The GSG Summit in 140 Characters or Less

Since it’s the height of summer, we’ll keep this week’s ‘What To Read’ light — just like your favorite beach read. Here’s an overview of the GSG Impact Summit 2017 from our favorite Tweets.

But first, a little background:

The GSG Summit was organized by the Global Impact Investing Steering Group (or GSG), an independent global steering group and successor to the Social Impact Investment Taskforce. Chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, the GSG currently includes fifteen member countries and the EU, as well as “active observers from leading network organizations” from finance, business and philanthropy.

Held in Chicago last Monday and Tuesday (open sessions), the GSG Summit convened many of the biggest players in impact investing. Notable participants included Julia Stasch (MacArthur Foundation), Darren Walker (Ford Foundation), Bill McGlashan (TPG/The Rise Fund), David Blood (Generation Investment Management), Jean Case (The Case Foundation) and Nancy Pfund (DBL Partners )— to name just a handful.

The exhaustive agenda covered such topics as Leveraging Philanthropic Capital, Mobilizing Institutional Impact Capital, Engaging Retail Investors, Boosting Investible Impact Opportunities, The Role of Corporates in Scaling Impact Demand, Driving Tech for Good and Building Powerful Intermediaries.

Event organizers still found time for the inaugural GSG Honors Ceremony, which recognized five players leading the charge in the emerging industry of impact investing:

1. Entrepreneur of the Year — Rajeev Kher ( 3S India): Delivering dignified sanitation through technology and finance
2. Asset Owner of the Year — Christian Super: Leading institutional investors toward impact investing
3. Asset Manager of the Year — The Reinvestment Fund: Tapping the public bond market for low-income community development
4. Field Builders of the Year — Intellecap: Building businesses that serve the world’s emerging middle class AND Impact Investment Exchange (IIX): Building infrastructure for social capital markets in Asia

For more on the winners, check out Impact Alpha’s feature.

And the GSG Honors go to… A year of growth in impact investing

And now for our favorite Tweets from the Summit, in no particular order. We hope you agree they help give a glimpse the breadth, depth and volume of information discussed at the GSG Summit.