NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

The European Microfinance Network (EMN) will hold its 13^th Annual Conference in Warsaw (Poland) on the 16^th and 17^th June 2016. The purpose of the event is to be a meeting of minds, ideas and experiences. About 300 delegates are expected to attend, including EMN member organisations, speakers, and representatives from other institutions active in the microfinance sector.

Microfinance practitioners will be invited to share, exchange and challenge good practices in microfinance. EMN aims to achieve in-depth and interactive knowledge sharing within its plenary sessions, workshops, roundtable meetings, and open space dialogues.

For more than 10 years, Microfinance has figured on the European agenda and shall remain there as long as we face social and financial exclusion in Europe. The number of challenges that the socially and financially excluded face has not ceased growing, and neither has the need of being responsive to these changes. Therefore, Microfinance Institutions (Who?) are increasingly offering a variety of products & services (What?) all across Europe, with the aim of satisfying the changing needs and wishes of the customers (for Whom?). However, it would seem like the definition of microfinance has not evolved in parallel over this past decade.

This year, EMN is inviting its attendees of the 13^th Annual Conference to come together to take stock of these continuously changing market realities which practitioners are confronted with and working with on a daily basis. The conference is the perfect opportunity to share good practices, to learn from each other and to think on and shape the next steps together. This conference aims to lay the foundations for a revised definition of European Microfinance, while taking into account its dynamics and trends.