We also have a shared workspace for the conference documents at http://docs.google.com/a/greenventuresconference.com.

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.

This conference, which was put together by what only a few years ago would have been considered an unlikely coalition of labor and environmental groups, blew the doors off its original projection of 1500 participants and attracted more than 2500 people of all colors and convictions to discuss and to lobby not just for more jobs but more importantly for the right kinds of jobs – well-paying, protected jobs building a greener future. In terms of both movements, you could not get more mainstream players: on the one side, the Sierra Club and the NRDC; on the other, the United Steelworkers, the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO, the CWA, and others.

As recently as November 2008, the LA Times reported on the Clean Trucks program under the headline “Labor, environment strange bedfellows”:

If we are to prosper as a nation,” Teamsters head James Hoffa Jr., told union members in Oakland in July, “our future lies in a green economy.”

That might seem like an unusual declaration for a union leader. But then, Hoffa went a step further in announcing that Teamsters was abandoning its push for oil drilling in the Arctic.

Environmental activists and union bosses are known for their rancor. They have historically held opposite positions on key issues – drilling in fragile environments, nuclear power, logging ancient forests – pitting jobs against the environment.

But that was before the values of the environmental movement were adopted by mainstream society, before union membership began to plunge and manufacturing jobs were exported overseas.

Speakers at the conference included several US Senators and Governors; members of the new administration including EPA’s Lisa Jackson; UN Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner; Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers, James P. Hoffa of the Teamsters, and other labor leaders; Phil Angelides of the Apollo Alliance and other environmental leaders; and the truly inspiring figures of Winona LaDuke, Van Jones, and the Rev. Lennox Yearwood.

More than 45 workshops, many filled to overflowing, discussed topics ranging from Prison Re-Entry and Green Jobs to Reinventing the American Auto Industry, with almost everything in between. I attended sessions on Workforce Training, Renewable Energy, and Investing in the New Energy Economy, as well as joining a number of other New Jersey participants in a round of “lobbying” visits to Senators and House members and their staffs as part of “Advocacy Day.” (In my group we spoke to Leonard Lance and Donald Payne, and to staffers for Rush Holt and Frank Pallone.) A Green Jobs Expo had 80 exhibitors, from government agencies to universities to professional organizations to private businesses.

The most moving moments were with Van Jones and the staff of Green for All, both at a private reception on Thursday evening, and during an amazing speech on Friday morning in which he spoke of “being braver and going deeper,” to recognize that that this movement is not just for a clean energy economy but for restoring our very humanity and our connection the planet itself. Lennox Yerarwood pointed out that on top of the movement for equality and for justice, which continues, we now have a movement for our very survival and for an to “expendable” regions like New Orleans and Appalachia.

I will be posting these thoughts, along with photos, to a couple of blog sites. Here’s the best pic of our NJ contingent, with Congressman Donald M. Payne of NJ’s 10th District (which includes parts of Essex, Hudson, and Union counties):

New Jersey Contingent with Congressman Donald Payne

Now for the bad news:

Even as we met at the conference hotels and joined in making the case for a green recovery program for our cities, our country, and our world, the wrangling over what is already a flawed and insufficient stimulus bill continued on the Hill. The economic news continues to worsen, and the Republicans (and some “conservative” Democrats) continue to bring their tired and obstructionist arguments to muddy the waters and impede meaningful action. The issue is not just “stimulus,” for while it’s true that people who are losing their jobs, their homes, and their hopes for the future through no fault of their own desperately need relief, what’s really important is that we use this crisis as an opportunity to make a start on a new, more sustainable, and more just economy.

This is not what’s happening. The American economy needs real reform, and real support for essential services and human needs. Many if not most economists are saying the House $819 billion plan is barely enough, and the Senate is cutting back on that. Here’s some of the latest, from none other than the Wall Street Journal:

 ”Among the $110 billion in spending cuts: $98 million for school nutrition, $3.5 billion for school construction, and $100 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The deal jettisons or pares back a number of items that President Barack Obama had wanted. Funding to computerize health records is all but gone, as is a national study on the comparative effectiveness of health treatments. Mr. Obama’s Make Work Pay payroll-tax holiday was clipped back, and an expansion of the child tax credit for the working poor was also trimmed. At least half the funds to subsidize state education spending were eliminated.”

