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| Press Release | Oct. 14-16, 2011 |
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Registration Now Open-
Tenth Annual Great Lakes Bioneers Conference
Traverse City, MI - October 14-16, 2011 - NMC Campus -
The 2011 Great Lakes Bioneers Conference is being organized by the Neahtawanta Center, SEEDS and local educators, and is hosted on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, on October 14-16. NMC is one of our Partner organizations.
For the tenth year in a row, citizens from around the Traverse City area will team with environmental and social justice educators, farmers, doctors and artists, students of all ages and with small business owners, tribal members, and academics at the fall conference of the Bioneers. Traverse City now hosts the oldest satellite partnership with the national Bioneers organization and they are proudly connected to the growing body of Great Lakes Bioneers Conferences.
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Photo Opportunities:
- The Re-Skilling Fair, Oct. 14 from 10am to 2:30pm, Grand Traverse Civic Center
- Student Film Festival, Friday, Oct. 14 from noon-3pm, Scholars Hall & Milliken Auditorium
- Earthwork Concert, Friday night, Oct. 14, 8pm
- Community Artwork Project with Glenn Wolff (all weekend long) in Scholars Hall
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 This year the Conference will include a 10 year Anniversary Celebration with Field Trips, A Re-skilling Fair Friday morning at the Civic Center, Introduction to the area high school students of what advanced educa tion is available at NMC for future job employment and what they can provide at their Green and Emerging Careers Youth Tour. Local workshops will focus on the people and issues integral to our own Great Lakes region, including Green Entrepreneurship, Being as Local as Possible With Your Dollars; Green Building and Alternative Energy; Media and the Communications Power Shift, How to Work Together: Local Governments, Businesses, Citizens; Cultural Understanding and more workshop topics. The workshop descriptions and when they are offered can be found at the Great Lakes Bioneers website at: glbconference.org.
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LOCAL KEYNOTES
The Bioneers mission is based on the promotion and application of "practical environmental solutions and innovative strategies for restoring the Earth and communities." It is in this spirit that the organizing committee finds workshops and speakers for the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference. All presenters volunteer their valuable time and expertise.
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THE LOCAL GREAT LAKES BIONEERS KEYNOTE SPEAKERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED and will be speaking on the following days:
FRIDAY - Jay Walljasper
On the Commons
is editor-at-large of the groundbreaking website On The Commons, a senior fellow at Project for Public Spaces, a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler, and author of All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons. Jay Walljasper is truly an expert voice in the increasingly important global discussion of our shared commons. We are thrilled
to bring Jay to Traverse City as our opening keynote speaker, inspiring us to Reclaim the Commons!
SATURDAY - Laurie Cirivello
Explore the Media Commons
Laurie Cirivello
is a Traverse City native and 20-year veteran of community media. She is currently Executive Director of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center and co-author of the Alliance for Community Media Access Start-up Manual, in which she provides advice and consultation for numerous access organizations. As our Saturday keynote, she will uncover the deep influence what the media commons has in today's society by exploring the power shift to social media.
SUNDAY - Bob Russell
Tomorrow's Commons
Bob Russell is co-director of the Neahtawanta Research and Education Center, inn
 keeper, cook, website developer, grandpa, dad, husband, and generalist. He has been organizing the Great Lakes Bioneers for ten years and has watched our community learn to visualize and understand some of the key concepts of the Bioneers. "It's all connected." Sure, but what does that actually mean in terms of the commons, ecology, culture, and resilience? Bob will share his insights on the future through the lens of local events and speak to the generalizable process of creating a more resilient community.
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BEAMED LIVE SPEAKERS
Some of the plenary speakers being beamed in to the Milliken Auditorium on the NMC Campus will be:
AMORY LOVINS
Amory Lovins, a physicist, consultant to businesses and government leaders, is Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). He's written 31 books and received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, Zayed Future Energy, and Mitchell Prizes.
Living legend Amory Lovins
Chair man and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, offers us a new roadmap to how the U.S. can get completely off oil and coal by 2050, led by business for profit, sped by smart policies, and driven by in formed customers. As the planet's most important thinker about energy efficiency and energy's links to re sources, security, development and the environment, he's a consultant to businesses and governments around the globe.
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PAUL STAMETS
Paul Stamets has written six seminal mushroom-related books, the most
 recent being Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. ( www.fungi.com) Solutions from the Underground: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World In this Sixth Age of Extinctions, the life support systems that have allowedhumans to thrive are eroding. Paul Stamets, the world's leading visionary "myco-technologist", shows how fungi and mushrooms can help restore ecosystems, degraded landscapes and humanhealth - fast. Like people, habitats have immune systems, and our close evolutionary relationship to fungi provides the basis for novel environmental deployments of key mushroom species that can lead to greater sustainability and better health.
MELISSA NELSON
Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. (Anishinaabe/Metis/Norwegian [Turtle Mountain Chippewa]), a cultural ecologist, scholar-activist, writer and media-maker, is a Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State and the President of the Cultural Conservancy, a Native American nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of indigenous cultures and their ancestral lands.
Revitalizing Indigeneity: Eco-Cultural Knowledge and Reciprocity
Dynamic indigenous eco-cultural revitalization movements provide compelling leadership models by Native peoples working to maintain and restore their Traditional Ecological Knowledge. TEK, the art and science of resilience for the sustainability of future generations, is critically needed as a partner to Western science to restore the world's ecosystems and biological and cultural diversity, including native foods and languages.
GLORIA STEINEM
Gloria Steinem, a world-renowned writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist, co-founded New York magazine in 1968 and Ms. Magazine in 1972. She has produced a documentary on child abuse, a feature film about the death penalty and been the subject of countless profiles. Her books include the bestsellers Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.
 When Women Are People...and Corporations Are Not: Why the First Inequality Will Also Be The Last Often the same adversaries oppose women's, anti-racist, environmental, peace, human rights, indigenous, sexual liberation, consumer, children's rights and other such movements. Yet these movements often remain separate and don't see their organic linkage. Gloria Steinem, the iconic leader who continues to inhabit the leading edges of progressive social change, traces the historical, political and practical reasons movements are linked - not ranked - and why our success depends on it. PHILLIPE COUSTEAU
Philippe Cousteau, the 31-year-old son of Jan and Philippe Cousteau Sr. and grandson of the legendary Jacques-Yves Cousteau, continues his family's legacy as CEO of EarthEcho International, a non-profit he founded with his sister and mother. Continuing a Legacy: Building a Sustainable World in the 21st Century
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Philippe Cousteau explores his iconic family legacy and their contributions to global oceanic exploration and conservation, and describes how that experience inspired him growing up. Explorer, social entrepreneur and environmental advocate, he is continuing the work of his father through EarthEcho International to engage and empower people to take action for a brighter future with education, balanced advocacy and a commitment to action. A special correspondent for CNN International, he is also Chief Spokesperson for Environmental Education for Discovery Education.
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Bioneers are engaged citizens from all walks of life who focus on solving our most urgent problems from within a framework of interdependence: "It's all connected. Taking care of nature means taking care of people and taking care of people means taking care of nature". Bioneers take a "solve the whole problem" approach that is holistic, systemic and multidisciplinary. Every human who lives on the planet is part of the solution. One person can make a difference. The organizing committee extends an invitation to the public to please join them at the conference and become an active part of the solution.
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For Questions or additional Information please contact:
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Sally Somsel
GLB Core Member
231.946.8090
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Sarah Garrity
GLB Outreach Coordinator
231.947.0312
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