* This blog post is by People Powered Capital track curator, Rebecca Petzel

This year at SOCAP we are exploring the meteoric rise of peer to peer marketplaces (commonly called Collaborative Consumption Start-ups), and the impact of moving towards an economy based on Access to shared goods. Airbnb has made headlines going mainstream at a remarkable pace, and Peer to Peer alternatives for car-sharing such as Getaround are giving ZipCar reasons to sweat. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: innovative start-ups are helping neighbors share meals, durable goods, baby clothes, the works. Many hope that the success of these start-ups will be instrumental in creating a new class of social entrepreneurs, building relationships, and building our economy while decreasing materials consumed - the holy grail in so many environmental circles.
In his July 20th Shareable article ‘Collaborative Consumption, It’s Not About the Money’, Paul M. Davis points out why this is not only an intriguing opportunity from an Impact Investment perspective, but potentially transformational for our economic model at large, stating:

“Sharing isn’t just a way to make startups profit and build a new economy of micro-entrepreneurs—it’s a cultural movement that has the power to build community, engagement and a new, more sustainable peer-to-peer economy, transforming how we define our interpersonal relationships in the process.”

San Francisco is home to some of the most successful and impactful of these start-ups, and we are lucky that Airbnb, Getaround, ThredUp, and Grubly will be joining us on Friday September 9th to discuss this growing opportunity that no impact investor or social entrepreneur should ignore.

Why Conference Currents? Conference Currents tracks good ideas and fascinating people at conferences. SoCap’s Conference Currents makes visible and even amplifies flows of value in the social economy of the event.While a conference acts as a marketplace of ideas, deep value resides in the connections, idea development,insights, innovation, and projects you encounter. This value often disappears when we leave the event because we don’t make it more tangible then a stack of business cards that quickly lose their context. Conference Currents provides tracking and coherence for these “intangible” value streams, enabling you to maximize the real wealth of the conference experience.

How it works: Conference Currents brings attention to the ideas and innovators that attract attendees.It uses simple score-cards to track participants, their ideas, and ratings of those ideas based on innovation, impact,and feasibility. Each card placed in the online database accumulates to display real-time flows of reputation,participation, and ideas visible in the conference setting. People who get the best feedback and attract the most attention get an opportunity to showcase their ideas at the end of the event. These are the people we know you want to hear more from! Everyone using Conference Currents also gets a transcript of their connections and ratings whichare linked to Pathable profiles for easy follow up post-conference.

Play with us! Conference Currents launches during SOCAP Europe 2012. As a first step, we invite you to use our “great idea!” cards at SOCAP11 by making connections and sharing the cardswith the people whose ideas you find worthwhile. Play with Conference Currents and discover how fun and engaging currencies can track, measure, and enable the often hidden dimensions of social or intangible wealth. Experience how you can bring deeper value to a conference, an organization, or our larger economic systems.

Easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Fill out a Conference Currents entry card to record your connections, the ideas shared, and how much you liked them. Cards are uploaded throughout the conference and ratings are displayed on each attendees Pathable Profile.

2. Follow the Conference Currents Real-Time Tag Cloud, Tag Feed and the conference-wide activity stream on the “Happening Now” page. These pages provide real-time data of the ideas and people that are getting the most attention for innovation, feasibility, and impact at SoCap.3. At the end of the event, receive a transcript of all your connections and their ratings along with follow up information connected to attendee’s Pathable accounts.

Why use Conference Currents:

1. Make good ideas bubble to the surface and give attention the people sharing those ideas. See what other people find interesting.

2. Vote for people whose ideas you want to help highlight at the end of the conference.

3. Receive a transcript at the end of the SOCAP to make follow-up with your most inspiring connections a snap.

4. Help document the collective intelligence and innovative ideas of SoCap so that they can be a shared resource post-conference

>>> Learn more about Conference Currents here

16 -17 November 2011, 7th EVPA Annual Conference, Turin, Italy: Registration has opened and places are going fast for the key event on venture philanthropy and social investment in Europe. This year’s conference focuses on venture philanthropy as a catalyst for societal change. Close to 400 players in the field, including social investors, donors, foundations, private equity organisations, advisory firms, private banks, academic institutions and some selected social entrepreneurs, come together over the course of two days to explore venture philanthropy’s impact on society. Confirmed keynote speakers are Charly Kleissner, co-founder of the KL Felicitas Foundation; Damon Buffini, co-founder of Permira; Andrea Limone, chief executive of PerMicro and Luciano Balbo, founder and chairman of Oltre Venture as well as Hanne Finstad, CEO of Forskerfabrikken . The conference’s main networking event on the first evening will be held in one of the most prestigious locations in Turin, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. The museum is one of the most important of its kind in the world and is located inside the over 200-year-old Mole Antonelliana, a fascinating monument which is the symbol of the city of Turin. Registration is available online at evpa.eu.com/2011-turin/registration.

What is your role in the Social Capital Market?
Chair of the groundbreaking MFA Design for Social Innovation Program, Board Chair, PopTech: Mentor to social entrepreneurs, teacher to designers, communication strategist to established organizations

What is the most inspiring example of a social entrepreneur or enterprise utilizing the power of design?
http://www.hellercd.com/2011/05/a-smoking-example-of-design-for-social-innovation/

What does Money + Meaning = to you? What should the social capital market stand for?
That we have not succeeded in making this the default understanding of what we should do with our energy and our power. The SoCap market should stand for the new economy, not an alternative one.

Below are videos featuring Agora Partnerships entrepreneurs, Tegu Toys & Kiej de los Bosques, who will be featured at the Agora Partners/Central America panel at SOCAP11