The public conference web site is now up and running at http://GreenVenturesConference.org (and actually you can also get there via GreenVenturesConference.com, just so there’s no confusion). While we will continue to use this site for some planning purposes, the new site may be more up to date in some areas from here on out.
Hi folks:
Wanted to send you some thoughts for our ongoing conversations about our May conference, based on the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference I just attended in Washington, DC.
The good news is – the movement is hot and getting hotter; the bad news is, it’s running into plenty of opposition already, and even in its headiest moments it is up against some pretty challenging realities on the ground.
Let me begin with the good news.
Things continue to move forward on the May conference – rapidly in some areas, more slowly in others – so here is a brief update with some topics for Monday’s call.
The conference’s public web site is now taking shape, at http://greenventuresconference.org. This site will continue to be used for planning, but the the public site should always have the latest information regarding the conference. Thanks.
Following our discussion on Monday, January 12, I’ve been giving some further thought to the overall structure and sequence of the conference, which I was asked to describe a couple of times.
One of the aspects that was troubling me was the tension between wanting to position the awards event as the culmination of the conference (and therefore having it be a lunch on Friday), vs. having it be the dinner on Thursday evening, when the largest number of people could be expected to attend.
Saturday, December 20: Sent a feeler out to Paul Krugman, as a potential keynote speaker – challenging him to speak on the “green economy.” Thinking also of Lisa Jackson or another federal official; Caren Franzini or Kathleen Coviello from EDA, as well as the Governor, Jeanne Fox, etc.
Thursday, December 18: Gerry Flach contacted the New Jersey Farm Bureau/Rutgers Leadership Program:
Dear Friends at the New Jersey Farm Bureau/Rutgers Leadership Program,
I am glad you found some of my comments useful yesterday and I look forward to continuing the discussion toward the possibility of our collaborating to implement urban agriculture as a key component of sustainable communities, in this case, Sustainable Paterson!
Here is more information on FDU’s Jumpstarting the New Green Economy conference as mentioned on Wednesday. I am sending along Jonathan Cloud’s conference announcement email that went out earlier this month and I am also cc’ing Wanda on this email as she will be chairing the Sustainable Food Track; we hope you will join her team as this event evolves and keep a look-out for conference updates!
Let me know if you are interested in additional information links on other areas I mentioned.
Wednesday, December 17: Sent out the following to the entire Green Club list, with a copy of the “Save the Dates” message:
Dear Green Club Members:
I would very much appreciate an opportunity to make a presentation to the group on the Sustainable Business Incubator and on the conference we’re planning for May 20-22, 2009 on “Jumpstarting the New Green Economy,” which will include a Green Jobs Fair and a Student Poster Contest.
Monday, December 8, 2008
(JC, Maura Pniewski, Brendan Canavan, D.J. Hanna, Jerry Flach, by phone)
Issues:budget, student involvement, logistics, conference tracks, web site
Discussion items:
(1) The Morristown Partnership project came up, as DJ is setting up interviews. Can we connect this in some way with the conference – in terms of the sustainable communities track, or with regard to local business initiatives?
The permanent version of the Conference Agenda is here. If you have suggestions or proposed revisions, please enter a comment below – thanks. The Session Tracks will be updated as the Track Leaders develop and focus their topics. This content is meant to be suggestive rather than definitive at this time.
Wednesday, May 20
1-5 p.m. Preconference Workshop(s)
Invention2Venture Workshop: open to students, startup entrepreneurs, green business organizations (Rothman Institute room)
Other workshop? (Orangerie)
5-9 Conference Registration, Expo, Networking Reception, Green Jobs Fair
Dear Colleagues:
We’re asking you to save May 20-22, 2009 for our next green ventures conference, Jumpstarting the New Green Economy.
The conference will include a much larger Green Expo and a Green Jobs Fair, a separate Green Invention 2 Venture Workshop, and an Awards Luncheon, as well as a number of conference tracks dealing with various aspects of the new green economy, from local food to local currencies, from green venture investing to reinventing capitalism. We hope to bring together over 400 people, including state and federal policymakers, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, leading thinkers, and community activists to “think together” about what’s needed and how to achieve it.
