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Solution-oriented speakers, workshops, discussions and
open-space sessions in a vibrant, small-town
environment
Gather with engaged citizens, entrepreneurs,
investors, educators, students, civic, foundation and non-profit leaders
at the Slow Living Summit, May 30-June 1 to invent and
implement cross-sector solutions for sustainable communities in a
post-carbon, new-economy world.
The second-annual U.S. Slow Living Summit is a
national convening of cross-sector intelligence, ideas and action for
sustainable living co-organized by graduate schools in management and
international development. It boasts at least 50 sessions on topics like
food, agriculture, spirit, investing, energy, technology,
entrepreneurship, communities, media and sustainability - plus theater,
video and music offerings.
"Imagine a conference that takes place not
in the sterile corridors and conference rooms of a hotel conference
center, but along the vibrant main street of a historic New England town
with a rich arts scene," says Orly Munzing, founder and executive
director of Strolling of the Heifers, which is organizing the
Summit.
"Creating a just and sustainable world isn't just
about economics and energy, it's also about how we live and how we treat
each other," says Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, president of Marlboro College,
one of the event's co-sponsors along with Brattleboro-based World
Institute-SIT. "We're looking to solutions for our planet in which common
good is just as important as private gain."
An array of speakers and participants include
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (recipient in 2011 of the "greenest
governor" award), and David Orr, Oberlin College environmental professor
and architect of the Obama administration's policy on global warming.
Other featured participants include Woody Tasch,
founder of the organization Slow Money, Charles Eisenstein, author of
Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition, Chris
Martenson, author of The Crash Course, Michael Shuman, director of the
Institute for Economic Empowerment and Entrepreneurship, Washington D.C.,
and author James Howard Kunstler.
Because 2012 is the United Nations-designated Year
of the Co-op, the Summit will have a special focus on co-operative
organizations, including participation by John Restakis, executive
director of the British Columbia Co-operative Association and author of
Humanizing the Economy.
In its three major themes - Slow
Economics, Slow Communities and Slow Policies - the
conference will examine sustainable, resilient approaches in many areas
including food, energy, health care, relationships, investing and
entrepreneurship.
The Summit happens just before the world-famous Strolling of the
Heifers weekend - Summiteers are encouraged to stay in town for
the Stroll, an agriculturally-themed parade featuring scores of heifer
calves, followed by the Live Green Expo, on Saturday June 2, and the Tour
de Heifer farm-to-farm cycling event on Sunday, June 3.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
Slow Living Summit is the intersection for sharing
slow-living ideas and innovation. At the 2012 gathering, participants
will:
- Hear about practical,
action-oriented solutions. You
already walk the walk and talk the talk. You don't need persuasion, you
need how-to practicality.
- Real case histories of solutions
you can apply in your community, your school, or your workplace
- Connect with
other participants before the gathering, though early contact
networking with other attendees.
- Network across silos of expertise and
interest during numerous discussions, meals and social
events.
- Shape a consensus agenda in real-time within
"open-space" sessions and tracks.
- Engage with Brattleboro, a
unique New England town! (See description below.)
You will take away from SLS2012:
- Practical tools, advice and information
about incorporating slow-living principles into work and home
life.
- New professional colleagues and contacts
across education, business, science, public policy and
advocacy.
- A free, one-year membership in a new
Slow Living Network.
In contrast to the typical convention-center
conference, the Slow Living Summit's sessions take place in various
locations in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont with the
town's historic and funky Main Street serving as the concourse when moving
between sessions.
SUMMIT THEMES AND
TOPICS
The Slow Living Summit will examine ongoing
and potential actions in many areas, always with an action-oriented focus
on defining problems, proposing solutions and identifying
resources.
The Summit will offer:
- Five
major plenary sessions with keynoters and top-tier
panel conversations Wednesday evening and Thursday and Friday morning and
afternoon
- Dozens of breakout discussion
sessions, panels, presentations and
performances
- And plenty of time for Slow
Spaces - time, space and facilitation of open space
sessions: spontaneous discussions, collaborations, presentations and
networking
These sessions will be organized into three
overarching themes:
- Slow Economics
- Exploring economics based on collaboration and
integrity rather than extraction and wealth-creation.
- Slow
Communities - Tools for building healthy, sustainable and
resilient communities.
- Slow Policies - Economic policy and
fostering public-private collaboration.
Links for more Summit information and
registration:
- The
2012 Slow Living Summit
- The 2011
Slow Living Summit:
- About Slow
Living
- Summit
poster
- Click here for printable 8.5x11 color
Slow Living Summit poster (PDF format)
 | | Downtown Brattleboro
rainbow* |
Brattleboro,
Vermont
The Summit doesn't happen in the usual sterile
conference hotel -- instead, Brattleboro's Main Street hosts our
gathering, opening up a restored cinema, outdoor walking spaces, cafés,
the Marlboro College Graduate School, and other venues to screenings,
performances, talks, discussions, workshops and general sessions.
Come and discover Brattleboro - a small community in
southern Vermont - renowned for decades for its commitment to healthy,
local, sustainable living and technology, for its vibrant communities of
visual and performance artists, craftspeople, poets and writers, and for
the diversity of its shops, restaurants and galleries. In turn
Brattleboro is a gateway to the Green Mountains and Vermont -- a state
renowned for innovation in small business, renewable energy, healthy
living and progressive government.
WHY NOW?
Register now for Early Bird
rates!
- Jan. 1
- March 31, 2012: Early Bird Rates: General
registration $189; Spouse/SO rate $149; Student rate $95; Local limited
means rate $95 subject to availability.
- Stipend
reservation rate: $25 -- We are seeking sponsor
support for a limited number of scholarship stipend slots.
Registrants in this category will receive a brief application to complete.
Acceptance is by committee approval and subject to stipend availability.
Issuance to approved applicants is on first-come basis. Denied applicants
may receive a refund or upgrade to rates that were in effect at time of
stipend reservation registration. The stipend rate will be available
through March 31.
- April 1-May 14: Advance
rates: General registration $225; Spouse/SO rate $179;
Student rate $105; Local limited means rate $105 subject to availability.
Stipend reservations will no longer be available.
- May
15-June 1: Final advance and onsite rates: General
registration $249; Spouse/SO rate $199; Student rate $125; Local limited
means rate $125 subject to availability. Stipend reservations will no
longer be available.
REGISTRATION
To register for the Slow Living Summit, please visit
the registration page at
our website, www.slowlivingsummit.org.
ABOUT US
The Slowing Living Summit is a project of Strolling of the
Heifers, a non-profit entity which celebrates the agricultural
heritage and contemporary sustainable focus of Brattleboro with the
annual Strolling of the Heifers parade through downtown. The Slow Living
Summit invites a structured, thoughtful examination of our global future,
before and during the the "Stroll." We are please to have major support
from our partners at Marlboro College Graduate
School and World Learning/SIT, both
in Brattleboro.
FOR SUGGESTIONS OR MORE INFORMATION
CONTACT:
*Photo by Professor Bop, used under Creative Commons License.
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Speakers
including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, David Orr (Oberlin College, 
