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

Tomorrow morning, I return to Maine for the annual Pop!Tech conference.? For the second consecutive year, NextBillion.net will be live-blogging the event, which brings together 600+ thought leaders for three days of inspiring presentations, performances, discussions and declarations.? (I am humbled to be part of this small cadre of bloggers: GigaOM, Fast Company, GOOD Magazine, and White African.)? Here’s last year’s conference preview for a little bit of context and history.

After last year’s Pop!Tech I wondered aloud what its ’net impact’ would be in 2008.? Well, we’re about to find out.?Pop!Tech has launched an ambitious campaign that appears to be moving the conference away from the narrow tech-innovation space and into the change the world space.? Seriously – they’ve invested heavily in a Social Innovation Fellows program, which I will cover extensively this week in addition to my analysis here on NextBillion.

So what should you, the NextBillion reader, anticipate from this year’s Pop!Tech coverage?? I’ll be writing up a special session entitled “Scaling the Bottom of the Pyramid” which will be taught by Paul Polak and Bunker Roy.? From the main sessions, I’ll focus on base of the pyramid ideas and practice, paying special attention to the Fellows as well as proven entrepreneurs like Van Jones and Saul Griffith.

Get ready for Pop!Tech by checking out some inspiring Pop!Casts, browsing over to the conference blog and by perusing their Flickr sets.

Going to Maine?? Let me know – I’d love to meet up while we’re there.