Recap of SeaMo Presents: Kiva

On Thursday night, over 600 people came to Town Hall to hear Matt Flannery, the CEO and Co-Founder of Kiva.org, speak about the history of the organization and to answer questions about his plans for the organization’s future.

“For years, people have been touting the importance of connecting microfinance to the global economic system. However, many of the systems we construct in this world are fragile and prone to collapse. Amidst the collapse, Kiva is growing. This has a lot to do with connection. When you connect people and step out of the way, good things can happen,” Matt said.

Although Matt has spoken to groups around the world, this is his largest appearance yet. I would attribute the turnout to three things: his personal appeal as one of microfinance’s true luminaries, the hard work of the SeaMo board and volunteers in publicizing the event, and the level of interest in microfinance in the Seattle area.

For SeaMo, the event was truly a watershed moment. Up until this point, we knew there was at least a group of individuals in the Seattle area interested in microfinance, but certainly did not expect this scale. We recognize now, however, that it’s a larger group than we first realized. With the event itself, the coverage on KUOW’s Weekday and Speakers Series and the Seattle Channel rebroadcasting Matt’s presentation, the local interest in microfinance is certainly going to grow.

If you are interested in reading some of the media coverage, or viewing the rebroadcast, you can find the links here.