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

This flagship event from The SEEP Network offers a platform for attendees to share experiences of common challenges and collectively explore opportunities for greater impact. Last year’s conference welcomed 400 leaders from 52 countries, representing 155 organizations from academia, research, international development, government and the private sector.

This year’s conference, Collaboration for Impact, will take place at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, USA on October 1-3, with post-conference events on October 4.

This year’s agenda includes 25 peer learning sessions under four technical tracks:

1. Preparing for the Future of Food (5 sessions)
2. Building Resilience to Protracted Crises, Disasters and Conflicts (6 sessions)
3. Unleashing the Power of Women and Girls (7 sessions)
4. Getting and Using the Right Kind of Evidence (7 sessions)

Contributing organizations include BRAC, CARE, Chemonics, Grameen Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, ICRW and other leading development champions.

Private Sector Engagement for Women’s Economic Empowerment

The opening plenary, “Private Sector Engagement for Women’s Economic Empowerment,” will engage Linda Scott, the Emeritus DP World Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and the founder of DoubleXEconomy, along with representatives from Coca Cola and Qualcomm in an intense discussion about the lessons learned by a group of major multinationals who have joined the effort to economically empower women.

Donor Perspectives: Building the Evidence for Market Systems Development

At the closing plenary, speakers from UNCDF, DFAT and USAID will share their take on the challenges in market systems programming.

Fail Fest

Back by popular demand, the Fail Fest is designed to help participants deal with failures productively, building a culture of communicating failures in a way that maximizes learning and generates ideas for applying this learning across organizations and contexts. Hear from iDE, Market Development Facility, World University Service of Canada and others in this unique event.

Post-Conference Events: Stay One More Day

Join our Savings Groups Post-Conference Events on October 4, which will include:

1. CARE POWER Africa Learning Event
2. Global Learning Series: Applying a Market Systems Approach to Savings Groups

Both events are free of charge and include breakfast and lunch. Learn more and sign up here.

The conference is less than a month away, so be sure to register now!

Free Ticket Giveaway

EDITOR’S NOTE: SEEP will be giving away a free ticket to readers of NextBillion Notes, NextBillion’s weekly e-newsletter. If you haven’t already, subscribe here by September 11 for your chance to win – instructions to participate in the giveaway will be announced in the September 12 newsletter.

Mashal Amjad is a program associate with SEEP Network’s member affairs and global communications team.