I’ve come to see that the energy of SOCAP is a good indicator of this sector, so I was pleased to sense a maturation of the conversation at SOCAP/Europe. No one seems to want to talk about abstract concepts at the conference. This is similar to a trend I’ve seen in my own work, people want to see the equations behind our measurements more and more, which is a sign (to me) that people are moving beyond the euphoria of the idea towards the hard-nosed mindset of the implementation.
Yet, I was surprised at the lack of Canadian presence. I had tried to setup some interviews with Canadian attendees for SocialFinance.ca, but was disappointed to find out that there weren’t any Canadian scholarship recipients at the conference. I worry that the dearth of Canadians at these events means that we won’t be making the connections necessary to be on the cutting edge of developments in this space.
