Thursday, May 31
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Session |
Details |
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| 7:30-8:25 AM | REGISTRATION, CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST – in the River Garden | |||||||||||||||||||
| 8:30-10 AM | PLENARY SESSION: Chuck Collins – Bring the Wealth Home! Shifting Money from the Global Casino Economy to Invest in Resilient Communities and Reduce Inequality
– The River Garden In order to reduce extreme inequality, Collins has been making the global case to the world’s wealth holders to “bring the wealth home,” to root capital in the real local economy to build flourishing communities.
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Keynote Speaker: Chuck Collins | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10 – 10:30 AM |
BREAK |
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| 10:30 AM – NOON | BREAKOUT SESSIONS | |||||||||||||||||||
Sparking Community: Stories of Delocalization Success – The River Garden Session DetailsThis session will hear from leaders of several community enterprises that have catalyzed local economic activities, deepened connections between neighbors, and strengthened community resilience. They have also protected local economies from the predatory extractive sector, creating local jobs and livelihoods.
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Moderator: Chuck Collins
Presenters: Hanna Flanders, Ibrahim Ali, Jon Megas-Russell |
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Windham Grows Presents Success Formulas For Growing Food and Ag Businesses – Brattleboro Food Co-opSession DetailsThe last ten years we have seen a plethora of business incubators and accelerators springing up all over the country. Most are focused on helping entrepreneurs start high-tech and service oriented businesses. Starting and growing a food and agriculture business is very different and needs it’s own curriculum and set of contacts. Windham Grows is a business hatchery that helps food and agriculture entrepreneurs grow their businesses by providing industry connections, community, consulting and curriculum. In this session we’ll hear from some of the participants in Windham Grows and show how they moved thier businesses forward in the program.
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Moderators: Jim Verzino and Cairn Cross
Presenters: Ingrid Chrisco, Bob Hausslein, Stephanie Shiman |
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Finding Partners for Local Investing – Brooks Memorial Library
Session DetailsWant to invest locally but not sure you want to tackle it alone? Have a company and need to raise capital? Panelists talk about the role they play in local investing and what they are looking for in investments or loans and how you can invest as a partner. Great information for entrepreneurs and investors.
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Moderator: Cathy Berry
Presenters: Nathanael Berry, Joel Moyer, Samuel Buckley |
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| NOON – 1:35 PM |
ACCESS LUNCHES
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| 1:45 – 3:15 PM | PLENARY SESSION: Philip Ackerman-Leist – The Role of Organic Communities in the Future of Food – The River Garden
The story of Mals, a small town in the Italian Alps that became the first municipality in the world to ban all synthetic pesticides, is but one beacon for the possibility for stepping beyond single-farm organic certifications and focusing on full-scale organic communities. From Vermont to Italy to India–are the intensifying ecological and socioeconomic tremors indicating that something bigger and more resilient might be in our future, if we opt to capitalize on and in the possibilities?
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Keynote Speaker: Philip Ackerman-Leist | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3:15-3:45 PM |
BREAK |
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| 3:45 – 5:15 PM | BREAKOUT SESSIONS | |||||||||||||||||||
Organic Entrepreneurs: Finding Ingredients for Success & Avoiding Recipes for Disaster – The River Garden
Session DetailsThe organic evolution of transforming a values-oriented business idea into a viable operation is rife with lessons for budding entrepreneurs. This panel of tested and tempered organic entrepreneurs will offer their best advice not just for entrepreneurs in the start-up phase but also for communities that want to support organic-oriented businesses.
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Moderator: Philip Ackerman-Leist
Presenters: Collin Tomlinson, Lisa Chase, Greg Cox, and John Franklin |
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| Soil, Climate Change, Agriculture, and the Power of Microbes
– Brattleboro Food Co-op Session DetailsJoin us to learn practical, affordable strategies to address our major challenges through collaborating with the work of plants and soil biology: how a healthy soil sponge can soak up rain and filter water to reduce flooding, drought, algae blooms, and wildfires; how green landscapes can cool the climate and rehydrate desertifying areas; and the enormous human health and economic benefits of restoring the function of the soil carbon sponge.
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Moderator: Alex Wilson
Presenter: Didi Pershouse, Judith D. Schwartz and Alix Contosta |
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The Money Menu – Latchis Theatre
Session DetailsEntrepreneurs will share their stories about borrowing money for their businesses, from start-up to present day, and their plans for the future. Learn about the various types of “alternative” loans available, including subordinated debt, convertible debt, and royalty financing, and which type of financing may be most appropriate for your business. Lenders will also be on hand to answer your questions about The Money Menu.