Of course it’s bogus to say that a dollar spent on education or school nutrition “does not create jobs” the way a dollar spent on pouring concrete for roads does. While we do need to repair America’s “crumbling infrastructure,” there’s nothing green about concrete, and what we really need is more spending on mass transit and alternative solutions to a transportation system that is totally dependent on fossil fuels. And I could go on about issue after issue along these same lines. Tax cuts, even if targeted at the working poor (which of course they won’t be, if the conservatives get their way), do not distinguish between the right kind of spending and the wrong kind; etc., etc. But I don’t want to get on a soapbox about these issues, especially since I assume that I’m preaching to the choir.

The important point, though, is that we haven’t done a good enough job of selling the “new green economy” yet; even though all of “us” are convinced that we need it, not enough of “them” have either been persuaded or out-argued. So-called “independent” economists like Robert A. Brusca, PhD, a former Division Chief at the NY Fed, are making dumb arguments like “PLEASE think about what green stuff you endorse. If the markets aren’t supporting it, there is something missing.”

What’s missing, of course, is that the markets today are mostly driven by the wrong signals and incentives; and economists somehow can’t get it through their heads that there no markets on a dead planet. And if you think economists are bad, try Senators (who as one economist recently suggested, ought to include a few million extra in the stimulus package just to hire tutors who could bring them up to speed on today’s Econ 101 basics). And then there’s the corporate lobbyists who get paid to promote noxious falsehoods like “clean coal”… and the right-wing “think tanks,” who regularly trot out scholarly papers supporting transparently foregone conclusions.

So what’s the upshot for our conference?

I think it’s to recognize that we still have a very long way to go to make the case for a sustainable economy. As obvious as it may seem to us – that something unsustainable is, well, you know, unsustainable – it does not apparently seem obvious to many policymakers or many citizens. Things cannot, and indeed will not, continue the way they are. They could get worse, much worse. On the other hand they could, if we take concerted action, get better. It will not, in all likelihood, be a utopia. But it could be a helluva lot better than what we have now. We can build on a lot that is already good, and try to discard what isn’t working – for us and for the planet.

I think if we leave people empowered to build a better world; enabled by having the most current, most accurate, and most complete information; and connected to each other by bonds that truly cannot be broken – we will have done our job. So this is my takeaway – along with a lot of specific ideas for sessions, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors, that I think we can move forward on.

So I look forward, as usual, to our conversation on Monday at 9:15. Once again:

• Conference Dial-in Number: (218) 339-4300
• Participant Access Code: 694336#

In the meantime, keep sending your input or posting it on the planning site – thanks.

• I’m attaching a recent version of our conference flyer (which is also available on request in an updated Word version if you want to customize it with your own information):

• This has the latest version of the program, which still needs further refinement.

• It references some speakers who have not been invited yet, so it’s critical that we get these invitations out as soon as possible. Thanks to Tana in particular for improving the invitation letter; now we’re working on the speaker list, looking for contact details and “intermediaries,” who we can use as references

• We need to finalize early bird pricing and get the registration site working soon also; we also need to figure out who should get complementary or reduced pricing, given our estimate of the per-person costs for food and other items.

• And we need sponsor and exhibitor packages

I realize that in some of these areas I’m the bottleneck to moving things forward, so I’m expecting that Julian Gronager, our new Conference Manager, will play more of a role going forward. My goal today is to reach back out to some people who had offered to assist in the past but haven’t been getting all the updates – again, mea culpa.

In addition to the new web site, we’ve started using Google Docs to maintain a checklist of things that need to get done.

Here’s how to view it:

http://docs.google.com/a/greenventuresconference.com
User name: planner (@greenventuresconference.com) Password: gvc321

(This just lets you view it. If you want access to modify it, let me know and I’ll give you a personal account.)

I also want to acknowledge you all for helping shape this event, and I want to make it even more “your event” than mine, the Incubator’s, the ISE’s, and even the University’s.

