Carlo Petrini speaks at the Investors’ Circle Conference

On May 12 Carlo Petrini will be speaking at the Investors’ Circle Conference, held May 10-12 at the Drake Hotel in San Francisco. This year’s conference, “Patient Capital for a Sustainable Future”, will concentrate on the use of venture capital as a tool for creating sustainability worldwide.

Born in Bra, Italy, in 1949, Carlo Petrini is the founder and president of the International Slow Food Movement. He began to write about food and wine in 1977, contributing to the main Italian newspapers and periodicals. He also began to devise and organise cultural events. Petrini has played a decisive role in the development of Slow Food, inventing and promoting its projects in the fields of food, agriculture and eco-gastronomy (a neologism he coined himself) and creating the first University of Gastronomic Sciences in the world. He published Le Ragioni del gusto (The Case For Taste) in 2001 and Buono, pulito e giusto. Principi di una nuova gastronomia (Good, Clean and Fair. Principles of a New Gastronomy) in 2005.

The Investors’ Circle is a national network of 150 members founded in 1992. Over the years it has invested over $107 million in 171 companies. It has held several conferences in Boston and is now adding this West Coast event to its calendar. The organization’s members, other investors and 20 early-stage companies will come together to find ways of funding sustainable business enterprises. They will be joined by philanthropists, entrepreneurs, opinion leaders and non-profit representatives.

The first day of the conference will consist of a Venture Fair, open only to Investors’ Circle members and accredited investors, where companies from the sectors of energy, environment, food, organics, health, wellness, education, media, community and international development will present their investment opportunities.

May 12 is Education Day, dedicated to talks and presentations on how to support and endorse the companies involved. 25 special speakers will be participating, discussing ideas such as the creation of local stock exchanges to promote sustainable business, new ways of structuring corporations and possible collaboration between governments, socially-oriented entrepreneurs and like-minded investors.

In one of the sessions, the concept of a Slow Money foundation will be discussed; it entails balancing the Slow Food philosophy of sustainable local food systems, biodiversity and food traditions with the imperatives of corporate growth. As guest of honor, Carlo Petrini will be delivering the keynote speech.

The Patient Capital for a Sustainable Future Venture Fair and Conference will take place May 10-12, 2006, at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, San Francisco, CA.

For more information visit
www.investorscircle.net
www.slowfoodusa.org