For those of you in the Minneapolis area, there is a Minnebar tonight at 7PM at Intermedia Arts. Minnebar is the Minneapolis version of Barcamp, which is an international organization that brings together technology start-ups for demos, support, and networking. It’s free and generally pretty interesting. For more information, check out their Google groups page.
I have also had several requests for a little more info on that $3,000 I received from Innocentive. The challenge I won was posted by Innocentive (normally challenges are posted by companies like Proctor & Gamble and Eli Lilly) for new ideas for their website. It was pretty straightforward, but I did spend a good amount of time organizing my thoughts and creating small mockups of web pages. Apparently they liked it!
In early November, I attended the Net Impact National Conference in Nashville, TN. Nashville is pretty great, with nice weather and lovely local bars, but I’m afraid I was not able to sample their famous local music scene.
The conference was fantastic. I attended a lot of Base of the Pyramid (BOP) sessions on how to better meet the needs of the poorest 4 billion people on earth. I found that there are a lot of great organizations out there, including Envirofit, Endeavor, and Design That Matters meeting genuine needs in developing areas. These groups are going beyond microfinance to create products and provide consulting. 
I also saw a student presentation about filling the gap between solar panel need and available financing. Apparently there are plenty of BOP folks who would love some electricity, but coming up with the initial investment to buy the solar equipment ($300 – $400, sometimes a year’s salary) is prohibitive (the picture is from an article in New Scientist about one solution). Many people are looking at microfinance or other models to solve this problem. I’m keeping in touch with these students to see if I can’t work with them once I graduate (May!).
Speaking of when I graduate, I also used the conference to come up with some new “career” ideas. I am currently looking at internships offered by Endeavor, Ashoka, and FINCA, but am also looking into informal projects being developed through my network as Presdient of the Microfinance Alliance. Although I’ve realized that I probably need to learn some Spanish to move forward with my year in the developing world (also known as my “debt maximization plan”), I’ve also realized that there are plenty of opportunities out there and I just need to choose one.
