Connections

Nonprofit + Planner

 
Who:
Beth Houle, Opportunity International
Mark Ledogar, One Smooth Stone

Event:
Opportunity International Global Leadership Conference
Kampala, Uganda
March 17-20

After planning a conference in Uganda this spring, Mark Ledogar trekked to the fertile Ripon Falls—where the Nile takes leave of Lake Victoria—in a boat ferried by an area native.

As it happens, his guide was a beneficiary of the very organization that had brought him to Uganda in the first place—Opportunity International—which provides microloans, savings, insurance and training to more than 1 million people who live in chronic poverty in 28 countries worldwide. His guide was a loan recipient, and it was a revelation for Ledogar to see the results of his meeting firsthand.

“It was an emotional week. As event producers, this was not just a culmination of work, but a dawning reality of the organization and its progress around the globe,” said Ledogar, vice president of event firm One Smooth Stone. “When you work for people who are committed to helping others, your efforts lead you on quite a special journey.”

Opportunity’s annual conference brings together a portion of the organization’s 10,000 global employees and 5,000 loan officers for leadership training and knowledge exchange—a vital source of innovation in the world of microbanking. Formerly, the event was planned in-house, but as the organization redirected its energy on new and pressing business issues, officials looked for a way to outsource the planning of the event. One Smooth Stone was ready to step in.

In late November, the company helped plan Opportunity’s annual fundraising event in San Diego. Donors met for three days of exposure to the organization’s cause—which undoubtedly meant elaborate and glitzy production took second chair to helping Opportunity clarify content and strategic business imperatives. And, as Ledogar says, a big splash would have been “disingenuous at best.”

Following the fundraiser’s success, Opportunity engaged One Smooth Stone for its annual leadership conference at the Speke Resort Munyonyo near Kampala, Uganda (site selection services were handled by Concepts Worldwide).

Ledogar says his group was enthused to meet logistical challenges presented by the event—which has been held in the Philippines and the Dominican Republic, among other global locales.

“We were very clear about our expectations for service levels, but there was some disconnect between what we wanted and what the local operators were used to delivering,” Ledogar said. “We rehearsed response times with the audiovisual crew five, six, seven times. They didn’t have headsets, but we had brought our own in. We helped them understand how three or four moves happen together in sync to tell a story.”

In addition to headsets, Ledogar was careful to bring any necessities that might be lacking. There would be no midnight runs to Wal-Mart for forgotten items.

“There was a 50-pound luggage limit, so we really had to scale back our processes to make sure we brought everything we needed,” he said. “We had to decide what our most important items were when packing, especially as far as backup equipment—extension cords, jacks, printers, gaffer’s tape.”

Still, Uganda proved a much more conducive meeting destination than Ledogar had anticipated, especially in terms of technological connectivity.

“I didn’t realize initially the high level of infrastructure we would find in Uganda,” he said. “We were, after all, planning this event at a well-established resort. It was a revelation that even the less developed parts of the world, there is infrastructure available. On the flip side of that, on the day after the event when we explored the back areas, my eyes were completely opened to the reality of poverty in the country.”

In fact, exploring the area and meeting with locals—specifically microloan recipients—was an integral part of the event itself, according to Beth Houle, Opportunity’s chief of staff, whose team organized Insight Trips for her attendees, introducing a global audience to Uganda’s unique microbanking experience.

“In some countries, our CEOs are isolated from innovations in other countries, and they are frequently forging a new path,” she said. “We try to get people out into the field to see hands-on how different cultures operate. Many of our Asian leaders had not been to Africa before, and they were able to see how different banks operate and note the different challenges they have overcome.”

Attendees also met with one of Opportunity’s area Trust Groups, a set of local entrepreneurs who co-guarantee each other’s loans. The system creates a sense of community among recipients, and group members often push each other to work harder, innovate and thrive in their chosen vocations.

Meanwhile, Houle communicated her message to her global audience: Opportunity’s commitment to expanding its services for the poor—including savings accounts and insurance—and to continuing conversations about opportunities and priorities.

“Some of our clients still keep their money under mattresses or in holes in the ground,” she said. “All these financial services we take for granted, we are testing and bringing to the underserved market.”

She says One Smooth Stone’s mission to provide “smart, fast and kind” service truly resonated with her—and with her peers at Opportunity. She says Ledogar and his team felt more like an extension of the nonprofit than a separate company.

“As important as their skills were, my entire team and the people around us were also struck by the genuine humility and kindness with which they interacted with everyone around them—from our senior leadership to the local Ugandan staff (who come with very different life experiences),” she said.

Following a week of emotionally charged learning, attendees were treated to a touching close with the Watoto Children’s Choir, an ensemble composed exclusively of Ugandan orphans, many of them victims of the AIDS epidemic. The sweet voices of the children proved to be a poignant finale.

“It’s moving to be a part of something that will make people’s lives so much better,” Ledogar said.
—JESSIE STATES

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