Thursday, April 28th, 2011

8:15am-4:30pm

Held at the Joan B. Kroc institute at the University of San Diego, the 2011 San Diego Microfinance Summit will be an all day event that features keynote speakers from the microfinance industry, provides an opportunity to meet and support local microfinance clients, and offers the best microfinance networking of the year. This year’s event will feature Gina Harman, CEO of The ACCION Network, Giovanna Masci, Regional Director of The Americas for KIVA, and Claudia Viek, CEO of CAMEO.

Participants will learn about international microfinance in addition to this year’s focus on domestic microfinance and how organizations such as Kiva, ACCION USA, and other local microlenders who are providing financing to entrepreneurs who couldn’t access traditional financing before.

The goal of the summit is to highlight the local and international work of San Diego’s microfinance organizations in order to promote collaboration across the area’s microfinance community. The summit will feature a plenary discussion, speaker panel and a series of breakout sessions on various topical issues related to microfinance. Lunch will be provided by local restaurateurs who are also current microfinance clients. In addition to food, there will be an artisan marketplace where other microfinance clients will sell their wares and services. Among the expected vendors will be artisans, bakers and entrepreneurs. There will be two breakout sessions in the afternoon in order to help attendees to delve further into various topics of microfinance. The summit will close with a catered networking reception.