The Southern African Impact Investing Network (SAIIN) has announced the Southern African Impact Investing Conference will take place on February 16-17 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The event will feature international experts, hands-on breakaway sessions and networking opportunities, with speakers including chairman of Big Society Capital and founder director of the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Sir Ronald Cohen, Rockefeller Foundation managing director Saadia Madsbjerg, and James Brice, chief executive officer of South African risk and management consultancy EBS.“Since first challenging the investment sector to do more than just garner financial returns from their investment opportunities, SAIIN has hosted two highly successful conferences and now seeks to facilitate further growth in impact investment in Southern Africa through the five main purposes of the event,” SAIIN said.
These five purposes, SAIIN said, are to introduce impact investing to a broader audience and build the market further, update the industry on international developments, models and best practice, promote learning and understanding of global best practice in impact investing and its relevance and application to Southern Africa, provide useful networking opportunities, and to broker sources of capital to investment opportunities.
The event will take place at the Gwefey Meeting Spaces in Sandton, Johannesburg, and costs between ZAR3,500 (US$300) and ZAR5,000 (US$430) to attend.
SAIIN claims to be the region’s leading impact investing event, aimed at promoting the concept and practice of impact investing in the region and contributing to the development of an investment ecosystem that brings new ideas and sources of capital to developmental challenges.
It launched in 2009 under the auspices of GreaterCapital and the sponsorship of Cadiz, with the event taking place for the first time in 2010.
“SAIIN has been a pioneering initiative and has developed a strong and trusted brand. It has achieved a number of goals: giving shape to the industry, helping to push the intellectual debate forward, settling definitions, and opening up the concept of impact investing to a wider audience. It is a key lever to achieve growth of the impact economy in South Africa and there is a steady stream of interest in signing up to the event,” SAIIN said.
The scope of the 2015 conference has been expanded from South Africa to include the whole of Southern Africa, and will host delegates and speakers from across the region.
