Report on September's gathering

Last week we had an interesting gathering at Zen Player's place in Myocum .

It was an interesting evening as usual, hosted by Zen Player with newcomers Lavanya Lakech (mayan calendar), Nescha Morden (artist) and Manie Azkah (mobile communications) joining regulars Elaine Seiler; Pash Galbavy; Melissa Hirsch; Marty Landa; Wadzy; Urs Furter; Giovanni Ebono; Joel Fleming; Monika Boenigk; Robert Rosen; & Rachel Bending and myself (Mitra Ardron).

After the mix and mingle, we gathered to hear about everyone's projects, challenges and questions.

Melissa Hirsch started off by showing us her art. She had some unusual and beautiful pieces woven from discarded fishing line, and some other pieces where familiar looking tools were made from fiber.

Wadzy & Giovanni told us about their new "One Stop Green Shop", intended to be a place where sustainability products can be found - both physically and online. They are sharing a physical space with Urs Furter in the industrial estate, and together will host the next gathering. There are, or will be, opportunities for posting your products on their site, and affiliate programs to sell their products through your site.

Wadzy also shared about a project he's working on to Green the YAC, and he is looking for businesses to help support the project, I think through either sponsorship or products.

Pash & Marty's UnMaskit has launched, and they started a conversation about cost and pricing, and the challenge of whether to build in a margin for stores and wholesalers.

The conversation led into an interesting discussion of sustainability tradeoffs, in summary, the trade-off where high goals leading to a high price leading to low sales which of course means a low impact. Rachel Bending shared about her Slingfings brand, and how she launched another brand "Bird" with significant, but somewhat lower sustainability goals, which while still premium products could be priced where they would be bought.

Robert Rosen told us about his "Green Frog" bus he plans on launching between Byron and Brunswick.

Elaine Seiler of ReGenesis discussed the misinformation being circulated about Main Arm Village, and we talked about both the challenge of how to deal with misinformation, where refuting the inaccuracies just adds fuel to a fire.

Monika told us of her selection for the New Inventors program, which shows soon. She also shared her need for a business partner to bring a cash infusion and some business skills.

Manie Azkah talked about the issue of whether or not to take an office for his business oriented mobile phone business. There was a general feeling that in our area a store front doesn't necessarily help if the target audience aren't your typical consumer. In fact it was suggested he might be better off just sitting in cafe's where people - on the go - would be bound to ask him about his product.

There won't be a meeting in October as I'll be off to the US, to a board meeting of Gaia University, and the US SVN conference and Bioneers and the Green Festival. If you'd like me to keep an eye out for anything let me know ASAP.

On November 23rd we'll be hosted by Wadzy and Giovanni at the One Stop Green Shop in the Byron Arts and Industry Estate.

- Mitra Ardron

Posted by mitra at September 14, 2006 10:41 PM

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