I have always loved attending good conferences, and especially in the area of my passion and chosen vocation - social impact investing, in all its manifestations. And I have been lucky over my career to have been invited to several of the best ones, as an attendee and then speaker. Great forums like Sankalp in Mumbai (for social enterprises in India), SOCAP in San Francisco, GIIN in Amsterdam and the GSG in Portugal (for global investors and players). As board member of the IIC I have helped curate (and name!) Prabhav, the largest gathering of on impact investing in India. And also had the privilege of attending powerful sectoral forums like TERI’s WSDS on climate and policy summits like ORF’s Raisina Dialogue.

Some people make fun of this, saying how do you ever work if all you do is attend conferences. And well, what can you say to such people who thinks everyone must work in the same way as they do? If connecting the dots between different finance and development issues and networks is one’s job, and the nature of our work by definition highly inter-sectional and people driven, it is only at such gatherings that true connections are forged. Of course we need to spend time in the field, with our teams, and doing the deep thinking work. But it is possible to all of this, including at such events themselves. With this in mind, I made a decision at the last minute to attend the AVPN forum that was recently held in Kuala Lampur (forgoing several other important engagements in the office). And I’m so glad and grateful I made the trip over.

To put it simply, it turned out to be perhaps the most productive, engaging and exhilarating week of my work life. And I suspect for many of the 1500 people there, comprising the entire leadership of the development and dev finance sector in Asia.

So as I left Kuala Lampur with my head buzzing and my energy at the highest levels despite not sleeping a week, just before I crashed into a weekend of relaxation, I felt I should pen down a few key insights takeaways from this incredible gathering. What made it so special? And what are the key takeaways and insights form its success?

So here are my top seven free flowing thoughts:

1. There are conferences and then there is AVPN, and no amount of superlatives are enough to describe what this organisation and team has done to bring the entire ecosystem of individuals and small and big organisations of every type working for the welfare of people in Asia together, in the most engaging manner possible. And with the highest standards of professionalism and quality, from the staff to the schedule to the venue to the food. 

2. There is the development sector and then there is the finance sector. Social finance is supposed to operate across both and is on a spectrum, involving DFIs to Commercial Funds to Foundations, big and boutique, all of which were represented here at the highest levels, which has never happened before. Blended Finance’ is indeed a broad and often confusing concept but that’s OK. The whole point of it is about connecting different forms of capital and only if we try will we figure it out one day. 

3. Even more important than connecting capital providers is ‘connecting the dots’ on issues and people, on expertise and networks. Development and finance, is about sets of related issues and sectors and themes requiring specific knowledge (e.g. gender, climate, livelihoods). Also about a web of relationships (much more numerous than funder, receiver and intermediary). This conference was the epitome of both connects. So many topics and so many people. This can be overwhelming, so unless one connects the dots with ones purpose, which can evolve, it was easy to get a bit overawed. 

4. To cut through that, one needs tremendous energy, which is generally abundant in people so motivated and passionate about change, and generally very kind and warm humans. You could see it in the smiles and also the space people gave each other. Some people are morning people who like 7am breakfast meetings. Others are night owls who enjoy dinner and drinks and dancing till 4am. A few are turbo charged all the time, and I found myself in this category, because the positive energy of the place and people kept one going. And knowing this will carry one forward an entire year or more on the back of the many partnerships forged here. For a knowledge and networking advisory firm, heaven.

5. This week was also an important reminder that good intent matters above all, and positive values (confidence, collaboration, transparency, empathy) will always trump the bad ones (selfishness, ego, greed and insecurity). This is true everywhere but especially critical in development, which is partly why so many good people work here. But even in the dev space you have black, white and grey in terms of genuine intent to collaborate versus a desire to dominate and it became evident that the former will always win the end. Life does come full circle always, and karma is everything in the end.

6. Motivation and values are important but so are markets, and to do well in life including in the not-profit space one has to appreciate economics and have a healthy attitude towards capitalism and not shy away from talking about money. After all our job is to attract it, deploy it in the right way, and hopefully also make a living. There is no reason it can’t be done right if we are smart and generous.

7. And finally, Kuala Lampur is a very special place, perhaps the most dynamic city in Southeast and South Asia if not the entire world in terms of its global connection and cosmopolitanism. Every race and social class was interacting in the most fluid and friendly way in the centre, street cafés and wherever one went with no hint of racism or anger or violence, the best example of a true melting pot I have witnessed even after growing up in NYC.

So much more one could say but in crux this is what I took away from this power packed week. One almost didn’t want it to end and bid farewell to this wonderful city and amazing hosts. But good that it did end, else the body would have gone numb with sheer exhaustion. So grateful that one got the chance to spend a few days chilling and decompressing to quiet the mind a bit on the gorgeous beaches of Langkawi (picture above is of the sunset after I landed from KL on Friday evening). To absorb the wonder that was this week, and all that will follow from it - for each of us that was part of AVPN 2023, and the millions of people in the world who will hopefully also benefit from our collective efforts to make this a cleaner, healthier, smarter, richer, kinder place to live.

Thank you, Shukriya, Dhanyavaad, Terima Kasih so much Malaysia and AVPN. What you did here will drive so much joy and change.