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EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Key Speakers:

Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association; Omar Freilla, Green Worker Cooperatives; Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Global Community Initiatives; Laury Hammel, Longfellow Clubs; Denise Hamler, Coop America; David Korten, YES! Magazine, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning; Hunter Lovins, Natural Capital, Inc.; Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance; Michael Shuman, Training and Development Corporation, author of Going Local and The Small-Mart Revolution; Greg Watson, Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust.

Key Sessions Topics:

Growing Local Value: Cutting Edge Business Practices, Local First Campaigns, Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal, Rethinking Economic Development, Influencing Citizen Decision Making, Localized Energy Systems, Local Currencies, Small Business & Public Policy, Community Land Trust and Local Farming & Food Distribution.

About BALLE:

BALLE is a growing alliance of local business networks dedicated to building Local Living Economies. BALLE includes 29 business networks with more than 5,000 business members. It is our mission to catalyze, strengthen, and connect these local business networks.

BALLE networks respond to the unique needs of their communities and share ideas throughout the alliance of networks. In Bellingham, business leaders created a "Local First" campaign to encourage citizens to buy from locally owned businesses whenever possible to keep money circulating within the community. In Vermont, the members of the network employ 8 percent of the state's workforce and lobby for increased support for renewable energy and health care. In Philadelphia, the network trains new social entrepreneurs in the business skills they need to be successful through its Social Venture Institute.

In community after community, BALLE networks are proving that a coordinated group of locally-owned companies can stand up to some of the harmful effects of globalization and foster the health and vitality of a region.

Event url:
http://www.livingeconomies.org/events/conference06