Wharton prepares for its largest conference in the school’s 127 year history: the 2008 Net Impact North America Conference. Net Impact is “an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of leaders who use business to improve the world.” The organization has a member base of approximately 10,000 professionals and graduate students who use their business acumen to solve complex environmental and social challenges.

Wharton Social Impact (WSI) is the school’s local chapter of Net Impact with 200+ members.

In spring 2007, Wharton won the competitive bid to host the Net Impact North America Conference. With this honor comes the opportunity to demonstrate Wharton’s thought leadership in social impact issues and strengthen the brand in an otherwise overlooked category.  A team of 80+ students have been working tirelessly to organize the three-day conference whose theme is, “The Sustainable Advantage: Creating Social and Environmental Value”.  Below are a few things you can expect: 

90+ Panels:

A ‘curriculum team’, led by Katie Mullen (WG09), has organized 90+ unique panels to span the three day conference.  Panels are organized into six themes: Finance (led by Lenore Kistinger, WG09), International Development (Suma Reddy), Corporate Leadership (Lisa Nager), Energy and Environment (Chau Tong), Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Anna Mohrman), and Community Development (Katherine Foo). For more information on these panels, visit www.netimpact.org

Philadelphia Green Economy Case Competition:

Case team participants will be asked to develop strategies to grow ‘triple bottom line’ businesses in Philadelphia which may not be appropriate for traditional venture capital or other lending.  The strategies developed will be used and considered by the Funding subcommittee on the Philadelphia Green Economy Task Force. First Prize: $5000, Second price: $1000. Teams of six are encouraged to apply. Further details of the case can be found here.

Social Stock Market:

The Wharton Social Stock Exchange is a simulation game that aims to create the experience of Muhammad Yunus’ (Noble Peace Prize recipient, 2006) proposed stock market where investments will be valued on their social as well as financial performance.  Built on a dynamic real-time platform this game creates an authentic trading experience by simulating the tools used by traders while incorporating environmental and social indicators.  The Social Stock Market is an example of how the conference organizers are using Wharton’s strength in finance to advance social impact innovation. A special thanks goes to Saket Saurabh (WG09) for making this happen.

Career Expo:

More than 70 companies will be recruiting at the Net Impact Career Expo on Friday, November 14th thanks to the work of the Careers Team led by Chhavi Ghuliani (WG09). Attending companies will receive a resume book of conference participants and Wharton Social Impact members. For a list of confirmed companies, visit www.netimpact.org/conference. 

Keynote Speakers:

In addition to the 250+ panelists, the Wharton team has attracted some notable keynote speakers, including John F. Brock, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.; Carter Roberts, President and Chief Executive Officer of World Wildlife Fund (WWF); Matt Kistler, Senior Vice President of Sustainability at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Kate Roberts, Founder of YouthAIDS and more! Dean Robertson, a strong supporter of social impact at Wharton, will also be giving the welcoming remarks.

Fun:

A three day conference would not be complete without ample networking opportunities and a wide array of social events that have been planned for students, visiting professionals and Wharton alumni.

The Conference is SOLD OUT and has been since mid-October.   Volunteering for 4+ hours is the only way to have access to the conference and hear some of the amazing content we have lined up.  Please e-mail dwissel@wharton.upenn.edu to express interest in volunteering. 

Beginning Mon. Oct. 27th from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. and continuing every Monday until December.

Participants will tune into a live video broadcast lecture series on Microfinance hosted by the Haas School at Berkeley. Each week, a prominent industry leader will facilitate the seminar and discuss a “hot topic.”

Confirmed speakers for the series include:
• Elizabeth Funk, Chairman of Unitus
• Jessica Jackie Flannery – Founder, Kiva
• Monica Brand – Vice President, ACCION International
• Kendall Mau – CFO and COO, Prisma Microfinance
• Chris Dunford – President, Freedom from Hunger

Students from Columbia, Kellogg, Yale, Michigan, Chicago, Dartmouth, Case Western, Colorado State, UNM, Denver University, UC Davis will also participate. Throughout the seminar, participating students will skype questions to Haas so we can better engage as a community.

“Businesspeople spend too much time worrying about the burdens brought by global warming — the possibility of carbon taxes and greater regulation of emissions — and ignoring the potential commercial upside, according to participants in a recent Wharton conference titled, “Winners and Losers in Green Technologies,” sponsored by the William and Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation. Indeed, the participants added, the so-called “green economy” presents lucrative opportunities for companies willing to invest the effort in seizing them.”  To read more, click here.