Green Conferences Sprout Up All Over

Where did all the flower-children go? Flowing skirts, Birkenstocks, and back-packs, holding up signs with big bold black letters Save the Whales!

Times changed, and at long last, the white man understands Earth’s delicate balance, nature and needs, and he wants to green his planet and bank account, and thus the GreenXchange was created by a media conglomerate that crowned itself—a Global Marketplace Conference. 

And so it was.

The Old Boys Network scooted to the left and joined the environmentalists in their efforts to save the world. Sort of.

The first annual GreenXchange Xpo kicked off at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City last Monday and Tuesday; an expensive conference for companies going green and wanting to discuss the business of the environment.

With an almost $1000 price tag, the two-day event got me wondering what went on beyond the veil of business stories swapped in a Middle-Eastern-bizarre like setting, only picture a sea of black suits mingling under chandeliers.

I observed mostly white men in elegant suits and green ties, swapping stories that sounded something like this:  

"I'm going green with millions of dollars to back me." 

This was a far different cry from the stories I overhead at San Francisco’s Green Festival in November, where a sea of Birkenstock’s rallied to the cry:

“Save the whales! The trees! Global warming!”

If I were to summarize the respective take-away vibes, the Green Festival was about heart and altruism to protect the environment without necessarily enough thought to self and structure, and the GreenXchange Xpo was about head, business structure, and greed without enough thought to environmental impacts. The gulf between the two felt wide, and I believe should be narrowed.

It got me thinking how each group must and can learn from the other, which applies to me, too. 

I spend as much time speaking out to clean our air, testify at hearings,  expose polluters and educate them on solutions—as those who make money doing the same. I write stories that others charge for, including the organizers of  GreenXchange Xpo who charge a pretty penny. I have a  long history of writing my observations, with or without compensation. A writer writes and my interest is protecting the environment.

This event reminded me of starting out after college when I changed my cocktail waitress attire for a blue suit to wear at Forbes Magazine's office in the National Press Building. Immediately, I was lobbied by powerful white men in black suits, who wanted to be in the magazine.

These men knew how to work the system.

And here they were again, their system superimposed on the current it! environmental movement, and The Old Boys Network had gone green. 

Mercedes and Beemers were valet parked, and their drivers entered the GreenXchange Xpo posse, ready to reinvent the world and themselves, and drive like a Porsche on biofuel to the front of the green business-pack.

It was a great opportunity to network. Truly it was.

Creative Artists Agency catered a cocktail party overflowing with drinks,  caviar, lamb, and salmon. Yum, but not too environmentally sound.

Salmon is caught in ways that harm other marine life and the environment, and lamb like all meat is created using natural resources that hurt the environment, such as trees grazed for land to feed animals, and limited water supply use.

But it was their first such event, and, as such, it's well to remember these things generally get better with age. Like women.

The money talk occurred with hope, and zest, and I learned of a man with a web site that didn't look THAT much different than my own, information-wise, who'd just raised $1 million dollars. When I asked him what he'd do with one million dollars, he said he'd make his company worth $40 million in order to sell to a media company. And just as I was thinking, hey, this conference isn't so bad for learning how I might be greener, too, the million dollar man with creative ideas disappeared. Lickedysplit.

As a long time nature lover and voice for the environment, aspects of this event felt insincere. Of course, that can happen anywhere. Many speakers and attendees were MBAs--about business--and I observed many who spoke without enough information.

In fairness, I heard many who were interesting, and made headway with worthy "green"ideas like an organic cotton clothing company, recycled paper company, and I spoke to an innovative wind turbine creator. I'll tell you more about them in another post. Oh, and Green Energy TV. I just checked this YouTube-like site for the environment, and it featured Jay Leno speaking about Hydrogen 7.

General topics at the conference included: Cleantech, Carbon Offsets (this idea reminds me of Enron when a company is encouraged to “offset” cheating by focusing on charitable donations), Renewable Energy—wind, sun, water, Transportation, VC Funding, and more.

We've come a long way since the days when I couldn't give green PR away, to today’s billion dollar marketplace driven by government laws and incentives, and Al Gore's tipping point when Global Warming became real and the masses tipped into the Go Green Pot of Gold.

Perhaps as the shorelines recede from global warming, the tides will change for environmentalists, too, who will profit from their efforts just like the Gucci crowd does, and, together we'll share ideas and effort and do the right thing:

Save the planet.