I see this as our opportunity to make a statement, both to acknowledge a new reality and to help bring it into being. In this context, I think we need to keep talking about this emerging green economy: what’s being proposed, and what’s actually happening. Here are some recent thoughts.

While there are very positive and encouraging signs that the recovery plan will include a push for green jobs, for clean energy, and for a more sustainable and fair society, the details of the implementation seem less than clear.

A lot of money is going into deferred maintenance, i.e., making sure that things do not further deteriorate, which should have been being spent all along; providing greater assistance to those in increasing need; and shoring up the status quo, both good and bad. (The current version of the bill, incidentally, is available at http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr1_text.pdf.)

Here are some highlights from scanning it. $4.5 billion is going into improving, repairing, and modernizing Department of Defense facilities. An additional $250 million will go into Economic Development Assistance programs; $1 billion in additional funds will go to the Census Bureau; $2.5 billion to the National Science Foundation.

$18.5 billion will go into Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, including $2 billion for R&D, $6 billion for weatherization; $3.5 for Energy Block Grants; $3.4 billion for state energy programs; $4.5 into “electricity delivery and energy reliability”; $2 billion into advanced batteries; $2.4 billion into carbon capture and storage (which so far has not been economically demonstrated) to allow the continued burning of fossil fuels; with $2 billion to go into “science” and $8 billion into the “innovative technology loan program.”

The real question is, however, how quickly we can actually make the transition to a truly sustainable economy. This is what the conference will, hopefully, address, in a wide variety of areas – energy, building, communities, food and agriculture, transportation, and so on.

Meanwhile, the economic meltdown is deepening, as companies and individuals cut back in almost every area. State and local governments are making plans to reduce expenditures, not increase them. So we may want to ask, where are the real green jobs? And exactly how is the plan going to support the emergence of the new green ventures we need to create those jobs?

Anyway, my thoughts for now. I look forward to our discussion.

– Jonathan Cloud

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.

Several people had suggested switching it to Thursday evening, but I’ve been resisting this because I just couldn’t see how to end the conference on Friday. But was still troubling me as something that somehow didn’t work. So I backed up and started to think about the overall structure differently, and here’s what I’ve come up with.

If the conference is essentially going to start on Wednesday, with the Invention to Venture workshop as the “pre-conference” event, and the Green Expo, Green Jobs Fair, starting in the evening, it seemed logical to think of this as the “ventures” day, and to strengthen this with an evening presentation opportunity for entrepreneurs, where they could make a pitch or mix with angels and VCs.

Thursday, the main full day of the conference, would then be the “mainstream” day, looking at corporate sustainability, government programs, and the current state of green business, in green building, renewable energy, green collar jobs, etc.

Friday morning and lunch could then be positioned as looking at what comes after that, which in effect could be described getting “Beyond the Current Economic Growth Paradigm”. This has become the focus of several leading-edge thinkers, including Gus Speth (The Bridge at the Edge of the World), etc., especially in light of the current economic meltdown. The danger is that we’ll try to revive the economy by stimulating consumption through tax cuts, infrastructure renewal, etc., rather than targeting new spending to laying the foundation for a new, less wasteful, renewable, and truly sustainable economy. It’s not that we don’t need growth – but we need to grow spiritually, in social and economic justice, in health and education, and in sustainable communities, transportation, production, distribution, and lifestyle change.

We’ve designated Friday morning for “action-learning workshops” and more cutting-edge thinking than the prior day and a half. This very much fits with the above; it leads to a smaller and more focused audience coming together on Friday (which is likely to happen anyway as many people will be trying to get away for the Memorial Day weekend); but activists and grass roots folks who see an opportunity to move things forward may be willing to stick around. I’m still looking for a theme for the lunch, but I now less concerned that things will just trail off without a strong conclusive note that inspires us to move forward more powerfully than before.

Please let me know what you think. Having this framework will also help with (a) working through the budgeting and conference pricing, (b) knowing how many keynotes and speakers we need, and (c) refining the logistics and sponsorship opportunities, which are the main things I am working on.

