The City of Reno 2008 Green Summit is scheduled for September 20. I’m stoked that Rocky Anderson is speaking. As many of you know, Twelve Horses has a significant and growing presence in Salt Lake City and because of that I’ve spent a lot of time in the SLC vicinity over the last two years. With every day I spend in Salt Lake City, I become more and more impressed with the accomplishments of that city and the business community. Reno can definitely learn from their success. Rocky Anderson had a lot to do with that success.
I’ve spent about two weeks there over this summer. Between the Utah Transit Authority’s rail system, my bike and some creative carpooling I didn’t have to drive to one meeting, or even to our offices in Draper. It was like living in San Francisco yet surrounded by mountains and ski resorts. Every time I hang out in downtown catching great music shows (like Lucero and Langhorne Slim) I can’t help but think that Reno is but 20 years behind in size yet poised with the opportunity to focus our town’s growth curve with more emphasis on land resource planning, mass transit and all the green-in-between. Where Salt Lake will suffer is that their hockey-stick growth phase occurred during cheap gas and real estate. Consequently their town is a very car-dependent culture where people live dozens and dozens of miles from their place of work.
So back to Reno:
Jason Geddes kicks ass. Not only does he share in my penchant for cowboy boots, shirts with mother-of-pearl buttons and chasing Chukar, but he’s local visionary leader that’s dragging Reno (sometimes kicking and screaming) into a future that I want to live in. A Winnemucca/Gabbs native, petroleum chemist and former State Assemblyman, Jason assisted Chuck Alvey take the patchouli-edge off of “green” in the EDAWN business development and economic diversification dialog and made huge progress in his time there. Currently he’s a Regent with the University of Nevada and serves the City of Reno as our town’s Environmental services Administrator. He’s also married to Cindy Geddes who’s one of the best writers here locally.
Jason got the Green Summit off of the ground last year. The first Green Summit was held in April of 2007 and served as a dialogue between Council, staff, and citizens on what the City could do to make Reno more “green”. There were almost 400 people in attendance. The 2008 Green Summit is intended to be a report back to the community on action taken since the last summit, and a continued dialogue on what the City should have as priorities in the 2008-2009 Green Action plan.
[Side note: Jason works with another great organization in this community, Nevada EcoNET. Every Wednesday night this summer the City of Reno's West Street Market features “Eco-Nights” produced by Nevada EcoNet. Click here to read about it. Props to Lauren Siegel and the City of Reno for putting this on!]
Here’s the deets on the 2008 City of Reno Green Summit:
Location: Joe Crowley Student Union-Ballroom, University of Nevada, Reno
Time: 1-5pm, Date: September 20
Program:
1:00-1:45 Welcome by Mayor and Council and Report to Community
1:45-2:30 Keynote Speaker- Rocky Anderson, Former Mayor of Salt Lake City
B- Education/Youth Programs-EnAct/Youth City Council
C- Green Building and Sierra Green Guidelines
D- Transportation
Keynote Speaker - The Honorable Rocky Anderson, founder of High Road for Human Rights, practiced law for 21 years; representing plaintiffs in antitrust, securities fraud, professional negligence, and civil rights cases. He then served as mayor of Salt Lake City from 2000 to 2008.
His comprehensive environmental programs, including an aggressive climate protection campaign, achieved a 31% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Salt Lake City’s municipal operations.
For his leadership on climate change, Anderson received the Climate Protection Award from the EPA, the Distinguished Service Award from the Sierra Club, and the World Leadership Award from the World Leadership Forum.
Anderson is now working to achieve municipal and regional support for climate protection initiatives and to provide grassroots education and advocacy opportunities in the areas of human rights and climate change.
Incidentally, here’s some photos I snapped on the ‘ol trusty Nokia N95 while I was roaming downtown Salt Lake City with @leilanis during National Ride Your Bike to Work Week campaign. Obviously I thought it was brilliant!
If you’re not yet familiar with the mission of Nevada EcoNet, make plans to visit a “Wednesday Eco Market” some time in the next two months. EcoNet will feature 20 distinct vendors every Wednesday in the West Street Market, showcasing info on sustainable living. They’ll also host live workshops and performances. It’s a family-friendly educational, entertaining and all-around interesting way to spend an evening, so be sure to check it out.
