Conference Program

5:00-7:00 pm

Registration and Reception

It’s How We Live: Sustainable Branding and the Conscious Consumer

Raphael Bemporad
Principal, BBMG
David Lubensky
President, Bagatto Inc.

Green. Fair trade. Locally grown. Socially responsible. We know the words, but what do they really mean to America’s families and consumers?

As a growing number of brands aspire to the same values, marketers face the new challenge of distinguishing their companies, products and services in an increasingly crowded green marketplace. Branding agency BBMG and user insights consultancy Bagatto will share the results of a new, proprietary ethnographic study and national poll on the attitudes, experiences and priorities of conscious consumers and offer marketing principles and practices to reach, involve and inspire values-driven consumers. Gain insights into which trust labels really matter, the values that drive consumer behavior and the socially-responsible business practices that can increase sales and improve society.

At a time when consumers have more options than ever, how companies bring their products and services into the marketplace is as important as what they bring to market. Learn ways to close the trust gap with conscious consumers and reap the rewards of deeper relationships, enduring loyalty and a growing triple bottom line.

Marketplace and Community Connections
Speed Networking: Poster Board

Presentations Doing More Business Together: What Are Your Key Challenges and Offers?

The unique interactive poster board session is designed to get all conference attendees networking and doing business with each other.

Lunch Served

Strategies for the Green Economy

Joel Makower
Executive Director, GreenerWorld Media and Executive Editor, GreenBiz.com 

The green economy isn't simply about 'greening up' your business. It's about harnessing innovation to create new products, services, and business models.  Makower offers real-world tales on how both large companies and startups are turning environmental thinking into a platform for creativity and authenticity... and shows how companies can stand out in a world in which everyone from Clorex and Chevron is waving the green flag.

Book signing - Strategies for the Green Economy

Innovative Business Models  - Case Studies

Tom Szaky
Founder and CEO, TerraCycle
Miranda Magagnini
Co-CEO, IceStone LLC 

Creativity and innovation are the hallmark of these two green enterprises, TerraCycle and IceStone – learn from the best.

These two successful green businesses combine aspects of closed loop design and green jobs in underserved communities.

Audience Participation

How Sustainable Businesses are Relevant to the One Billion Working Poor—Through Microfinance

Tracey Pettengill Turner, Founder/General Manager, MicroPlace

MicroPlace provides a way for consumers and green business leaders to invest in microfinance and help one billion people get out of poverty. Learn how sustainable business can play a role in this transformative way to address – and end – global poverty.

Microfinance investing is the ultimate in sustainable business: everyone operates in a sustainable way, from the borrower to the investor, there is no limit to the number of hardworking poor people that can be reached. 

Microfinance is the ‘equal opportunity employer’ for the social justice sector, providing a way for all people who have an entrepreneurial spirit to build their businesses and improve their lives.

Learn how sustainable businesses can play a role in this transformative way to address—and end—global poverty.

Sustainability Outlook 2008

Alison Worthington
Managing Director of Sustainability, The Hartman Group

The Hartman Group shares their Sustainability Outlook Report detailing how consumers adopt sustainability practices and products.

Making the Business Case for Sustainability – Business Case Studies

Andrew Williamson
Director, Physic Ventures

Prolific entrepreneur and investor Williamson highlights best practices for growing successful green businesses with particular attention to developing strong partnerships with investors.  He also shares insights about the convergence of consumer values and global market drivers that are creating new entrepreneurial opportunities where personal health meets planetary health and where life science meets lifestyle.

Physic Ventures is the leading early-stage venture capital firm  investing in keeping people healthy—through products, technologies and channels that promote personal and environmental health.

Co-op America Green Business Network and YOU

Alisa Gravitz
Co-op America Executive Director
Denise Hamler
Co-op America Green Business Network™ Director  

Networking Session—Small Group Discussions

Diversity in the Workplace

MaryAnne Howland
CEO, IBIS Communications

Learn about how to diversify your workplace and how this diversity can strengthen your business.

How to Sell Without Selling Out

Seth Goldman
President and TeaEO, Honest Tea

Earlier this year Honest Tea announced that The Coca-Cola Company was purchasing a minority stake in the nation's first and largest organic bottled tea company. Learn about the decisions and strategy behind the transaction designed to maintain Honest Tea's mission of health and sustainability. Place your bets on whether it will work!

