The 2010 SEEP Annual Conference: Final Countdown

The SEEP 2010 Annual Conference is only 10 days away!

This is my first year working at the SEEP Network, so I am watching the pieces of the conference come together for the first time. It's quite a sight - a handful of dedicated people pulling together knowledge from across the microenterprise development industry for one week of comprehensive learning.

For those who are relatively new to this field, like me, the SEEP 2010 Annual Conference offers the perfect vantage point to get a 360 degree view of the industry's challenges and opportunities. From the financial empowerment of dairy farmers in rural India to the transformation of a Latin American MFI, big and small changes alike are shaping this industry and, in turn, the world economy. At the SEEP 2010 Annual Conference, meeting the people behind those changes and hearing their stories is an invaluable resource for surveying this shifting landscape.

There are too many exciting sessions on the agenda to list them all here, but for starters we have the acclaimed authors of Portfolios of the Poor giving the keynote address. Daryl Collins and Jonathan Morduch will be presenting in-person while Stuart Rutherford will be participating from Japan via live video streaming.

The workshop tracks all address hot topics in MED, but I am particularly interested to check out the half-track “Integrated Solutions,” which examines the intersection of microfinance with two critical development needs – housing and healthcare.

And perhaps a bit predictably, the Tuesday plenary discussion “Gender Dimensions of Poverty” is on the top of my must-see list. The plenary will be moderated by Amy Davis, Co-Founder of Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM) International, and will examine leadership and programmatic strategies that successfully reach women in extreme poverty. Gender and microfinance will be examined from a different angle when Anne Folan, President of WAM International, moderates a lunch session on Wednesday titled “Many Paths to the Mountaintop: Women's Advancement in Microfinance” that will discuss the challenges that women face in balancing management positions in the microfinance industry with their personal lives.

Behind the scenes, it's a whirlwind of emails, signage designs, bulk orders of SEEP-branded pens, tweets, floor plans, and trips to the corner coffeehouse. With the conference just 10 days away, the SEEP office is a busy place – but an exciting one.

Did I mention that today is the last day to register? Register now – and I’ll see you in just over a week!