 11 AM
Location: Greens Restaurant, Fort Mason
Acumen Panelists: Hazel Taylor and Emily Stone, CEO, Uncommon Cacao
From 9 – 10 am, join us for an invitation-only breakfast for investors focused on resilient food systems. From 10 – 11 am, we will open those doors for a chocolate tasting.
—
Listen More, Learn More: Lean Data as a Tool for Customer-Centricity
Time: October 23, 9:15 – 10 AM
Location: SOCAP, General’s Residence, Fort Mason
Acumen Panelist: Sasha Dichter
The new competitive advantage is deeply understanding customers’ needs and fulfilling them better than anyone else. Since 2014, Acumen’s Lean Data team has surveyed more than 50,000 customers from 100+ companies across 27 countries. Learn how entrepreneurs around the world have used Lean Data to better understand their customers and impact.
—
SOCAP Reception: Cocktails and Networking with Acumen, ANDE, the Autodesk Foundation, the Miller Center, and Village Capital
Time: October 23, 6 – 9 PM
Location: Autodesk Gallery, 1 Market St., San Francisco
Acumen Panelists: Jo Opot and Charlotte Parker
Join us for an invitation-only cocktail reception featuring entrepreneurs and innovators making a better world. Connect with funders, friends, and peers to socialize and celebrate our impact community. This event will take place within the unique setting of the Autodesk Gallery where the work of designers and changemakers will be on display.
—
At the Heart of Impact Measurement: Listening to Customers
Time: October 24, 8:30 – 9:30 AM
Location: SOCAP, Fort Mason
Acumen Panelist: Sasha Dichter
At its core, learning about impact is grounded in a simple activity: listening to feedback from customers. This session will explore the partnership between the DFID Impact Programme and Acumen’s Lean Data team to create a customer-centric approach to impact measurement. Over the past two years the organizations have worked together to support some of Africa’s leading social enterprises to collect impact data in a way that creates real business value.
—
Transforming Landscapes
Time: October 24, 10:30 – 11:30 AM
Location: SOCAP, Fort Mason
Acumen Panelist: Noor Ullah
—
Gender Lens Investing Happy Hour
Time (to be confirmed): October 24, 5 PM
Location: SOCAP, Fort Mason
Acumen Panelist: Sasha Dichter
—
Innovative Investment Partnerships for Climate-Resilient Agriculture in Africa
Time: October 25, 10:30 – 11:15 AM
Location: SOCAP, Fort Mason Acumen
Acumen Panelists: Hazel Taylor and Noor Ullah
Smallholder farmers grow 70% of Africa’s produce, yet three-quarters of Africa’s malnourished children live in farming households. However, many innovations are being explored at this critical nexus between poverty and climate. What are the innovative partnerships, investment opportunities, and measurement tools for tackling this issue at scale? How can we increase farmer income and productivity while minimizing exposure to climate risk?
—
A Funders’ Workshop for Gender Lens Investing
Time: October 25, 2 – 3:30 PM
Location: SOCAP, Fort Mason Acumen
Acumen Panelists: Yasmina Zaidman, Jo Opot, Charlotte Parker
How are you building your investment or giving strategy in ways that support women? Join us for a fireside chat on what criteria really matter for gender equity before we break into small working groups to dive deeper. Criteria and frameworks are important, but once you’ve decided what you’re driving towards, how do you measure success? As space is limited to 20 participants, please arrive early to ensure your spot and come prepared to discuss an example from your own work.
—
Renewables in Africa: From Talk to Action
Time: October 25, 4:30 – 5:30 PM
Location: SOCAP, Fort Mason
Acumen Panelist: Jo Opot
Renewable energy funds are popping up across the world, but actual investment in infrastructure is minimal. The off-grid energy sector is growing but cannot scale to meet global needs quickly enough. It’s time to galvanize the financial community to answer the need. This session will explore a number of practical, immediate steps we can take to radically increase investment in renewable energy in Africa – bringing electricity for the economic development needed by more than 600 million Africans.
—
The Invisible Hand that Feeds? Leveraging Markets to Serve Base-of-Pyramid Customers in the Clean Cooking Sector
Time: October 26, 10:15 – 11:30 AM
Location: SOCAP, Fort Mason
Acumen Panelist: Sachin Rudra
The panel discussion will describe how a market-based approach has pulled in new investments, catalyzing an increase in technological and business model innovation. We will discuss the challenges that exist in serving the world’s poorest and most remote customers, and conclude by sharing recent lessons on building an ‘impact industry’ from the ground up.