 Audience Participation

Our speakers and attendees will facilitate table talk lunch session on a variety of issues.  Pick a subject/table that interests you. Attendees are also welcome to organize a table.

Sign up at the registration area in the lobby.

The Ten Commandments of Green Marketing

Carolyn Parrs and Irv Weinberg,
Co-Founders,  Mind Over Markets

The green market is one of the toughest markets to understand and succeed in. Even the biggest and smartest marketers have jumped in and ended up sinking instead of swimming.

You can't do it without a guide. You can't do it without understanding the many shades of green consumer. You can't do it with traditional thinking and conventional solutions. 

“The Ten Commandments of Green Marketing” is an essential guide to understanding and communicating with this fast growing and informed demographic. With these ten cardinal rules, any marketer will be well prepared to understand the do's and don'ts, the how to’s and how not to’s of the green consumer. How best to speak their language, how to marry ecology to economy, how to use education as a tool for motivation and more. This is not a talk on theory but instead down-to-earth principles marketers can use right now to build their green business and green communications successfully and sustainably. 

Concurrent Sessions #1

Sustainable Packaging

Dennis Salazar
President, Salazar Packaging

Secondary packaging is much more than the box, tape, and void fill you use to get your product to the retail outlet or the customer. It can be a problem, a cost or an opportunity to make a positive green statement. Dennis combines over thirty years of packaging experience and his passion for sustainability to show you how to minimize cost and maximize the positive green impact of every package and product you ship out.  

True Confessions in Fair Trade Sourcing

Sharon Rowe, 
Founder/CEO, Eco-Bags Products, Inc.

Rony Alcalay, 
Founder , Vital Hemptations

What happens when the heavens open and green becomes mainstream? Follow Sharon and Rony through the growth pains of scaling up and responsible sourcing for growth.

Ron Alcalay shares his experience of dealing with a Chinese supplier he only knew through the internet, until he finally journeyed to the small town (of three million people) in China where his company's hemp clothes are produced. Determined to verify the working conditions at the factory, he immersed himself in a new world of social and environmental compliance, learning that what one company calls an 8 of 10, another calls a "D." 

The Carbon Concierge

Mickey Lee
Program Director, The Carbon Concierge

Concurrent Sessions #2

Triple Bottom Line Companies and their Quest for Capital 

Charisse McAuliffe
Founder, GenGreen

McAuliffe had a dream to create the most diverse resource online for people looking to live more sustainable lives by purchasing locally.

Follow her story of financing - from SBA loans to private equity investors. This workshop will give you the keys steps for preparing to meet potential investors to how to find and qualify investors. 

As she states, "How to proceed with caution around the sharks swimming in our triple bottom line waters, what to watch for and how to protect yourself when you get caught in a trap."

World of Good/eBay

Ella Silverman
Trust Provider Coordinator, World of Good 

EBay and World of Good Inc are partnering to build a new, multi-seller, online marketplace for people-positive products. As a Green Business member, you will be able to sell on WorldofGood.com alongside others in this trusted community.  Attend to learn more about how you can participate in the marketplace.

Business Problem Solving Session

Bring your business problems to this creative and interactive sessions. 

Amelia Royko Maurer told us after the Chicago Green Business conference, "At the problem solving session a group of experienced business people gave me about $5,000 worth of info in just 20 minutes."

Organic Banquet - Awards Ceremony

The Seventh Annual Green Business Leadership Award Keynote

Roxanne Quimby
Founder of Burt’s Bees and President of Happy Green Bee

The turbulent seas of mergers and acquisitions can shipwreck your company or provide a snug harbor for your future. For those CEO’s and founders crafting an exit strategy for their Green companies, Roxanne will share her recollections as captain of a small boat on the big ocean of “Capital America.”

How she safely steered Burt’s Bees toward a successful financial and social outcome is the subject of Roxanne’s often humorous and always hair-raising adventures in the capital markets of the other “green” America.

Enjoy the Cool Chill-Out Lounge 

Open Bar with organic beer and wine.