2009 Mid-Atlantic Business to Business Green Forum
Call for Speakers

Thank you for your interest in presenting at the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Business to Business Green Forum. In order for the conference team to fairly evaluate all proposals, we ask that you submit all the information requested below for review and consideration. Please also be aware that because we have limited financial resources, we are unable to provide honorariums to our speakers. Selected speakers will be given a discount on registration for the event.

The B2B Green Forum will be held at the Engineer Club in Baltimore, Maryland on October 26th, 2009.  It is a one-day event geared towards businesses from the Mid-Atlantic region in all industries and sectors that are committed to environmental sustainability. Your proposed session should be appropriate for a diverse group of attendees from all industries, sectors, and job functions. Sessions will be approximately 90 minutes in length.

The 2009 B2B Green Forum will focus on bringing industry, small businesses, academia, government, and non-profit organizations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region together to share their ideas, success stories, and expertise in sustainable business practices and greening efforts.

We are now accepting proposals for educational sessions for the Mid-Atlantic B2B Green Forum. Sessions should reflect the program theme of Practical Solutions: Getting Started & Next Steps.

WHO

We are looking for businesses, individuals, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and academia with experience in green jobs, green building, clean and green technology, energy policy and efficiency, collaboration across sectors (industry, academia, nonprofit, and government), and superior environmental performance and sustainability to submit proposals for breakout sessions. The common theme throughout all these topics will be sustainability and how you are reducing your environmental impact and “going green”.

WHY

Breakout sessions form the basis of the Mid-Atlantic B2B Green Forum.  Relevant educational proposals and sessions will make the Mid-Atlantic B2B Green Forum a success.  The goals of these sessions are:

• To educate, share, and encourage environmental stewardship

• To help businesses start greening

• To seek, create, and enhance environmental partnerships

• To learn how to create opportunities for integrating environmental stewardship into business activities while improving the bottom line

• To learn about existing and new environmental regulations that will affect the way you do business

• To exchange ideas and resources across industry, government, and the NGO community

• To provide useful training and take-home tools.

The program committee’s responsibility is to produce the strongest possible educational program for the Mid-Atlantic B2B Green Forum attendees by including new and important content, resources, and learning experiences.

WHAT

The Mid-Atlantic B2B Green Forum will be organized around the following topics:

1.  Greening Your Business

Pollution prevention is an efficient business practice with environmental benefits. These sessions will provide specific practical take home tools, tips and best practices on how small, medium, and large businesses and industries can save money and resources with green business practices. Sessions may include presentations on case studies, cost-benefit analyses on new technologies and best practices, green facilities management, and specific materials substitution for various processes.  These sessions will also include information about how to market your businesses’ green practices.  Employee management challenges will also be discussed, including how to engage employees in the greening of the workplace and the cultural changes necessary to become a successful green business.  Also, green purchasing policies will be discussed, using examples from government and already green businesses and industries.

2. Energy Efficiency Solutions

As the costs of raw materials, energy, and water increase, businesses are looking for ways to be more efficient with these resources.  Implementing more efficient practices, using smarter technologies, and minimizing the use of petroleum-based raw materials are the goals of efficient and green businesses.  These sessions will present an overall picture of energy costs and usage today, as well as where we need to be in the face of diminishing resources and rising costs in the near future.  These sessions will present the infrastructure in the Stimulus Act and how it addresses these challenges, how it seeks to improve energy costs, and plans for retrofits.  Also, practical take-home tools will be reviewed, including, but not limited to: audits, retrofits, improvements, such as insulation, new technologies, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and radiant heat. These sessions will also discuss the pros and cons of LEED certification standards. There will also be sessions addressing transportation costs and incentives to creating efficiencies in transportation. These sessions will include information about employee benefits to reducing vehicle miles traveled and reducing fuel consumption through ride share and telecommuting. These transportation sessions will also include information about fleet management for industries with company owned and maintained vehicles including cars and light and heavy trucks.

