Calling All Green Citizens 6/6/09

 

Should We Be Meeting More Often?

 

We held nightly meetings millions of years ago by telling stories around the campfire, entertaining ourselves and learning from one another. We were keeping danger at bay, and at dawn, we went back to work in the light of the day. We worked as hunters and gatherers for survival, and, until this day we do the same.

 

Certainly we have gotten much more sophisticated; however, we are still meeting to learn from one another. Adults learn best in peer to peer learning, not simply reading a textbook or memorizing a manual. And, like our ancestors (Fred and Wilma Flintstone) a major reason that we meet still is to keep "danger" at bay. Now, we meet to keep productivity up, to further our business goals and objectives, and, to keep the dangerous animal in the dark, our competitors, from compromising our business' goals.

 

We huddle around a modern campfire, the podium. We hear stories of success that inspire and motivate us. We return to the "field" to hunt and gather more productively.

 

We are now facing a new danger out their in the dark, ourselves. And, as hunters and gatherers we need to learn how to restrain ourselves from gobbling up all of our national resources. We will be our own demise if we don't learn to lighten our impact on the planet.

 

The scary things in the dark are global warming, rising energy costs and environmental degradation. So, we are meeting green to discuss sustainability and corporate and citizen social responsibility.

 

I leave you with these questions. Because there are no more pitch black nights with our 24/7 connectivity are we missing out on the opportunity to huddle together and seriously discuss current problems and solutions? Have we become complacent with a constant stream of news sound bites? Has Twitter made us unable to process more than 140 characters at a time? Shouldn't we be meeting more often, and with greater drive and focus?

 

Be Well, Behave and Be Green

 

Kim is on the Board of Directors for the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners association (FICP) where he is Vice President of Education. He is currently an Event Marketing Specialist with Guardian Investor Services LLC, NY, NY. Kim received the award of Greenest Meeting Planner of 2009 at the Green Travel Summit in March 2009