I’m Speaking at GoGreen Seattle 2013 on April 24th

Please join me for GoGreen Seattle 2013 on Wednesday, April 24. I am excited to be a featured speaker at the event, contributing my perspective and expertise on greening our organizations and advancing the sustainable economy here in the Pacific Northwest to a dynamic panel on Platforms For Accelerating Energy Efficiency. Get more details below and make sure to use my discount code to save $25 on your tickets. 

Date | April 24, 2013 | 8:30 – 5 p.m.; Networking Reception 5 – 6 p.m.

Venue | The Conference Center | 8th and Pike, 3rd Floor

Get Empowered. Get Connected. Get It Done.

We each have a role to play in driving progress — whether it’s developing a disruptive technology that solves an old problem, using big data to provide better municipal services or significantly lowering the impact of a corporate supply chain. GoGreen Seattle presents a change maker’s agenda focused on getting scrappy, developing talents & skills to tackle our most pervasive issues and banding together as a region to change the face of business and urban development for the better. Come ready to deepen your understanding and expand your network. Leave armed with the tools, strategies and connections to advance sustainability in your workplace.

View the program & 2013 speaker roster

Cost | $175 Single Full Admission & $150 Group Rate

Discount | Use the code SPEAKER13 to save $25 on tickets!

Twitter | @GoGreenConf and #GoGreenSEA

The Lifeboat Manifesto

Prepare for SXSW

Here is what you need every day when you leave wherever it is your are staying:

  1. Hand Sanitizer or hand wipes, use them liberally
  2. good earplugs, get them from earlove (best) or earpeace (better), expando foam ones (meh). Last year I found a party that was giving out the earpeace ones. 
  3. comfortable shoes.
  4. light-weight and compact layers, the weather can change. refill-able water bottle
  5. Emergen-c
  6. EXTRA POWER - and plug-in whenever you can. I got a little extra power pack for my iphone, called Gum (it’s on sale!), not one of those cases, this just plugs in, then you can stash it.
  7. Whatever you like to take for headaches.
  8. A snackbar, granolar bar type thing for when you really want to get to another session but are also really hungry.

I also like to start the day with a bottle of coconut water.

Two other tips:

  1. Never miss an opportunity to charge up
  2. Never pass a bathroom without a line (unless you’ve just gone to the bathroom)

I’m on SXSW Social and on Sched which works better and has unofficial events listed and lets you share your schedule, like this!

Let me start by saying that I am, almost completely, opposed to the kind of streetcars Seattle is implementing. The system is essentially putting buses on rails, reducing the ability to adjust routes as demand changes, without adding the benefit of segregating streetcar traffic from other vehicular traffic.  While streetcars might get signal priority, they will not enjoy a dedicated right-of-way, and thus can get stuck in traffic just as buses can.  I don’t believe that the streetcar’s benefits justify the cost. I am not just speaking of the proposed extension, but also of the existing project.

With that said, it seems this train is leaving the station. I’ve outlined my opposition to the proposed extension in the first section below. In the second section I have offered feedback on the proposed alignment and terminus of the extension should the project proceed.

My feedback is informed by the fact that I am a homeowner on the 700 Block of 10th Ave E, and I formerly lived on the 400 Block of 12th Ave E, I’ve also lived on Boylston Avenue near E Roy St. and thus have spent a considerable amount of time in the past 7 years in and around the area that will be affected by the proposed streetcar extension.

Click through the link to see my full feedback document including analysis of each of the three terminus options, plus the unexplored option that I think makes the most sense.

Then, like a toilet-trained toddler who begins wetting his pants again when a new baby sibling arrives, America forgot everything it had learned from German light rail. Newer streetcars were built to operate in mixed traffic, with frequent stops, using only the front door for boarding while the driver collected fares. “The [contemporary] streetcar is like a bus on rails, but it has no advantages over a bus,” says Thompson. “An effective light rail or streetcar has to be operated like a subway,” but most modern streetcars are not.

I’ve Got A New Gig: Client Engagement Manager at EnergySavvy

After seven years with a truly wonderful group of people at CivicActions, I’ve decided to leave the firm for a position at EnergySavvy, a Seattle company that provides software solutions to utility companies and government energy efficiency programs. 

Working with the team at CivicActions, and the broader nonprofit technology and Drupal communities was an experience that shaped my life, not just my career. I can look back at so many amazing , and successful events: creating and organizing numerous DrupalCamps, sharing knowledge at DrupalCons in North America and Europe, contributing to NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, and the Web Of Change. I had the honor to work with wonderful clients, from the New York and Montana Leagues of Conservation Voters early in my tenure, to the Center For Reproductive Rights, The Smithsonian Institute, Congress For the New Urbanism, YouthBuild USA and so many others.

My role at EnergySavvy has me using my Scrum Master skills to deliver our product, and enhancements to it for a number of our clients around the country. it’s exciting to be working in a sector with so much growth potential and being able to see the direct impact that our software has for both our customers - the energy efficiency programs - and the thousands of homeowners who unlock the energy savings potential of retrofit work because of it.

Crowd-funding in the kitchen: non-traditional financing and funding for your food-related project

Small business owners have found it difficult to access tradition financing from banks over the past few years. An increasing number of them, including chefs and value added producers, have turned toward crowd funding to put together the capital necessary to start or expand their businesses. From food trucks to fine dining, a variety of different models have been successfully employed. What’s worked? What’s flopped? We’ll discuss with our colleagues who have gotten help from the crowd to fund their projects. Whether by Kickstarter or pre-sale of discounted goods or gift cards, crowd funding builds on the familiar concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and takes it to the next level. Moderated by Gregory Heller, Seattle Chefs Collaborative. Presenters include Tim Crosby and Arno Hesse, both of Slow Money, chef Thierry Rautureau of Luc and Rover’s restaurants, and Jared Stoneberger of the Lark Cookbook Project.