Fall of 2018 was so full of promise. I was working at a FinTech with a mission to provide sustainable funding for nonprofits and we were traversing the country in search of like minded folks to partner with. 

The pinnacle of our barnstorming tour was the 2018 SOCAP conference at Fort Mason. I had been to the venue once before for the 2012 Slow Money conference so I was excited to return. The combination of history and beauty combined with the salt in the air can be magical. 

NOTABLE EXPERIENCES

The conference was spread out over 4 days with thousands of attendees and too many talks to count - but there were a few connections I made that stand out. 

Founders

There were founders everywhere at the event, but two interesting ones were Edgar Villanueva - author and founder of the Decolonizing Wealth movement and Jake Orak - founder of Ethnotek bags, preserving textiles and patterns of indigenous cultures from all over the world. 

In both cases I ended up adding to my luggage...

From Edgar I walked away with a shirt and his book, along with the memory of our conversation outside the Indigenous tent by the water. More significantly his book and helped shape my philosophy on money and better informed my perspective on the role of money in colonialism.

From Jake - I came home with two well designed bags - one of which contained drawings for an unreleased variant that had been in one of the pockets. More importantly the designs on the panels are helping to preserve textile traditions from Vietnam and India - plus they are simply beautiful.
I still use both bags weekly. 

Authors

I could include Edgar here as well - but since the movement his book spawned has become so important, I added him to the Founders portion - read his book and investigate his work and decide for yourself if my categorization was warranted. 

Amy Cortese - also a founder, but I've included her in the author section because her book Locavesting so profoundly shaped my thinking on the role local money plays - or at the time could play in making our communities better. 

Blockchain

On the last day of the event, we had a couple hours before another event across the bay in Oakland. As we were leaving the venue we stopped to listen to a panel on blockchain. I ended up recording 22 minutes of the talk, but even back in 2018 they were admonishing "not your keys, not your assets"! 

All in all, it was a fantastic trip full of new knowledge and new relationships with amazing folks. It became the the launching pad for a flurry of activity, The 2018 SOCAP conference was the start of what led me to where I am today. It wasn't the path I expected, but I suspect in hindsight it will be exactly the path I needed to be on.