The good news is that many people have stepped up to lead seminar tracks and individual sessions – in green building, resilient communities, local food and agriculture, corporate sustainability, sales and marketing, renewable energy, transportation, and so on. I’ve also started working on the main “public” site for the conference, and will have the bare bones of that up shortly. More details to follow – and I welcome your write-ups and reports for us to post on the planning site. Thanks.

P.S. The “Save the Dates” message that went out in the middle of December is posted here; I’ll be composing an update shortly that we can circulate very widely as soon as the new site is set up. I’ll also be responding to a number of additional colleagues who have agreed to coordinate tracks or sessions, and whose names you’ll start to see showing up in the “To” field.

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.

We were just approved by the NJ Commission on Science and Technology for an initial seed grant, which is the first step to becoming a full member of the NJ Business Incubator Network, and one of three incubators focused on green ventures. We have also just launched the planning for our May conference (see message below), where we hope to build on the success of our last conference, “Growing the Next Generation of Green Ventures.” I am now also a member of the Campus Sustainability Committee, and along with other members hope to focus a major push to bring new sustainability initiatives to our already green College at Florham

I would very much appreciate the opportunity to do this presentation at the first meeting of the Club in January, or at the earliest opportunity, since we’d like your participation throughout the semester, and would like you to help us plan and promote several important events.

In particular, we’re looking to have a Student Poster Contest as part of the Green Expo that will accompany the conference. Here’s the basic idea we have – we’d set up a table in the Expo area, with the posters that students create on various topics, displayed with easels, or on the walls, or hanging somehow; we’d then schedule times for them to do a short presentation on their topic for, say, 15 minutes, and print up a schedule as part of our program.

Here’s the kind of thing we have in mind:

The topics can be anything to do with sustainability, green business, ecology, community, or the campus. They should go beyond simply explaining global warming, and address what we are or are not doing about it, what the latest data is, or how individuals can make a difference today.

Ideally, we’d like to have some prizes for the best posters, and see if some instructors will provide credit for outstanding, well-researched, and well thought-out presentations.

Here’s the general information on the conference, and on how you can participate in it. We’re looking for suggestions as to how to attract more students for the Invention 2 Venture pre-conference workshop, which deals with how to start, finance, and manage a new venture in the green space, and how to increase student and faculty participation in our activities. Please let me know when I could come and dialog with the group – thanks.

Tuesday, December 16: I submitted a best, worst, and likely case scenario regarding the budget to Joel and Gerard for their review, to see if we can allocate some small initial amounts for planning purposes, e.g., for videoconferencing services, marketing materials, etc. (In looking back, I possibly did not attach the spreadsheet, so I’ve since sent it again. The “likely case” scenario is show on a private page – you need to log in to see it.)

Gerry Flach confirmed our interest in including a session on Transit-Oriented Development and Urban Planning with Matt Wanamaker of Brown & Keener (http://bkurbandesign.com) as part of our Sustainable Communities track -

Hi Matt,

I conferred with our conference head, Jonathan Cloud, head of the Sustainable Business Incubator at FDU, and we feel that your Transit-Oriented design/ Development perspective fits well within the Sustainable Communities, on the topic of land use generally and specifically as a tool for economic development in line with our conference theme. We are planning for many concurrent sessions and also putting together sponsorship opportunities.

With this note then I will connect you with Jonathan and his support team to assure that you remain on the sponsorship and session speaking mail update lists as we evolve this event. I also look forward to the results of your Paterson study.

Monday, December 15: Maura and I met today to continue looking at logistical issues, and addressed amongst other things the following:

• Audio-visual requirements for presenters (I have since followed up with Kevin Wojtaszek; every room has a projector, and we’ll review the set up the first week back)
• Contacting the Green Club, and outlining the proposal for the Student Poster Competition (done)
• Getting a layout for the Green Expo (there is no floorplan for the gym, but it’s a plain rectangle, 135 x 185, so we’ll just develop a layout for the expo; and we’ll be working with Peter Marion and the rest of the Rec. Center staff on the setup, etc.)
• Getting help from the Dean’s and the Provost’s office both before and during the event (Ken has since agreed to make his staff available that week)
• Engaging additional administrative support
• Audio recording of all sessions
• Travel and accommodation arrangements
• Follow-ups from previous meetings regarding the Green Jobs Fair, catering, etc.

