Agenda

Thursday, March 1, 2012, Noon – 9 p.m.
Stamp Student Union, University of Maryland

Noon – 1 p.m.	AFTERNOON KEYNOTE (Stanley Litow, IBM)
1 – 2 p.m.	Breakout Session 1 (see details below) *including extended Carbon War Room Workshop and a discussion with Bill Drayton (by invitation)
2 – 2.15 p.m.	LIGHT REFRESHMENT BREAK (Sustainable Campus Tour Departs )
2:15 – 3:15 p.m.	Breakout Session 2 *including extended Carbon War Room Workshop (see details below)
3:20 – 4.45 p.m.	Breakout Session 3 (see details below) *Including Fish Bowl Discussion (by invitation)
4.45 – 5 p.m.	BREAK
5 – 6 p.m.	EVENING KEYNOTE (Letitia Webster, VF Corporation)
6 – 7 p.m.	Breakout Session 4 (see details below) *including Social Entrepreneurship Business Pitch Competition and extended Design Thinking Workshop
7 – 8 p.m.	Breakout Session 5 (see details below) *Including a discussion with Bill Drayton (by invitation)
8 – 9 p.m.	Fish Bowl Discussion (by invitation, details below)
7 – 9 p.m.	Networking Reception *Including a web feed with Kevin Bacon at 7 p.m.

Breakout Session 1: 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Launching a Social Enterprise

An interactive discussion about the process of developing a social enterprise plan, from brainstorm to rollout. Students should be able to identify practical steps to get their “cocktail napkin” idea organized and rolling. Experts provide feedback on their quick-draft idea and process, and offer suggestions for improvement.

Crowdsourcing to Change the World

In today's quickly changing tech-driven world, the term "crowdsourcing" has emerged in the entrepreneurial vernacular; namely, utilizing the tools of interconnectivity to inform decisions at a quicker rate with more degrees of freedom than ever previously possible. However, crowdsourcing is much more than massive polls. This panel focuses on the state of the movement. From changing nation states to connecting donors to entrepreneurs, where are we now and where are we going?

Confirmed Panelists:

• Manmeet Mehta, Program Officer, Global Giving
• Alex Budak, Co-Founder, StartSomeGood.com

Public Private Partnerships in Addressing Africa’s Development Challenges

This session offers a look at private public partnerships in Africa as a means of tackling Africa’s development challenges. The audience should come away with knowledge of new approaches to addressing some of Africa’s most pressing developing challenges, particularly in the area of private sector led growth.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Jason Bauer, Director, Private Sector Development, Millennium Challenge Corporation

Carbon War Room Workshop: Breaking Down Market Barriers (Extended)

The Carbon War Room uses the Business Model Canvas to convey a business model development methodology to participants to engage with clean-tech and renewable energy companies, as well as MBA and other graduate students. This approach was developed by Alex Osterwalder, author of 'Business Model Generation.'

The Workshop will provide real-world examples of successful business models, and will allow participants to start “practicing” business model innovation during breakout sessions. The goal is to understand how a product or service can be offered in new and novel ways, thereby increasing sales, while also yielding an environmental benefit in the form of a measurable reduction in GHG emissions.

Approach:

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model. Participants will use this tool to better understand the challenges faced by clean-tech and renewable energy companies today in scaling their businesses. After the workshop participants will:

• Understand why business model thinking is important today and how it goes beyond mere product innovation.
• Understand and have applied a systematic approach to business model development.
• Have discussed several examples of successful business models and be able to use the tool for their own entrepreneurial and academic endeavors.

Confirmed panelists:

• Matt Cullinen, Senior Associate, Research & Intelligence, Carbon War Room
• Jigar Shah, CEO, Carbon War Room

Breakout Session 2: 2 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Venture Philanthropy in Education

Education reform is yet another example of how the marriage of best business practices with purpose driven goals can create wonders. In this panel we will discuss roles played by venture philanthropists who strategically fund and support the new ideas of education entrepreneurs and those education leaders who are taking these new ideas and scaling them into district wide solutions that revolutionize society.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Mark Grovic, General Partner, New Markets Venture Partners
• Shirley Marcus Allen, Partner, Venture Philanthropy Partners

The Business of Creating Stronger Communities

What role do businesses play in shaping communities where people want to work, live and play? In this session panelists will discuss the ways in which businesses can value to communities, and help shape the long-term economic and physical development of cities.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Morgan Greenhouse, Founder & CEO, Verdehouse
• Katie McConnell, Senior Associate Finance & Economic Development, National League of Cities
• Andrew Yu, International Marketing Agent, Fairfax County Economic Development Authority
• Michael Mallinoff, City Manager, City of Annapolis

E-Waste: From Problem to Profit

Upon the release of the iPhone 4, Apple sold 1.7 million units in its first 11 days. Many customers purchased these new phones, discarding their 'outdated' phones to the trash. As new technology releases become more frequent, Electronic Waste (E-Waste) is a problem that begs to be addressed. It is fast becoming one of the top environmental issues in today's marketplace, and to some, a thriving business opportunity. Through the lens of some organizations already making strides in this emerging industry, this session will explore the challenges and opportunities in transforming E-Waste from problem to profits.

