Join us Thursday, September 15, 2022 for one of our favorite events of the year, the annual MicroLenders Forum 2022. .
We’ve missed you! Let’s celebrate the ability to come together again in person at Wells Fargo, in the Annex Building: 333 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94105. Arrive early to meet old friends and get to know new ones.
Our theme throughout the year has been: Unmasking Economic Justice for Small Business Recovery. We will be exploring this theme from different angles of lending, including innovations in equitable lending, fostering support from accessing capital, and more.
Get ready for a fire site chat that our very own Carolina Martinez, CEO of CAMEO will lead the discussion on reaching underserved entrepreneurs with more capital with three thought leaders and how CDFIs can lead the way to racial economic justice.
The Federal Reserve will present new California data from the Small Business Credit Survey, how California lending compares to national trends, and we’ll discuss how the trends might affect what lenders do with an eye toward equity. We will look at the 2022 reports on Employer Firms, Firms Owned by People of Color, and Hiring and Worker Retention.
After lunch, four organizations that have grown will discuss growth strategies for increased impact and have a conversation on M&A, joint partnerships, shared services, and parent subsidiaries that will explore how and why they came to the decision to seek out these strategies to grow and serve more people.
Agenda
- 9:30am Networking, and Relationship Building Games
- 10:15 Welcome
- 10:30am Fireside Chat on moving toward a more just economy by reaching underserved entrepreneurs with more capital
- Bulbul Gupta, President and CEO of Pacific Community Ventures
- Janie Barrera, Founder and Executive Vice-President of LiftFund
- Lenwood V. Long, Sr., President/CEO of the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs
- 11:30am Small Business Credit Survey and Discussion
- Sarah Simms, Senior Community Development Finance Manager of Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
- Tracy Choi, Senior Outreach Manager, Northern CA + Utah, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
- 12:30pm Lunch
- 1:30pm Growth Strategies for Increased Impact
- Sara Razavi, CEO of Working Solutions (Moderator)
- Hilda Kennedy, Founder/President , AmPac Business Capital
- Luz Urrutia, CEO, Accion Opportunity Fund
- Robert Villarreal, Chief External Affairs Officer, Momentus Capital
- Carolina Martinez, Chief Executive Officer, CAMEO
- 2:30pm Member Innovations in Equitable Lending Showcase
- Stacey Sanchez, CDC Small Business Finance – Case Study in Lending Practices to Increase Impact
- Marc Tognotti, Infinity Point CDFI – Introduction to Fractional ESOP
- Purvi Patel, Assistant General Counsel, Self Help – Confronting Racial Inequity in Small Business Lending
- 3:30pm Raffle
- Join us afterwards at a local small business for some refreshments.
Thank you to our sponsors!
- Wells Fargo
- “Funded [in part] through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.”