My goal with the conference this year is to use it to power a movement to launch dozens of new companies to grow a different sort of economy – an economy that genuinely is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable. Our present economy has proven that it is none of these.
Leading up to the conference in May will be a number of meetings and events co-sponsored with other individuals and organizations, including special ISE Breakfasts, roundtable discussions, and more. As i have speaking to people, I have been asking them to take on some of the “tracks” of the conference that most affect them or appeal to them personally – to prepare articles and sessions on Sustainable Food and Agriculture, on Scaling Up Renewable Energies, on Green Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and on Sustaining Communities. The value of doing this is that each of them is able to bring together a “brains trust” of the best people out there in the field, and invite them to our event.
If you would like to take on an area of the conference, assist us in other ways, have a table at the event, or use it to build or expand your own network of green contacts, please let us know. Register or Login to use the site, and send us your thoughts, interests, ideas, and intentions for your role in the event.
It now seems clear that a majority of people favor changing the dates of the conference to Wednesday, May 20 and Thursday, May 21. We may also want to include an event on the evening before, as a networking event, welcome for speakers or guests from out of town, and onsite registration to avoid a line-up on Wednesday morning.
We are also considering whether to have the awards dinner at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the event. It is conventional to do it at the end, as the culmination for the conference, and this may still be the best way to do it. But if we cannot get Lenfell Hall on the 21st, we may want to move it to the 20th, and have the networking reception and career fair on the 21st.
The one drawback to this is that the NJTC Bootcamp program is expected to be on May 20, so one possibility is to run from the evening of May 20 through to lunch on May 22. In this case it could be an Awards luncheon – and this might be a better idea anyway. It would also mean that we could hold a substantive event on May 20, such as the I2V workshop, as a pre-conference session.
Thoughts?
Here are some of the comments:
At 4:48 PM -0500 11/20/08, Gretchen Johnson wrote:
Gretchen Johnson here….the Friday before Memorial Day is a black hole and a 3 p.m. ending time does not solve it. Can you move it back a day?
At 4:50 PM -0500 11/20/08, Wanda Knapik wrote:
May 20-21st is better.
Will be hard for people to commit to anything on the friday before a holiday weekend.
At 4:56 PM -0500 11/20/08, Jeana Wirtenberg wrote:
On further thought, I think Wed and Thursday May 20-21st would be better if possible. Lots of people like to get an early start on the Memorial Day weekend and may have travel plans on Friday. Just my two cents.
Jeana
At 5:21 AM -0500 11/21/08, Sheft, Judith wrote:
The NJTC is running their start up bootcamp on Wed May 20th. I do not think it is a good idea to have a program on the same day so I am not in favor of moving to the 20th. In early June the week of the 8th we are going to run the Advanced Invention to Venture workshop at NJIT. Thanks
Judith Sheft
At 8:49 AM -0500 11/21/08, James Barrood wrote:
I’m not sure the NJTC boot camp is such a big conflict – it’s typically in Princeton as I recall and the number of participants, I suspect, is not that large. May want to touch base with Joan Praiss to get a better handle on it.
Jim
Thu, Nov 20
Thanks for agreeing to be part of the planning process for next year’s green ventures conference, Jumpstarting the New Green Economy. You can access the site at http://sustainablebusinessincubator.com/conference. This is a temporary site, in that the final version will likely be at the Invention to Venture site, but I think we need this to keep track of all the bits and pieces for now.
If you’d like to contribute, please register, and I’ll upgrade you to whatever level of access you need.
We are also now questioning the dates, because May 21-22 are right before Memorial Day weekend, and some people feel that most will not stay for a dinner on Friday. So we’re now looking at have the dinner on Wednesday or Thursday night, and figure out whether we should move the whole conference back a day, to May 20-21, o