BALLE Conference Arrives in Mile High City Later This Month
May 4, 2009
By Kyle Foley
Local businesses have been receiving quite a bit of media attention recently, but most of it has been unhappily negative regarding the tough times they are facing. For this exact reason, the upcoming BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) conference – May 21-23 in Denver, CO – should be a welcome breath of fresh air because of its thriving networks of local businesses that are pushing onward and upward despite the economic turmoil surrounding them. Before anyone detected the current recession, BALLE was hard at work growing and sustaining communities of small businesses across the country, as one of their core values is to ensure that economic power resides locally in vibrant communities with healthy ecosystems – in other words, in local living economies.
RSF shares this inherent belief in the importance of strengthening local living economies, and we are looking forward to the exciting conversations that will surely be happening at this year’s BALLE conference, which is themed “Rising to the Challenge: Entrepreneurs Building Living Economies.” As BALLE’s Executive Director Doug Hammond puts it, “The current economic and environmental climate makes this year’s conference the essential event for business, civic, and community leaders. Key strategies for the new economy will be woven throughout every session.” One particularly relevant workshop taking place prior to the conference is on “Maximizing the Stimulus” and will cover ways for communities to make the most of federal stimulus dollars. There will also be one-on-one consultation sessions with business experts, and fantastic speakers, like Melissa Bradley of Green For All, Elliot Hoffman of New Voice of Business, David Korten of Yes! Magazine, Hunter Lovins of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Michael Shuman, newly working on the BALLE team, and more.
If you would like to join the many business owners, community investors, economic development experts, and sustainability leaders who will be present at the conference, visit www.livingeconomies.org/2009-conference to register and find more information. We at RSF are eager to continue celebrating and furthering the local living economies movement through BALLE, and we hope to see both familiar and new faces in Denver later this month!
Kyle Foley is Executive Assistant at RSF Social Finance.
- Published by Jillian McCoy
- Categories: Economy, Investing, Local economies
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