7/16 - Eco-Wild: Lion, Snakes, and Bears…Oh my!! 7/23 - Eco-Building: Build it Organic 7/30 - Eco-Tourism: Explore Nevada 8/6 - Eco-Transport: Offset the Carbon Footprint 8/13 - Eco-Education: Green Back to School 8/20 - Eco-Camp: Zero Waste Burn 8/27 - Eco-Health: Beauty Doesn’t Hurt 9/3 - Eco-Waste: Cradle to Cradle 9/10 - Eco-Energy: Energize your Conservation
(Lots of cool things happening at West Street Market this summer including “Artisan Fridays” with the Holland Project on Friday evenings through Sept. 12, from 5-9 p.m. Saturday mornings will feature a Farmers and Chefs market starting this Saturday, beginning July 19 and running through Sept. 17, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.)
Think you know all there is to know about translating your “off-line brand” to an “online audience?” There’s a lot more to it than you might think. Come out and hear from the experts this Thursday, July 17. “Online Branding: A Panel Discussion at the Lake” will be held at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village. Moderated by yours truly, panelists will include Rob Bynder, principal and creative director of Robert Bynder Design, Inc., a business and design studio out of Westlake Village, CA that specializes in strategy, concept, design and development for interactive media; Stanley Hainsworth, who served time as creative director for corporate giants Nike, Lego, and Starbucks before starting his own creative company, Tether; and Gene Keenan, who leads the cutting edge of marketing innovation as Isobar’s VP of Mobile Services. This whole evening is devoted to picking some great minds about how to create effective and powerful online brands. Cocktails and finger foods at 6 p.m., discussion starts at 7.
Online Registration: Members: Free Students, AMA, A2N2 Members $20 Other Non-Members: $30
At the door: Members: Free Students, AMA, A2N2 Members $30 Other Non-Members: $40
Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET) will host “Tech Tuesday” July 15 at UNR’s Redfield Campus. One of Greater Reno-Tahoe’s premier technology and entrepreneurial networking events, this month’s Tech Tuesday will preview NCET programs through the remainder of the year and into 2009. You’ll learn more about:
Pull the hall pass for Thursday night because there’s two great events:
First up is a Deanne Stillman book-signing at Sundance Bookstore. Deanne’s latest book, “Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West,” was published today. The event starts at 6:30pm. Click [here] for directions to Sundance. Also, please visit: www.nvwildhorses.com to join a community dialog on this subject.
After the booksigning, the Reno-Tahoe AIGA (that stands for American Institute for Graphic Arts) is screening Helvetica on the Nevada Museum of Art’s rooftop.
“Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West” Booksigning
Failure to enforce a 1971 law endangers the mustangs it was supposed to protect.
By Deanne Stillman June 2, 2008
It’s not news that America is a cowboy nation, but it may surprise many that we are destroying the horse we rode in on.
Since the early 1970s, mustangs — wild horses — have been protected under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act, spearheaded by Velma Johnston, a.k.a. Wild Horse Annie. In 1950, she saw blood spilling out of a truck on a Nevada highway, followed it, and then witnessed injured and dying mustangs being offloaded at a slaughterhouse. She led a battle to stop the cruel roundups, resulting in the passage of federal protection signed into law by President Nixon in 1971.
Under that law, horses are to be “considered in areas where presently found as an integral part of the system of public lands.” Their management falls to agencies inside the Department of the Interior, primarily the Bureau of Land Management, which culls the herds based on the land’s grazing capacity and what’s required to sustain the wild horse population. But the government also balances the needs of horses against other uses of the range — and that means corporate cattle ranching. Today, instead of being protected, mustangs are in danger of being “managed” out of existence.
At Twelve Horses (where I’m employed) we kinda stirred up the dust on the wild horse issue and did a video podcast and created a social community to foster more dialog on the subject. Here’s the video, and if you will, please join www.nvwildhorses.com and let’s find some resolution to this issue. Our aim to get folks leveraging social media to draw the attention, air out the facts and protect our State’s brand.
