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SpaceShare Carpooling & Green Logistics September Newsletter
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Greening the Meetings Industry: Many Small Steps

The Idea Factory -- "the trade show and conference that transforms the events industry" -- just finished last Thursday. I'd estimate there were between one and two thousand attendees, so it's great to see green ideas percolating throughout the industry. Shannon Kilkenny gave an important talk introducing scores of event planners to the basics of holding a green event, and I had the opportunity to talk to hundreds of people in the event industry, sharing ideas and even helping an attendee initiate a discussion with the Miami Mayor's office about recycling.

Hotel greening in Miami Beach is not so far along, I just wrote the hotel I stayed in about even the most basics, but improvements are on the horizon. Laura is working on a greening guide for SpaceShare, which hopefully will make it very easy to make clear and helpful suggestions to hotels you stay at.

Next up in the "event planning" field: In February, we'll be participating in the Green Meetings Industry Council conference in Vancouver.

My perspective: Greening professional events is really about two years old: like a toddler learning to walk, there is the constant pitter-patter of little feet, small steps towards being green mixed with lots of enthusiasm, not really going anywhere fast just yet but at least the potential for change. Knowledge about the environment and environmentalism is both frightening people and inspiring them.

I hope the environmental movement, I hope we can "grow up," learn to clean our room rather than just talk about cleaning our room. This is a tremendous opportunity: environmentalism as a movement might be a temporary fad (followed by disasters), or might move itself into part of human consciousness. As a movement we have done a good job at spreading fear about truths that people should be afraid of, an ok job at spreading inspiration, and a rather weak job at helping someone both fearful for their kids and inspired to make a difference actually become more active. That's the niche SpaceShare is trying to fill, and you're welcome to participate.

Upcoming Festivals, Volunteers Needed:

Events within 3 hours of San Francisco

Festival season is winding down...

Power to the Peaceful is just around the corner on September 8 in Golden Gate Park. We're considering a small exhibit for that event, a good opportunity for new volunteers to join for an hour or two.

EarthDance follows September 14-16, a spectacular festival about 3 hours north of San Francisco. Volunteer tickets for EarthDance are in hot demand, and our team of experienced volunteers will likely grab all the tickets we've been given, though we may have one or two approximately half-price tickets for moderate volunteers. EarthDance is a huge event, lots of fun and the organizers have good heart, they've been a consistent record breaker at carpooling with over 600 people signing up each of the last few years. Plus it's one of the most fun events when our booth closes.

Design Month Mostly Complete:

August ends with some major design changes percolating. Join the graphics team being led by Mindy Lue during her summer internship at SpaceShare. Mindy's icons are now built into the latest generation of SpaceShare sites, and her web work is ongoing. If you are interested in helping, whether you are a professional designer or just ready to help proofread and give your advice, email Mindy (reply to this email and it will reach her).

Internship: Learn Content Management and Online Community Building. SpaceShare's community website is continuing to inch along. We'd love to help teach someone very valuable (and reasonably simple) web skills, come be the coordinator, editor and cheerleader for our online community!

September is Content Month: Redesigning the Web Content

Laura and I will be working on various parts of the website, integrating Mindy's changes and updating the content of both the website and the greening guide. We'd love to have you join us! More hands would make a big difference in what we can accomplish.

Tomorrow's News

  • Very big news: the First Congregational Church of Christ in Berkeley is confirmed as our first House of Worship carpooling community. Work begins in September -- more soon!
  • A new school year is approaching -- know anyone looking for a solid world-changing volunteer role or internship?

Breathe & Create,
Stephen

SpaceShare.com
newsletter@spaceshare.com
6420 Colby St.
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 520-6175 (Stephen)

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