Last year was the first in-person conference since before the pandemic and the first under the leadership of the Sorenson Impact Center. Can you reflect on that experience?

Most importantly, we consider it an honor to be a part of an organization that has been so central to the growth of impact investing across the globe. It’s true the company was in a tough spot following the pandemic, but its brand, vision and loyal community remained very strong. We believed in SOCAP so much at the Sorenson Impact Center, that we were excited to invest our time and resources into stabilizing the company and leading its rebirth. Much of what we did to bring SOCAP back in 2022 was entirely reliant on a group of people who, like us, believed the world needed SOCAP. It was really inspiring how many people and organizations lined up to chip in and help.

SOCAP's Robert Munson

Our first job was to leverage the passion and loyalty that so many have toward SOCAP by providing a path forward and a sense of real hope and promise that SOCAP could continue as a strong platform with the added strength and stability of the Center and the Sorenson Group. The SOCAP community responded positively to what we were doing, and we were able to show that SOCAP still has a leadership role to play in our industry. There remains much to do in order to more fully realize all that SOCAP can and should be — but the future is bright and our work is buoyed by the engagement and involvement of our community.

What is SOCAP’s vision for 2023 and beyond?

The world is anxious. We are, too. There’s a real sense of urgency that more needs to be done more quickly. But, as my SOCAP colleague Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter has said: Our community acting in silos won’t get us very far. We absolutely must quickly develop and nurture deep relationships to fully realize global solutions.

This sentiment is reflected in our 2023 theme,“Facing Urgency: Impact at the Speed of Trust,” which encompasses who we are and why we exist as a company. SOCAP is a global community designed to solve the greatest challenges of our time. We know that by connecting changemakers from thousands of different networks and all sectors, we can more quickly eliminate silos, spark collaboration, and accelerate the important work of individuals and organizations committed to systemic change and equitable outcomes for people and planet. That’s our reason for being — our sense of urgency and drive to help facilitate equitable and systemic change is not going to change any time soon.

With so many critical, time-sensitive issues across the world, how does SOCAP decide which will get attention at the annual conference?

SOCAP has played a vital role in driving important global impact discussions for more than 15 years, and we still want to be active in that role while ensuring we don’t fall into the trap of becoming seen as arbiters of truth. Though diverse and global, we are a small team. The global nature and complexity of all of our work in impact makes it impossible for our team alone to be effective curators of all of the voices that need to be heard.

SOCAP conference panelists

Instead of acting as gatekeepers, we’ve designed a framework for those doing the work to drive us all toward solutions. This year, we have nine topical tracks and three global tracks. Within these tracks are a rainbow of topics and conversations all designed to point toward our theme of Impact at the Speed of Trust. The sessions in these tracks are selected and curated by experts our newest initiative - our incredible Content Curation Councils made up of a diverse and prominent group of impact professionals around the world. This process of content development stems from our SOCAP Open submission and extends to our partners.

The entire process is more than half a year long and can honestly sometimes feel cumbersome, but our team shepherds that process throughout its entire lifespan to ensure we remain focused, centered, and deliberate. SOCAP is big, but we are designing it to focus on you and what you need to change the world.

Can you speak to the SOCAP team’s growth and the strategy behind this?

Thankfully, we are a much larger team this year. It’s great to have additional capable and brilliant people all aligned and pulling together without everyone having to do so many things at once. Last year, we were all doing a dozen different jobs, which left us without enough breathing room to really focus our attention on any one thing much less dream and design the long-term future of SOCAP. This year, we are able to handle the tactical aspects of event planning while having some space for big, strategic thinking and envisioning.

This mental space coupled with an immensely committed and talented team has led to some of these new innovations both in our process and in the event itself, which participants will see this year at SOCAP23. We are more focused, more deliberate, and more committed to answering the questions of “Why SOCAP, why now?”

What are your/SOCAP's perceptions of the current and evolving impact convening space? As impact becomes more mainstream, how do you see this affecting SOCAP’s annual conference?

The world is now full of impact convenings. And that’s a good thing. But it does call into question the role that a large-scale convening like SOCAP can have in an increasingly fragmented space. Why fly to San Francisco to meet with 2,000 people when you can meet locally with 15 or 100 people with whom you are more directly connected?

SOCAP roundtable

I think there’s a place for both, and the answer depends on what value you attach to collaboration and relationships across sectors in impact. We believe one of our many industry challenges is trying to solve global problems from within the silos we have created for ourselves, including across our multiple verticals and global dividing lines. SOCAP, as the convenor of the whole ecosystem of impact, is uniquely positioned as a solution to that problem.

We also recognize our audience is changing. To remain relevant, we have to appeal to an evolving range of perspectives while still giving people a clear place to land. That includes the mainstream audience, which is growing exponentially. Our goal is to be both welcoming and invaluable to those who are new to our space and those who have been here since its inception. As the industry changes, so do the opportunities and challenges we highlight and amplify at SOCAP.

Can you speak to the importance of how conferences, especially with a positive impact goal, are managed and created (i.e. how events set up their own value chain/supply chain/partnerships, locations of the events, and the impact the event has on both the location and attendees)?

One of our biggest priorities last year was to design SOCAP Global, the company, in such a way that we are able to fully model our values. That required some growth and changes across the company, from restructuring the company as a Public Benefit Corporation to ensuring a diverse and inclusive staff and leadership makeup. We began a number of initiatives to amplify voices and remove barriers to participation. We can’t do that without the alignment of our stakeholders. Our Board, our shareholders and investors, and our key strategic partners, all had to agree to invest resources into this redesign of who we are in our function, not just in our words.

SOCAP Entrepreneurs Cohort

We are located in downtown San Francisco for many reasons, including its accessibility and availability of public transport. Our vendors are chosen because they are great at what they do AND they align with our values in how they function their business. We aren’t trying to fit a specific model of what a mission-driven organization should look like; we are working to be true to ourselves and to our mission, and that includes functioning as a for-profit business. We still have a long way to go, but we remain committed to being transparent about our process.

How does SOCAP provide access — and intentionally continue to expand access — with how the event is structured, both in its setup (ticket pricing, etc.) and content?

We are fully aware that travel to and from San Francisco is expensive and cost-prohibitive for many people who would otherwise love to engage with our community. Through partnerships and aligned funders, we are able to fund at least a portion of those, including covering the registration costs of panelists and speakers, supplementing travel costs for international audiences, and ensuring the voices of our indigenous audiences are heard at SOCAP through our Indigenous Speakers Fund. We want to do more, much more, and are working constantly to form partnerships that allow us to continuously expand access.

What are SOCAP’s greatest challenges and opportunities?

To remain relevant, SOCAP has to be designed to help our community achieve their impact goals. That’s a huge challenge for our industry, as mentioned before, but also for our event specifically, in part because the community is growing and evolving. Impact investing was once a radical notion, and it is now mainstreaming.

That growth creates some friction, but also our greatest opportunities. As a platform for the entire ecosystem of impact, we’re less concerned with the friction created and more focused on the work we are all doing toward achieving global impact goals. As impact investing grows and mainstreams, so do the opportunities for us as a company to grow and become an essential platform for the industry to achieve lasting and equitable impact.