Breakout Session 3: 3:20 p.m. – 4: 45 p.m.

College Park Impact Workshop: Addressing Local Challenges

College Park Impact offers students an opportunity to help transform a local company or nonprofit facing a complex business or sustainability challenge. Leaders of local organizations will be selected and invited to share their challenges, framing a single question for workshop participants to address through a facilitated creative problem solving / design thinking process. The session will open with a brief overview of the goals of the problem solving process, and then be carried out by 4-6 problem solving facilitators - one designated for each of the local organizations sharing their challenge. It is expected that anywhere from 10 to 15 Symposium participants will comprise each of the problem solving groups.

More Than Money Career Workshop

Today, there are more careers than ever for you to have a positive impact on our world. But how do you know whether a career in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in social enterprise, or in nonprofit is a better fit for you? How can you best position yourself for career options that are rewarding both financially and personally? Come and learn more about how you can best assess which sustainability career path is a better fit for your goals, and how you can successfully compete for jobs that will enable you to turn your values into value in the CSR, social enterprise or nonprofit sectors.

Led by: Mrim Boutla, Co-Founder, More than Money Careers

Documentary and Discussion: To Be Announced!

Breakout Session 4: 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Social Entrepreneurship and Global Health

Discussions in this panel will expose students to some of the most recent innovations being used to address today's global health challenges. By the end of the session, students should be working on developing a definition for social entrepreneurship and an understanding of how a diverse range of skill sets can be employed in innovations for global health.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Marguerite Farrell, Health Officer and the Private Sector Team Leader, USAID, Global Health Bureau

Measuring and Reporting Sustainability

This panel aims to explore best practices and understand problems in sustainability measurement and reporting that organizations face. Given the recent development of various metrics, indices and reporting guidelines used in non-financial reporting is it feasible to disclose corporate sustainability efforts through quantifiable, auditable metrics that address 1) social, 2) environmental and 3) economic sustainability perspectives? Will it be possible to integrate sustainability reporting into financial reporting of an organization to show the impact of sustainability efforts on performance?

Confirmed Panelists:

• Kristen Sullivan, Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP
• Jeff Senne, PwC
• Catherine Sheehy, UL Environment
• Carmen Niethammer, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group

*Social Entrepreneurship Business Pitch Competition

Be: The Next Big Thing

All year, student entrepreneurs have been pitching socially-minded business ideas to entrepreneurs-in-residence— ideas with positive impact beyond profit maximization and providing jobs. At the 4th Annual Social Enterprise Symposium, five Finalists will be presenting their business ideas to a panel of expert social entrepreneurship judges for a chance to win up to $1250 of seed funding, co-sponsored by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.

After presenting at an informal Pitch Dingman session, students may apply for consideration as a Finalist by submitting(a) a six minute PowerPoint or Prezi deck, (b) a 100 word description of the venture, and (c) a 100 word description on progress developing the venture since first attending a session. Applications should be e-mailed to Alla Corey NO LATER THAN 5 p.m. on February 15th. For tips on how to prepare a business pitch presentation, click here. Finalists will be notified on February 21st and receive coaching from the Dingman Center team before the competition.  

*Design Thinking for Breakthroughs in Innovation (extended session)

Originally practiced by firms like Ideo and Apple, Design Thinking has led to innovative breakthroughs to social problems. The workshop will cover what design thinking is, how it works, why it works, and share some vivid stories where it has been applied to create social value.

Led By: Heather Fleming, Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Catapult Designs

Breakout Session 5: 7 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Financing Renewable Energy

This session will offer a look at feasible and implementable strategies that enable the financing of global renewable energy projects such as solar, hydro, wind, and biomass in developed countries and emerging markets. It will explore infrastructure development able to sustain projects over the long term, technology advancement and innovation, and the cost of capital as compared to traditional energy generation.

Confirmed panelists:

• Geoffrey S. Underwood, Director, Solar Asset Acquisition at Constellation Energy

Sustainable Chocolate Sourcing

This session will explore three different models in sustainable chocolate sourcing. We will explore how each company's target market, supply chain and scale impacts how they source their cocoa and their interactions with cocoa farmers. The session will include a chocolate tasting that compares chocolate sources from around the world and a discussion of the different markets for sustainable chocolate and other goods.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Tim McCollum, Co-Founder, Medacasse Chocolate
• Erin Gorman, Founder/Former CEO Divine Chocolate USA and Vice Chair, Board of Director, Divine Chocolate

The Economics of Ecosystems (Payments for Ecosystem Services)

It is argued that much of the world’s environmental degradation occurs because the cost associated with the use of natural resources is distorted by market systems. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) attempt to fix this distortion by attributing a monetary value to ecosystem service like clean water, carbon sequestration, and agrobiodiversity. This session will explore the concept of PES – one that requires major value shifts in the business world – and consider market opportunities and ways to get more private companies involved.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Nathalie Walker, Manager , Tropical Agriculture, Forests and Climate Project, National Wildlife Federation
• Clayton Ogg, Director, Conservation Economics and Finance, Defenders of Wildlife

Select Session: 8 p.m. – 9 p.m.