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

With all the metrics-related events this month, you’d think World Metrics Day was in October. However, the day chosen by Acumen Fund and the others behind the Pulse initiative, actually falls on June 16.

In effort to capture all things metric-related this month, I’ve attempted to pull together a metrics roundup of sorts.

• ANDE Annual Conference. Metrics was a hot topic at the Annual ANDE conference with every break-out having at least one session dedicated to discussing metrics. E+CO Ventures shared their experience launching the Global Green! Seminar in Costa Rica to help emerging-market entrepreneurs track and improve their environmental performance using the Toolkit for Impact Measurement (TIMe) they developed. The two-day pilot training session looked at maximizing business operations efficiencies with a focus on greenhouse gas emissions, water resources, and energy efficiency. Another metrics-related breakout that included representatives from McKinsey & Co., GIIN, GIIRS and the Rockefeller Foundation answered metric-related questions from the audience. The session ended with a deep discussion on how to incorporate metrics into a venture’s theory of change. Additionally, ANDE announced an expansion of its core set of metrics that each member reports on annually to eight metrics, which will be aligned with IRIS 2.0. The conference wrapped up with members thinking hard about how the ANDE community can use metrics to demonstrate that small and growing businesses can increase the prosperity of the poor in emerging markets.
• IRIS 2.0 The second version of IRIS was released on Monday. The new version of IRIS incorporates feedback since the launch of the first version in July 2009. The organization also released a new website to provide guidance for funds and companies using IRIS performance indicators. Be sure to share your feedback on version 2.0 on the new website.
• Hearing the Voices of the Poor Through Impact Assessment Workshop will be held October 26-28 in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan immediately before the National Net Impact Conference, which will also take place in Ann Arbor. The three-day training workshop led by Dr. Ted London and Dr. Andy Grogan-Kaylor, is designed to build attendees’ capabilities in developing and implementing a cost-effective process to understand, measure, and improve local poverty alleviation impacts. During the workshop, participants will use the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Impact Assessment Framework, as featured in the Harvard Business Review, to identify potential impacts of their venture. Alongside the framework, the team will share a robust and systematic approach for ventures to use to measure and track their impacts. Some of the methodology issues discussed during the inaugural workshop can be found on an earlier post. Those interested can read more about the workshop and register on the website.
• SoCap Conference kicked off on Monday. You’ve probably been tracking the conference closely as a result of the number of posts we’ve been able to write as a media partner for the conference. The posts started with a countdown to the conference with a piece with William Foote on Root Capital who gave a keynote Tuesday, and another piece on E+Co and New Venture’s Global Green seminar who hosted a panel. The live coverage began with Jacqueline Novogratz’s keynote, and has continued in depth with recaps of the first day and summaries on a number of other sessions.

I realize this likely is not an all inclusive list, if you’d like to share other metric-related news for this month, please leave a comment, and we can start a dialog on NextBillion.