November 12th, 2008

Opportunity Green 2008 Post Game Wrap-Up

Posted by Jenn Breckenridge

Stumble it!digg it add to del.icio.ustechnorati

Karen Solomon and Mike Flynn have done it again. For the second year in a row, they created an LA-based green business conference with a modicum of style and copious amounts of substance. The list of keynotes and panelists at Opportunity Green was a who’s who of environmentally-driven executives, pillars of the conscious publishing world, and leaders of the rapidly emerging field of Social Media. According to Karen and Mike, “Our purpose is to fill your head with knowledge you can use: ideas, new trends, amazing ingenuity.” With the help of key players from Dwell, Grist, Nike Considered, Patagonia, NBC Universal, Whole Foods, and more, the founders of this new green business mecca did just that.

The loquacious Anabelle Gurwitch of Planet Green’s WA$TED co-hosted, providing insightful commentary between panels as the eternally charming Boise Thomas of Planet Green’s Alter Eco was there “doing his Phil Donahue impersonation,” jogging through the auditorium with mic in hand, taking questions from the engaged audience.

Opportunity Green draws a rather unique audience: dreamers with drive. Savvy idealists. Down-to-earth visionaries. Many key organizers of LA’s green scene were in attendance: Barbara Kramer of D&A Green Market, Jay Coelho-Donnellan of Eco Gift Festival, Greg Wendt of Green Business Networking, Jennifer Gooding of Eco Tuesday, Barent Roth and Laura Beatty of Green Drinks, Ferris Kawar of Greenopia and on and on. There were curious executives from not-so-green companies like FOX seated side-by-side with conscious executives from mission-driven companies like Eco Nation. The mix was just diverse enough to make for extremely productive networking during meals, breaks and stolen moments in the hallways and terraces of UCLA’s Covel Commons.

Speakers told many righteous stories over the weekend of conscious, compassionate business practices triumphing over convenience and complacency. Rick Ridgeway, who’s been with Patagonia since it’s infancy several decades ago, spoke about the unexpected success he and Yvon Chouinard experienced by putting Earth first in their business dealings. Greg Owlsley, Chief Branding Officer for Colorado-based New Belgium, told the story of how a small, out-of-the-box organic beermaker became the biggest name in craft brewing by sticking to their mission and embracing their oddball tendencies.

Best Practices In Social Media was an incredibly informative presentation and most definitely one of the highlights of the conference. Michael Leifer is the Executive Director of Social Media at Swirl, a marketing agency with a client list that includes PayPal, Skype, and eBay. More impressive than his client list, was his voluminous knowledge of Social Media, a fairly new field that evolves and morphs at breakneck speed. Leifer was joined by Causecast Founder and CEO, Ryan Scott who laid out in plain words the social and financial value of cause marketing. Rob Reed, the blogger behind MaxGladwell.com, explained how Social Media had reached a tipping point in 2008, and warned that business owners better get on the train before it left the station without them. “This is more than just Web 2.0, this is customer service 2.0. This is risk management 2.0.”

There was humor to be found in unexpected places at OG 08. Getting Funded And What To Invest In turned out to be one of the most entertaining panels of the conference, with Adeo Ressi of TheFunded.com inspiring roaring laughter from the audience as he tore through the real do’s and don’ts of raising capital, often at the expense of the very humble Andy Funk of conscious venture capital firm Funk Ventures.

Tom Szaky, Founder of Terracycle, was another unexpected pleasure of the conference. When you hear, “Oh yeh, Tom, he’s that worm poop guy,” you don’t necessarily think you’re about to witness greatness. Two minutes with Tom Szaky will turn your scatophobia around completely. Whether he’s turning worm feces into fertilizer for Home Depot or Capri Sun Juice Packs into fashionable beach totes, Tom demonstrates the concepts of “waste as fuel” and “there is no away” with absolute clarity. Terracycle is an example to Fortune 500 companies and millions of consumers:”waste not, want not.”

Green diva Zem Joaquin of ecofabulous.com fame joined Szacky on the panel What’s Hot What’s Not What’s Next, talking about current and future trends in sustainable lifestyles. Zem said, “…this was the first time that I encountered the genius of Tom Szacky. Valuing trash has long been a goal of mine, but the fact that he has commoditized our waste is simply brilliant. He is making this conceptual trend a reality, which ecofabulous will certainly celebrate.” Grace Hawthorne of Readymade Magazine moderated the fiery group of trendsetters with humor and wit, chiming in “you heard it hear first” as each speaker laid out the latest discovery or assertion of the ways and wiles of the green marketplace.

At his closing keynote address, Josh Dorfman of Vivavi said very simply and with rock solid confidence, “There is no green fatigue.” He explained in no uncertain terms that there remains a critical mass of Americans that still know absolutely nothing about “going green.” He assured the audience, in a vaguely paternal way, that we as ecopreneurs still had our work cut out for us. It was oddly comforting that this longtime “Lazy Environmentalist” was telling us we still had a long way to go; we knew this to be true. Though, in a momentous week that had brought us the election of Barack Obama followed by LA’s 2nd Annual Opportunity Green, the monumental amount of work ahead looked like it just might be a good time after all.

Popularity: 1% [?]