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

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

This marks the third year that international development, entrepreneurship, and public service programs at MIT have come together to organize the MIT Scaling Development Ventures conference. Each year, the conference brings together perspectives from the international development and business communities to examine the best ways to bring poverty-alleviating solutions to market at scale. This year’s conference takes place at MIT on Saturday, April 11. Registration is free for members of the MIT community.

“The conference was born out of a vision many of us here at MIT share to rally industry, government, nongovernmental organizations, and entrepreneurs around MIT’s commitment to innovate against poverty,” Saida Benhayoune, director of the Scale-Ups program at MIT D-Lab, says. “I am particularly excited about this year’s edition, as it coincides with D-Lab’s launch of the MIT Practical Impact Alliance, an initiative that fosters shared learning and collaborative action to innovate and scale market driven solutions to global poverty issues.”

Conference keynote speakers are Kevin Starr, director of the Mualgo Foundation and the Rainer Arnhold Fellows Program, and a frequent contributor to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Ann Mei Chang, executive director of USAID’s Global Development Lab.

“I am excited to speak and meet young innovative minds at MIT Scaling Development Ventures,” Chang says. “Tapping into the global collective genius that partners like MIT foster is a key factor for the U.S. Global Development Lab to find, test, and scale the best development innovation break-throughs.”