At the 6th Northbay Growth & Innovation Forum held in Santa Rosa, Joey Shepp, founder of Earthsite, spoke to a large audience of business professionals and entrepreneurs. Speaking along-side Steve Weiss, co-founder of the North Bay Angels, Joey presented on the topic of social media and how small to medium sized businesses can leverage "customer powered marketing."

After the two keynote speeches, there were three rounds of breakout workshops. Joey led the social media workshop, and fielded questions of "how-to," privacy, and strategy. Once again the response was terrific as many people were excited around the topic and buzz of social media.

Following the workshops, five entrepreneurs presented their business plans in front of a panel of judges. The event was well organized and well attended. If you you made it out to the event, thank you for all the great questions, thoughts, and ideas that you shared with us! Below you'll find the presentation from the event. 

The Sustainable Enterprise Conference: Tools For The Transition, is a day long learning and networking conference dedicated to helping North Bay businesses transition to economic, environmental and social sustainability.

The fourth annual conference was held May 8, 2009 at Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park, CA. Find out more about our Sponsorship and Registration.

At the conference, Joey Shepp, founder of Earthsite gave an inspired talk to an audience of 100+ business professional and entrepreneurs, on the topic of, "The Open Brand: Beyond Greenwashing, Sustainability Messaging in a World of Radical Transparency."

On May 7, 2009 Joey Shepp was interviewed by Betsy Rosenberg's radio show, On the Green Front .  Joey spoke about Green Maven , Earthsite and Open Brands , and how social media has helped grow and strengthen the green marketplace.

The episode showcased several Eco-innovators including Ray Anderson, CEO and founder of Interface Carpets; Claudio Miranda, President of Organic Bouquet, a company that pioneered eco-friendly flowers almost a decade ago and has been in the forefront of the organic flower business; Mike Korchinsky founder of Wildlife Works, an organic clothing company that’s taking corporate stewardship to a new level with its carbon reduction program and groundbreaking work in Kenya.

• 2009 Indicators, in an online interactive format
• Solution Guides for each of the Indicators
• Local Resource Directory of businesses, nonprofits, city programs, and more for each Solution Guide Article
• Powerful, customized Local Google-based search engine Bay Area’s only dedicated Green Job Board
• Local Sustainable Event  Calendar
• Interactive interface, allowing users to submit and share solutions, resources, events and jobs.

The mission of the San Francisco Green Business program is to help San Francisco businesses adopt environmental practices that are sustainable as well as profitable. They achieve their mission by setting stringent criteria, providing technical assistance, and publicly recognizing and promoting Green Businesses with a seal that enables customers to shop in keeping with their values.

The Program is made of up of three City agencies: SF Environment, San Francisco Department of Public Health, and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.  The San Francisco Green Business Program is also a member of the Bay Area Green Business Program.

The Green Festival kicked off 2009 this weekend, with the first event in Seattle, WA. This year we integrated twitter into the greenfestivals.org website and thanks to the help of some local tweeters like @PCC, @RetroRazor, @digitalreporter, and others the hashtag #greensea and #greenfest were adopted for the event.

The campaign took off and generated around 750 tweets for the weekend. Tweets ranged from broadcasting speaker updates to pictures taken around the festival floor. We look forward to promoting the #greenfest tag for the Denver Green Festival, coming May 2nd and 3rd. Thank you to all who participated!  Check out Green Festival's Twitter Page now >>

A big thank you to everyone who made it out to celebrate the launch of Green Festival TV! The event was attended by about 100 people who came out for lively conversation, our special guests; Green America CEO, Alisha Gravitz and Global Exchange CEO Kevin Danaher, and a special presentation by Earthsite Founder and Principal, Joey Shepp. Guests were also treated to a special Green Festival TV Promo produced by Green Gorilla Media.

The fourth annual conference will be held May 8, 2009 at Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park, CA. Find out more about our Sponsorship and Registration.

Eary Bird Special ends April 1st, Register Now!

Speaking Abstract

The Open Brand:  Beyond Green Washing
Sustainability Marketing in a World of Radical Transparency

Social media technology is driving the shift towards a more open culture, a more open government, and most notably, a more open way of marketing.  People are Twittering about your brand right now and the way you respond today will determine the future of brand management.

At the same time, corporate sustainability marketing initiatives are getting labeled as green washing because they lack transparency that is foundational to building authentic brand trust.

In this talk, you will learn how to leverage social media technology to be an Open Brand leader, transcending green washing and building trusted relationships with your customers.  See current case studies of corporate green initiatives that have succeeded and failed. Learn how to show your green, authentically.