Jumpstarting the New Green Economy

Thank You for Making the Conference a Success 
plus: An Open Invitation to Ongoing Participation

Get 2-CD Audio MP3 Recording of All Conference Sessions for only $49.95 + $5 S&H

Conference in the News ~ Conference Blog ~ Conference Materials

View the Complete Photo Album of the Conference

Materials from the conference will continue to be made available at this site, along with links to our Sustainable Enterprise Network site, various blogs and twitter streams, some videos and audio files, and the Sustainable Business Incubator site. If you would like more information about the conference, the book proposal, or any of the other projects described here, please email impact@jumpstartgreen.org – thanks.

Here are some of the original descriptions of the event:

The goal of this year’s green ventures conference, Jumpstarting the New Green Economy, is both to assess and to support the transition to the sustainable economy that we must achieve in the first half of the 21st century. Is it working? If not, what do we need to do about it?

“The goal for our participants is to help them create a vision for business and work within a new paradigm. Upon leaving, they will be armed not only with a clearer vision for the future, but their next steps to move sustainability forward in their homes, their place of business, and their immediate communities and broader communities.”

Program >>		Conference Updates >>
Current Program Flyer                    WHEN THINGS COME TOGETHER When things finally start to come together for a conference like this, some serendipitous things begin to happen. People who were previously unavailable decide to show up; exhibitors sign up, even though times are tough all around; all sorts of interesting people begin to materialize, and bring new and often remarkable insights. Read more… Other entries: Thank You for Making the Conference a Success – and an Invitation to Ongoing Participation Financial Permaculture & Ecosystem Investing: Carbon Negative Chocolate & Beyond		NEWS RELEASE: NATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY EXPERTS TO KEYNOTE FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY’S SECOND ANNUAL “GREEN VENTURES” CONFERENCE                     MADISON, N.J. (May 8, 2009) — 2009 Green Ventures Conference organizers are proud to announce that among the highlights of this year’s Conference are keynote presentations of sustainability luminaries David Grant, Carol McClelland, Miriam Hawley, and Bob Willard. In addition, Philip LaRocco, retiring founder and chief executive of E+Co, will address dinner guests at the start of the conference awards dinner…read more CONFERENCE BLOG: Welcome to the Conference This conference brings together a wide range of topics and speakers on sustainability and the new economy that is needed to bring it into being. These topics range from funding new green ventures to transitioning to a green career; from the role of Chief Sustainability Officer in major corporations to the needs of communities to develop greater local resilience; from energy generation to waste minimization and to ecological restoration. Read more… PROFILES: “The Unlikely Sustainability Hero: The Restaurateur” By Kevin Doell of Fulcrum Media & Public Relations Thanks to the conference, my eyes were opened to a new sustainability hero, the independent restaurateur.  Read more…

About this Site

This site has a wealth of information about our

• Conference Agenda
• The individual panel and workshop sessions (Wednesday, May 20, 10 a.m.; Wednesday, May 20, 2 p.m.; Thursday, May 21, 10 a.m.; Thursday, May 21, 2 p.m. action-learning workshops) – as well as the parallel Invention to Venture track (Wednesday only)
• Information on the Awards Dinner
• Speakers, Panelists, and Moderators
• Conference Blog
• Information on the Venue, Local Accommodations, Media Registration, and information for Bloggers and Twitterers
• Information on how to volunteer, and on our Volunteers
• Information on our Sponsors and Co-Sponsors
• Information on the Expo, the Expo Speakers’ Program, and the Jobseekers Networking / Green Recovery / Green Drinks / Green Careers and Entrepreneurial Opportunities Fair
• A call for papers for a special issue of People and Strategy

and

• How to register

Some information is still being posted and updated, and likely will continue to change up May 18. However, our program deadline is May 9; we we need all of our Sponsor and Exhibitor information by then.

For help navigating it, the Index on the right of each page is the simplest guide to what’s inside; if you don’t find what you’re looking for you can use the search field below it, and the category listings on the left. You can also contact us if you have specific questions about registering, exhibiting, or sponsoring our conference.

Conference Goals

As of May 20, 2009, we will be 120 days into the new Administration’s term in office, and we will be able to see in outline the shape of America’s leadership for change.We are bringing together many of the key people in New Jersey and the Northeast to discuss and plan the transformation of our businesses, our communities, and our lives to a sustainable human society. (More…)

Our 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.

As author Jonathan Schell states, there will be no “upward-turning graph if the remedy does not include a green revolution and a sustainable-energy program. A dirty recovery, even if possible, would be worse than no recovery.” (More…)

Above all, the Conference will be the culmination of the work of many individuals and groups taking on the sessions, tracks, topics, and logistics of the event, and using them as opportunities to bring together people who are making a difference in business and in the community to discuss the challenges of jumpstarting the new green economy.

The Conference begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, with Registration, the Green Expo, and a Networking Reception.

Day 2, Wednesday, May 20, will include our NCIIA Green Invention to Venture Workshop, dedicated to entrepreneurs, faculty, students, and funders to learn about the latest green ventures, share funding and other opportunities, and demonstrate that New Jersey can play a leadership role in this new economy, based on our unique circumstances. Conference sessions will be devoted to looking at corporate sustainability, government programs, and the current state of green business, in green building, renewable energy, green collar jobs, etc.

Day 3, Thursday, May 21, will seek to go “beyond the current economic growth paradigm” and offer participants an opportunity to discuss and strategize real solutions, develop projects, and launch new initiatives. We plan to introduce some remarkable emerging businesses and nonprofits that, if nurtured, will make a big difference to making our state and our region more sustainable.

The Conference will conclude with a Green Jobs Fair and a second Networking Reception, where individuals can make connections, discuss projects, and further their own awareness and understanding of the challenges and opportunities we face in the 21st century.

The overarching goal of the conference is to bring people together to reinvent our economy – on a more enduring, environmentally sustainable, and socially just basis. A large part of this is inventing new business models, and new enterprises, as well as transforming old ones.