Bioneers Conference

Tonight I went to a networking party to promote the local version of the Bioneers Conference which is happening in San Rafael, California, in October and is beaming to Atlanta a week later. It was held at the Five Spot in the very cool Little Five Points neighborhood. I got there early and met with folks from the steering committee. They invited me to sit in on a meeting so I got a sense of the action-packed agenda that such events inspire.

The Bioneers are purportedly hard to define: their website explains that they have "practical solutions for restoring the Earth--and people. It's a thriving network of visionary innovators who are working with nature to heal nature." Ummm... right. But I knew my tribe when I saw them.

I met a woman who was welcoming a family from New Orleans this week. She converted a new rental property to survivor housing. Now that is walking your talk. She found them through MoveOn and their hurricanehousing.org site.

I met a man from madhousing.org (I can't get their site up) that is building 8'x6'x10' shelters for homeless people.

What surprised me the most was most of the people I talked to had not heard of Peak Oil. So I did my best to do the "elevator speech" and hopefully some folks will come home and google it. I even offered to do a Peak Oil session at the Bioneers SE Forum, and was told that I need to find a Southeastern angle to it.

I said I would, but frankly, I am at a bit of a loss. I'd welcome any suggestions on how to find a regional connection.

But it was great to hang out with people of my ilk and eat good food and listen to cool music. The Bioneers Conference is being beamed to 16 locations nationwide, so check it out to see if there is an event where you live.