An opportunity for green businesses to share ideas
Local green entrepreneurs are uniting for the first Santa Cruz Green Business Camp on Oct. 22. The conference brings local small and medium-sized businesses together to share ideas and perspectives on achieving a green economy. Conference organizer and consultant for Sustainability Works, a company that helps monitor and manage sustainability performance and offers sustainability workshops, Matthew Marichiba stresses the importance of green businesses gathering and discussing their ideas. “The underlying intention is to crank up the local green economy, and the unconfrence format is a perfect way to spark the conversations that need to happen,” he says. Rather than attend a forum and listen to lectures all day, the “unconference” setting allows all local businesses in attendance to participate in discussions and offer their input on green business practices. Attendees are encouraged to submit topics for discussion and chime in during such discussions to elicit breakout topics.
The Santa Cruz Green Business Camp 2009 is an offshoot of a San Francisco event that occurred in April. Based on the success of the San Francisco event, the Santa Cruz forum will offer entrepreneurs from the Central Coast (Monterey, Santa Clara, San Benito counties and beyond) the opportunity to network and collaborate with like-minded business leaders, creating a more stable economy and offering positive environmental and social impacts through their businesses. “This forum is for green-minded business people to come together and discuss earth-friendly innovations, operations, products and resources,” Marichiba explains in the press release.
The Green Business Camp will be held on Thursday, Oct. 22 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Inner Light Ministries, 5630 Soquel Dr.. Inner Light Ministries is looking forward to holding this event as they are a green certified organization with the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program. The cost for the forum is $45 for pre-registration or $75 at the door. Interested? Visit GreenBusinessSantaCruz.com for more information or or e-mail organizers of the event at in**@gr********************.com. greenbusinesssantacruz.com