Saturday, December 13: Initiated correspondence with Sherrill Curtis regarding the Awards Luncheon, which would be co-sponsored with the Morris County chapter of SHRM. For more on this, see the Awards Event page.

Friday, December 12: Judith Sheft and I had a productive conversation with Patricia Boynton of NCIIA regarding the I2V Workshop, which is currently planned as a pre-conference session on Wednesday, May 20, from 1 to 5. For more on this, see the I2V Workshop page.

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?

(2) Student involvement – we need to make contact with the club presidents and faculty advisers for both the Green Club and the Metro campus club; send out some preliminary emails and then perhaps speak at their first events in the new semester (everything is pretty much winding down now for this term). My goal is get them as extensively involved as possible. We also want to look at email announcements going out to all students and faculty from the Dean or the Provost’s offices, and class handouts. Suggestions and assistance with this welcome. Brendan to follow up and find contacts.

(3) Green Jobs Fair – we need to touch base again with Valerie Adams, confirm the date & times (May 20, 5-9?), and consider if there are specific employers we should invite ourselves. JC to follow up.

(4) Green Expo – need to review what we did last time, develop vendor packages, offer special deals for those exhibiting last time. Maura, JC to follow up.

(5) Conference Tracks & Sessions – we now have several people leading specific discussion areas – as listed at <http://sustainablebusinessincubator.com/conference/?page_id=23>. At some point we will need to reduce these down to a manageable number, but for now I just think it’s useful to have people focus their energies where they see the greatest need or emerging interest. Maura to identify breakout rooms. Track leaders to update site pages with what they need from others.

(6) Budget – I circulated the budget with the previous message and have placed it on a private page at the site (you need to be logged in to see it); this still needs to be approved by ISE, and then we need to discuss speaker fees, expenses, etc. We also need to allocate some money for additional administrative support. JC to follow up.

(7) Additional Administrative Assistance – we need to request assistance from the Dean’s and the Provost’s offices, with confirming speakers and providing “day of” assistance, etc. JC, Joel, and Maura to follow up.

(8) Registration Logistics – way in advance we need to understand that we will need tables, name tags and tag holders, laptops, table tents, attendee lists, etc., so that we are not overwhelmed at the event. We need to manage the food and accommodations better, and have backup plans in place. We need to know if we are really restricted to Gourmet Dining and meet with them. We need to manage the cash bar so that we actually make money rather than losing it or just breaking even. JC & Maura to follow up.

(9) Student Poster Sessions – we didn’t discuss this, but I’d like to see something like this happen, perhaps out of the meetings with the Green Club; we also want a presence at Green Day. We need a champion to take this on.

As you can see, we covered a lot of details, and this is just the beginning. I have some additional meetings lined up this week, and Judith Sheft and I will be on a conference call with NCIIA on Friday. Please keep the questions and suggestions coming, and check the web site often. Thanks.

- Jonathan Cloud, Dec 8, 2008

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

Thursday, May 21

8 a.m. Breakfast

9 a.m. Welcome and Opening Session: Jumpstarting the New Green Economy

Welcome from President Adams, Governor Corzine, Morris County Freeholder Director, local Mayor?

10 a.m. Conference Sessions:

• Foundational Building Blocks
  • Green Entrepreneurship and Incubation
  • Green Collar Jobs
  • Local Currencies
  • Sustainable Communities

12 noon Lunch Panel on Legislation and Government Programs

2 p.m. Conference Sessions

• Areas of Focus
  • Green Redevelopment in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Areas
  • Permaculture and Urban Agriculture
  • Green Chemistry
  • Green Energy
  • Electric Vehicles

4 p.m. Expo and Green Jobs Fair

7 p.m. Buffet and Keynote

Friday, May 22

8 a.m. Breakfast

9 a.m. Final Conference Sessions

• Hitting the Ground Running
  • Public-Private Partnerships
  • Green Business Certification Systems
  • Cleantech Venture Funding
  • Others

12 noon: Awards Luncheon

2:30 p.m. Conference Close

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.

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