Some 250 people packed a hotel conference center here in Mexico City to hear Professors Stu Hart and CK Prahalad and a host of Mexican government officials, corporate executives, and social entrepreneurs talk about the business and social opportunities represented by the base of the pyramid. The workshop builds on the broader BOP conference held last December in San Francisco by encouraging participants to translate concepts into local contexts.
The atmosphere has been electric, with lots of side conversations and questions about how best to actually make things happen. Like the similar event in Sao Paulo, Brazil earlier in the week, where some 500 people attended, there is a real sense that business approaches to addressing poverty and other unmet needs is an idea whose time has come.
