Convening of Authors
Collaboratively Creating a Landmark Book on the Role of Business in Alleviating Poverty
May 21-23, 2009
Ann Arbor, MI
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you once again for agreeing to join us in creating a landmark book on the role of business in alleviating poverty, tentatively titled Creating Mutual Value: Building Businesses and Alleviating Poverty with the Base of the Pyramid. You can find the current list of authors and their biographical information on the sidebar.
The convening will serve as an intimate retreat for the authors to dialog around issues surrounding the base of the pyramid and to catalyze new thinking. We will discuss current as well as future opportunities and challenges for the field. We will also critically examine the key issues required to continue to move the domain forward in a productive direction.
Outcome: Our goal for the end of the convening is for the group to have a common understanding of the book’s design and our individual chapters. We will also discuss the design for the conference that the authors will host to present and receive feedback on our collective thinking. This second event is scheduled for October 1-3, 2009 at the University of Michigan.
Preparation: While we do not expect (or indeed want) you to come with a fully scoped out chapter, we would like you to be prepared to make a 15 minute presentation on your view of the key opportunities and challenges for the domain.
Logistics: Our convening will occur May 21-23, 2009 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We will kick-off on May 21st, 2009 at 4:30pm and conclude in the early afternoon on May 23rd, 2009. We would like to remind you that this convening will occur during the earlier parts of Memorial Day weekend. We will be ending early Saturday afternoon to allow ample time for those with holiday travel plans.
Reservations and Travel: Reservations have been made in your name at the Campus Inn in Ann Arbor for the nights of May 20-22. We will cover the costs for your stay in Ann Arbor. The closest airport is Detroit Metro Airport (DTW); please provide us your travel information at your earliest convenience. While we do not have an unlimited budget for this project, we are happy to discuss covering flight costs to Ann Arbor. Please let us know your needs.
Convening Coordinator: Heather Moehle is part of the Convening team and can be reached at hmoehle@bus.umich.edu or 734-764-6339. Please feel free to contact Heather if you have any questions about the logistics for our convening. If you have any inquiries or suggestions regarding the design or content, please feel free to contact Ted London or Stu Hart, the Convening Co-Coordinators.
We look forward to collaborating on what should be a signature project for the field.
Our group of collaborators: |
Hernando de Soto, Institute for Liberty and Democracy
Allen Hammond, Ashoka
Stuart Hart, Cornell University
Prabhu Kandachar, Delft University of Technology
Robert Kennedy, William Davidson Institute
University of Michigan
Ted London, William Davidson Institute
University of Michigan
Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen Fund
C.K. Prahalad, University of Michigan
Erik Simanis, Cornell University
Madhu Viswanathan, University of Illinois
Patrick Whitney, Institute of Design,
Illinois Institute of Technology |