Helvetica: Rooftop Film Screening Party at NMA
Thursday June 12, 7pm: Nevada Museum of Art
Join us for a rooftop screening of the acclaimed documentary Helvetica on the 51st birthday of the typeface. We will be serving birthday cake and beverages and the museum galleries will be open prior to showtime.
7pm - Food, drink and museum galleries, 8pm - Showtime
Members | Free Student non-members | $10 Non-members | $20
Everyone is encouraged to bring a guest, free of charge.
vendors and solutions, as well as the newest innovation for residential customers. Tech Tuesday is Greater Reno-Tahoe’s premier technology and entrepreneurial networking event. Stop by and see what’s new on the tech horizon!
Details: Tuesday, June 17, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.; $10 donation
AT&T: 645 E. Plumb Lane, Reno Nevada (park and enter on the west side of the building off of Yori Avenue and follow signs and balloons to the cafeteria.)
Las year, my family and many of our friends spent the Memorial Weekend participating in the filming of the Modest Mouse “Little Motel” video. Cody (then 5 yrs old) had a starring role in it. Pretty cool, huh!?
It was a long weekend of shooting and we all had an excellent time staying up all night watching Reno native writer/director Justin Francis work his magic. A Flickr slideshow is here.
A year later, Modest Mouse is playing at the Grand Sierra Resort on Tuesday 5/27 the whole Twelve Horses crew is going to support and draw attention to GabrielsLife.org. Modest Mouse is an amazing band in the first place, but this whole experience has made them even more amazing with the attention it has brought to Reno and to GabrielsLife.org.
The Backstory:
Many of you know my best friend / local attorney Matt Francis. We met on the UNR ski team back in 1988. His younger brother Justin Francis is an amazing music video producer/videographer having done music videos for artists like Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keyes, Mariah Carey, the Hives and on and on and on….they guy never stops shooting videos and commercials.
Anyway, he pitched Modest Mouse on shooting a video of their song “Little Motel” in the town he grew up in, Reno Nevada with a script he had written. He asked Cody to play a role in it. If you’ve not seen the video, now would be a good time to watch it so the rest of this blog post makes sense!
For obvious reasons, the subject of the video was difficult at best. My wife and I had our reservations about having our son play a role in such a tragic story. I mean, would you? Every time I watch this video I tear up and cry. If you made it through this video and are still dry-eyed, you’re definitely not a parent!
Leilani, Twelve Horses’ Social Marketing Manager, talked my wife and I in to letting Cody doing the video. I work closely with Leilani every day and she’s been a tremendous role model in my life. If you have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know her, then you are undoubtedly aware of the tragedy in Leilani’s life due to Hydrocephalus and the amazing leadership and courage that has led her to launch GabrielsLife.org. If you’ve never read this story or met Leilani, please take a moment to do so and sup[port this organization. Also, there’s a great story that the local newspaper did here: http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080129/LIV/801290331.
Now it’s almost a year later and I’m reading the hundreds and hundreds of comments of how deeply moved people are by this video Justin wrote.
Our family is absolutely proud of being part of a project that has reminded so many people how precious life is and how powerful connections are. Through family, friends and the online social media, tragedy, writing, creativity and friendly helping people have all had an opportunity to inspire each other. That’s cool.
If you’re in Reno Tuesday, I hope to see you at the Modest Mouse concert! We’ll all be there!
Stoked to see that there was twice as many people at the Reno Bike Project Pancake feed this morning to support Bike to Work Day. Logan and I rolled down, ate some bacon, and then we rolled out to his school. We practiced his spelling words on the ride out, stopping at Walden’s Cafe for some more bacon. Thanks Kyle/Noah/Mikey for the bacon and griddle and Soma for flipping ‘them flapjacks.
The City of Reno 2008 Green Summit is scheduled for September 20. I’m stoked that Rocky Anderson is speaking. As many of you know, Twelve Horses has a significant and growing presence in Salt Lake City and because of that I’ve spent a lot of time in the SLC vicinity over the last two years. With every day I spend in Salt Lake City, I become more and more impressed with the accomplishments of that city and the business community. Reno can definitely learn from their success. Rocky Anderson had a lot to do with that success. 