3. Energy Policy and the Environment; How it Impacts Your Business

What is the status of energy regulations, laws and policies this year?  These sessions will include new energy regulations and laws from the Federal, state and local governments.  What is on the horizon for the coming year?  Specifically, we will hear about tax laws, credits for retrofits and improvements, carbon credits, and other information from the Stimulus Package specific to the Mid-Atlantic Region.

4. Financing Green Business and Energy Efficiency Projects

In a tight economy, financing facility environmental improvements can be a challenge. This session will explore the collaborative success of utilities, the financial sector, government agencies, and industry in finding creative methods to finance environmental improvements.  It will also explore life cycle costs, environmental cost accounting, financial tools, and how and where to receive financial assistance for these projects.

5. Collaboration Across Sectors/Success Stories (government, industry, academia, NGOs)

Addressing multi-media environmental issues sector-wide has the potential to yield better environmental results than facility-by-facility single media approaches.  Environmental assistance and collaborative approaches could help address the issues identified within a sector.  We want to hear from Federal, state, and local government environmental assistance providers, as well as those from non-governmental organizations on the decision-making process such as identifying the targeted sector and environmental problems.  We also want to hear about the implementation challenges and successes.  Finally, we want to hear if you used assistance resources, what they were, and how well they helped in your process.

6. Green Jobs

In this struggling economy, individuals are looking for employment in green jobs.  These sessions will define green jobs and address where to find them.  Also, they will identify opportunities for training, including how the community college system supports this effort.

SESSSION FORMAT

Proposals are being accepted in the following formats: (all educational sessions are approximately 90 minutes in length, including time for questions and answers)

1. Complete session by two or three presenters plus one moderator (maximum 4 participants) for 90 minutes on a related topic.

2. Partial session by one individual presenter for 30 minutes. The Mid-Atlantic B2B Green Forum Content Committee will assign up to two additional 30-minute sessions to constitute a 90-minute session and will identify a moderator. T he Content Committee reserves the right to develop these sessions using a combination of proposals and/or invited presenters.

Suggested formats include: open dialogue, workshops and demonstrations, “Ask the experts”, panel discussions, and case studies.  You will be asked to specify session format during the submittal process.

All proposals must be complete, comprehensive, and deemed relevant and timely to the Mid-Atlantic B2B Green Forum audience. The submission deadline has passed (June 15, 2009), however if you are interested in submitting a proposal for consideration this year or for upcoming events, please complete the form below.

PROCESS

The Content Committee will build the agenda to take advantage of content synergies.  We want to expand upon the energy and variety of the submissions and therefore, nteractive formats will be more favorably reviewed.  Without exception, only complete submittals will be considered it is expected to have commitments from all named participants.  For all proposals, you are asked to consider and specifically provide the following on the submission form:

• A session title- remember that this title is a marketing tool to drive interest in and attendance at your session. Make it succinct, relevant and exciting.

• A description- once your title grabs the attention of attendees, you need a brief but informative session description. Your description should speak to the skills or knowledge that will be gained by attending.

• The desired outcome your session or framed question is intended to address

• A brief description of the process or agenda you will use for achieving that outcome, e.g. specific session flow or agenda, topics, and times

• The target audience you wish to reach

• If there are multiple speakers, identify all presenters by name, the length of each presentation, contact information for each presenter, and brief biographies.  Speakers must be committed to attend prior to submittal for the proposal to be accepted.

• All moderators will be coached to work with their speakers and to be facilitators of the sessions they are moderating to ensure that sessions are interactive.  If you are proposing a session and moderating it, we will ask that you work with us in advance.

• Again, you must include all of your contact information.

SUBMIT

Please click on the following link to submit your abstract: http://www.b2bgreenforum.com/oct2009/callforspeakers.cfm

QUESTIONS

For assistance with questions regarding the Call for Session Proposals, please email network@b2bgreenforum.com