Today I'll be on my way to the airport to go to the UK. Over the next week and a half, I'll be attending some of the sessions at the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrpereneurs, the parallel OxfordJam conference, and then the Impact Investing Programme at the Oxford University's Said School of Business.
The main reason for the trip is so that I can attend the Impact Investing Programme. The curriculum includes a comprehensive overview of this emerging field, including impact investing deal flow, identification and analysis of investments, and an introduction to the latest tools for measurement of results against multiple (financial and non-financial) objectives. The instructors include tenured Oxford profs and some other international experts that have been brought in for this programme. It should provide a great opportunity for learning and for strengthening of professional networks for all the attendees.
Immediately before the course is the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Since the main reason for coming was to attend the impact investing programme, I didn't want to commit to the full three days of the world forum conference immediately before the courses begin. I was excited to discover that I could just purchase separate tickets for the four keynote addresses, leaving most of my time free for preparation and to ensure I'm ready for the coursework. The keynote addresses should be great - the speakers include Jeff Skoll, Pamela Hartigan, Muhammad Yunus, and Kofi Annan.
I also discovered a fringe event called OxfordJam running in parallel to the main Skoll World Forum. OxfordJam is a free conference with a wide variety of talks by lesser known speakers than those of the World Forum, but some of the sessions looked to be quite interesting in their own right. Where time allows, I'll also pop by there for a few sessions and see what an un-conference looks like. OxfordJam also claims to have legendary social gatherings, so it might be a good place to take in a nightcap at some point as well.
During my time in Oxford I hope to post a few times to share some of the most exciting learnings. I'll also be pinging out regularly on my twitter feed, so if you want to catch a few nuggets as I share them out through that medium, follow me at @4thWatchGlobal.
Jerome