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Moderator: Raymond Lanza-Weil
Presenters: Tom Furber, Louisa Schibli, Kate McCabe, Janice St. Onge, Greg Georgaklis, Brendan Flannelly-King, Maggie Cohn |
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| 5:30 – 7:30 PM | Meetup at duo Restaurant – The Lounge, 4 High St, Brattleboro
Join us at The Lounge (across the street from The River Garden) for socializing, networking, and a special tasting of world-class Whistlepig Whiskey! Hors d’oeuvres will be served. |
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Friday, June 1
Time |
Session |
Details |
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| 7:30-8:25 AM | REGISTRATION, CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST – in the River Garden | |||||||||||||||||||
| 8:30-10 AM | KEYNOTE: Charles Eisenstein – The Gift: Ecology to Economy The transition to sustainable and regenerative agriculture often collides with economic realities and habits. Drawing on ecological principles of the Gift, Charles will describe a path forward to break through some of the economic and cultural limits to the expansion of the food revolution.
– The River Garden |
Keynote Speaker: Charles Eisenstein | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10:00 – 10:30 AM |
BREAK |
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| 10:30 AM – NOON | BREAKOUT SESSIONS | |||||||||||||||||||
The Circle of Gift: Money, Ecology, Community – The River Garden
Session DetailsWhen an enterprise is focused on producing a marketable product, normal investment paradigms can work. But what about when the main “product” is better soil, healthier water, or enriched biodiversity? We need a larger framework of giving and receiving to bring money and creativity where it is most needed. This discussion will bring together farmers, eco-healers, and funders to explore new paradigms of funding.
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Moderator: Charles Eisenstein
Presenters: Brian Kaminer, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, Buzz Schmidt |
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| Collaborative Mission Based Investing and How to do it Successfully
– Brooks Memorial Library Session DetailsHow do you successfully invest directly in local businesses as an individual or a foundation? How do you as an entrepreneur attract investors who want your company to be successful? How do you talk to each other? How does everyone come to a common set of goals and outcomes? How do you structure the documents to protect everyone, including the company and environment? Panelists will provide real life examples of what worked, what didn’t and why, what are the basic accounting and legal structures that keep everyone on the same page, and will answer your questions!!
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Moderator: Cathy Berry
Presenters: Eli Moulton, Elizabeth Burdine, Nate Berry |
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| The Tale Behind The Takeoff – Brattleboro Food Co-op 4 food businesses on how to highlight your story to build a business and demand for products |
Moderator: Bart Nagel
Presenters: Howard Prussack, Steve Swanson, Joel Bedard |
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| NOON – 1:35 PM |
ACCESS LUNCHES
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| 1:45-3:15 PM | BREAKOUT SESSIONS | |||||||||||||||||||
Future Methods to Farming – The River Garden
Session DetailsThis session will bring together a diverse set of pioneers who are forging new ways to grow food in sustainable and innovative ways. From vertical farming and reused shipping containers, to a novel approach to grass-fed beef, the topics will range from the futuristic to the fundamental, with climate change remaining in mind. Come meet the thinkers and inventors who are trying to solve the next problems in the future of food.
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Moderator: Nadav Malin
Presenters: Brad McNamara, Greg Kelly, Ridge Shinn |
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Community Table – Brattleboro Food Co-op
Session DetailsCreating anything new is a process rife with ambiguity and uncertainties. Every food entrepreneur faces them. Learning what to listen to, what to ignore, and when and how to take action requires a cultivated crowd of good people with good information. Over more than 5 years and 200 sessions, Community Table has become such a place—a generous and generative gathering point for food entrepreneurs and engaged eaters to share and shape ideas for action and build their businesses. Come be part of one and experience the design firsthand.
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Presenter: Rachel Greenberger | |||||||||||||||||||
| The Entrepreneurs Guide to Financing – Brooks Memorial Library
Entrepreneurs and funders tend to speak completely different languages. Entrepreneurs know all about their products and customers. Investors want to know things like customer acquisition cost, return on equity, and collateral. This session will provide clarity on the different types of investors, the kinds of investments they like to make, the language they use to make decisions, and which is appropriate for you at each stage of business. |
Moderator: Alan Newman
Presenters: Sivan Cotel, Andrew Richardson, and Cairn Cross |
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| 5:30 PM-8:30 PM | Gallery Walk and Strolling of the Heifers Street Festival, Main Street & Downtown Brattleboro | |||||||||||||||||||
SATURDAY, JUNE 2:
- 10 a.m.: Strolling of the Heifers Parade, Main Street.
- 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.: Slow Living Expo, Brattleboro Common and Brattleboro Retreat Grounds
SUNDAY, JUNE 3:
- 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.: Farmers Breakfast, The Marina Restaurant, Putney Road
- 8 a.m through the day: Tour de Heifer 15, 30 and 60-mile farm-to-farm, dirt-road cycling rides, beginning and ending at Lilac Ridge Farm,West Brattleboro
- 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.: Farm Tours — self-guided exploration of five unique and varied farms in the region