As a veteran of corporate life, I’ve experienced more trade shows than I care to remember. Many of them were excruciatingly boring. My experience as an exhibitor at the Brooklyn Food Conference yesterday however was far beyond my expectations. I will long remember this event. The people who organized the conference deserve a lot of credit for a job well done. Thank you!
Even early in the day as I was setting up my exhibit a steady stream of people with questions started. I never really got organized because the volume of traffic was so great. It was non-stop with no time for food, or even a cup of coffee. It’s a good thing I had a full water bottle. It was awesome!
One of the best things I did for this event was to have a guest book on the table announcing a workshop program to start in the very near future. I now have many pages of names and email addresses and will soon send a welcome message to be sure I’ve read the addresses correctly.
These are some thoughts about the workshops. I’m thinking that the first round of workshops should be for people with an interest in becoming urban greenscaping educators. Education is clearly the highest priority because our institutions have failed to provide it.
I also believe that urban greenscaping is an excellent career path for those with an interest in improving the built environment. That is what I have done for more than three decades. There has never in my lifetime been a better opportunity to live and learn the life of urban greenscaping.
It is important for me to emphasize that urban greenscaping is not an ideology or theology. Your belief system is your own and none of my business. Urban greenscaping is simply about how to do the best job of growing and maintaining plants in the city using modern methods rather than arcane, (sometimes bordering on cave dweller) methods.
The goals are healthy plants, an abundance of fresh vegetables and healthy people in all neighborhoods of the city. Along the way, we can help beautify the environment, clean the air, conserve water and feed ourselves. Join the parade. You will be most welcome. We need all the trombonists, bugle players and drummers we can find.
Robert, what a pleasure it was meet you and talk with you at the BFC. I admire your tireless passion for sharing what you know - and for making food sovereignty achievable for urban people. I am happy to have found your blog and am now a subscriber. See you at next year's BFC.
Cornelia
http://www.HOMEGROWN.org
Posted by: Cornelia | May 04, 2009 at 11:51 AM