Planet Bean presented at the Social Finance Investment Forum in Toronto on December 14. About 400 people attended this conference having the theme – Mobilizing Private Capital for Public Good. John Brouwer made two presentations.

One was to a small group of investors about the opportunity to invest in replicating Planet Bean’s fair trade and organic coffee bars within the growing southern Ontario specialty coffee market.

The other highlighted Planet Bean as an example of how co-operative business structures can create jobs and economic development locally and how fair trade is an example of operating an ethical supply chain within global markets.

Picture of John Brouwer having a discussion with Nancy Neamtan, President and Executive Director of the Chantier de l’économie sociale. Byron Cunningham is in the background.

Along with John, Elijah Lederman, operated a coffee tasting booth at the conference which became over-whelmed as conference participants found what good coffee should taste like. Byron Cunningham took on the barista role in helping Elijah while circulating to promote Planet Bean. Planet Bean and worker co-ops received good exposure among these attendees, most of whom had little knowledge of co-ops as good social enterprises.

Making a presentation as part of the “Beans and Bonds” workshop.

The conference was sponsored by the MaRS center for Science, Technology and social entrepreneurship and innovation. A major project of MaRS is developing a social venture exchange which will use a web-based platform to connect social impact enterprises with investors who wish to make social impacts with their investments. It is anticipated that MaRs will obtain approval for this from the Ontario Securities Commission by late winter and be able to launch this platform by the spring.