I try to make time for some personal reading in addition to the volumes of articles, textbooks, and case studies we’re assigned for classes each week. With that in mind, I’m currently reading Let My People Go Surfing, by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. Chouinard was one of the keynote speakers at the Net Impact annual conference this year. Net Impact is a non-profit group devoted to using business for the social good, and each year they host a conference for professionals and graduate students to learn, collaborate, and network. This year’s conference, themed “Building a Sustainable Future – What Will You Do Next?” was held in Nashville, Tennessee and hosted by Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. As a west coast native, I am always on the lookout for chances to explore the south, and this promised to be a great opportunity to do so.

Nashville certainly lived up to my expectations. I loved Music Row, my surprise encounter with a life-size replica of the Parthenon (a remnant of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition), and the fall charm of the Vanderbilt campus (dedicated as a national arboretum, which, as our host explained, also means it’s a daily challenge for anyone allergic to pollen, as the landscaping is planned in such a way that there is always something in bloom).

The conference itself was a huge success. This year’s gathering drew a record crowd of over 1700 business school students and professionals from across the country. Duke had a strong showing, with over 50 students and staff representing the Fuqua School of Business and the Nicholas School. The Social Impact Club at Fuqua won honorable mention for the chapter of the year award, and Matt Nash from the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship won the Member Achievement Award.

You can customize your conference experience by choosing speakers, panels, and workshops that suit your interests. I attended a number of panels, including “Corporate Social Responsibility Forecast: A Discussion of Trends,” “For-profit Entities with a Social Mission,” and “Lessons Learned in Corporate Social Responsibility.” Local career coaches volunteered their time to meet with conference attendees, and there was a career fair with over 50 companies represented. Not only were there great learning opportunities, but I was also impressed with the level of greening of the conference – carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange were retired to offset the impact of the conference, including travel to Tennessee, and the cutlery and food packaging onsite were composted. Even our nametags were eco-friendly – the nametag itself was made of recycled paper fiber and wildflower seeds, so you could plant it when you return home.

For the ceremonial closing dinner and reception on Saturday night, we descended upon the Wild Horse Saloon for a dinner of pulled pork and cornbread, good beer, and live music courtesy of The Ranchhands. Have you every seen 1500 people dancing the electric slide? No? Here’s a visual:

Start gearing up for next year’s conference, to be held November 13^th – 15^th, 2008 and hosted by the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia!

Overheard in Nashville:

“Happiness is the spread between expectation and reality… so keep your expectations low, and you’ll always be happy!” – Jon Carson, CEO of cMarket

“Focus not on having more, but on being more.” – Tensie Whelan, Executive Director of The Rainforest Alliance