2008 Skoll World Forum Preview

March 26, 2008 in Acumen News by Rob Katz | No comments

I like late March. Here in New York - and in Washington, where I used to live - late March is when spring starts to take hold, bringing longer, warmer days. It’s also when the annual Skoll World Forum takes place, bringing a breath of fresh air to cloudy, rainy England (apologies for the weather metaphor). For a review of Forums past, check out Jacqueline’s blog post from 2006 and Kevin Jones’ guest post on NextBillion from 2007.

I sincerely hope for good weather in Oxford this week, since a number of my Acumen Fund colleagues (and numerous allies from throughout the ‘base of the pyramid’ community) will be attending the Forum. Then again, rain might be for the best - that way, no one is tempted to spend time outside, away from the excellent sessions. I am particularly impressed with this year’s lineup, and its theme: social entrepreneurship: culture, context and social change.

If I had to choose, here are some of the sessions I would mark on my planner as “must-see.” Unfortunately, some of them are being held simultaneously…so be sure to check out posted synopses online (see below for more info on blogging at the Skoll World Forum.)

On March 27:
Morning -

Afternoon -

  • Empathy as a Tool for Social Impact
    (2007 Acumen Fund Fellow Jocelyn Wyatt and her IDEO colleagues run an interactive workshop…can’t wait to see the notes from this.)
  • Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What’s the Impact of This All?
    (Brian Trelstad talking about metrics and impact assessment? I may be fortunate enough to see this up close on a regular basis, but if you don’t work at Acumen, you should check this out. Besides, Roger Martin - co-author of an excellent article critical of social entrepreneurship’s everything-to-everyone definition - will be there too.)
  • Addressing the Talent Gap
    (An under-heralded and incredibly critical success factor at the BoP: can you hire - and retain - good people? Acumen’s Deepti Doshi will be speaking here - check it out.)

On March 28:
Morning -

Afternoon -

  • Plenary session with Paul Collier - author of “The Bottom Billion” - if you’re not convinced that this session will be worthwhile, read Ethan’s review of Collier’s book.
  • Plenary panel featuring Acumen’s Jacqueline Novogratz and David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World
  • Plenary session with Paul Farmer - co-founder of Partners in Health - had the Skoll Forum somehow recruited Paul Polak in addition to Collier and Farmer, then they would have completed a triple-play of brilliant, world-changing people named Paul. ‘Settling’ for Collier and Farmer is far from that - attendees are quite lucky.

The Forum is sold out - and has been for weeks - but that doesn’t mean we can’t follow along from afar. First off, Social Edge will be blogging every session and sending a team of Berkeley scholars into the halls and coffee breaks to dig even deeper. In addition, I have asked my Acumen Fund colleagues to send me updates from the Forum. Hopefully Jacqueline, Brian, Ann and Deepti will post at least once…when they’re not speaking on a panel, of course!

Full-time staff won’t be Acumen’s sole representation, however. Just as we did last year, Acumen is re-uniting its 2008 Acumen Fund Fellows cohort for a mid-year meeting, de-brief and short holiday. I’ve asked the Fellows - Jawad, Catherine, Tricia, Wangari, John, Chris and Jon - to cross-post some of their mid-year reflections from their Fellows blog here on the Acumen Fund blog.

Finally, as if the current Fellows weren’t enough, Acumen’s inaugural class of Fellows will be having a reunion in Oxford this weekend. Stay tuned for their reflections as well.

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