Fresh Outlook on Sustainability

On November 15-18th, the Fresh Outlook Foundation hosting a conference on "Building Sustainable Communities" in Kelowna, BC. I had the good fortune to attend and participate in a panel with Andrew Moore (T'Sou-ke Centre for Sustainable Living) and moderated by Robert Fine (Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission). Dan Wilson, from the Whistler Centre for Sustainability was also scheduled to be on the panel but unfortunately could not make it due to illness.

Our panel was on Building a Green Economy and I spoke to some of the insights gained with Lea Thuot and our team on the Fostering Innovation in Sustainable Tourism project. Small and medium sized enterprises in tourism are already doing some incredible things to make their operations sustainable. In line with the diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers), our team suggests that by identifying these early adopters and profiling their work, we can all learn more about how to move further towards sustainability.

This conference was extremely well organized by the organization and is worth the expenditure for audiences such as community leaders and NFP associations. They offered well structured debates (on the AB Tar sands), panels, workshops and presentations mixed with plenty of space for networking. Add this one to your list for next year and check out the great work of this organization in the meantime.

Call for submissions for the rural tourism conference is open!

Well, after a few teleconferences and some great discussions with colleagues from Thompson Rivers University and the University of Northern BC, we are happy to announce that the call for submissions for the upcoming rural tourism conference is now open.

We will use the conference website - www.ruraltourismconference.com for all our updates and the details on the call are all located on the site as well.

We are hoping for a strong turnout of diverse folks that are involved in tourism development in BC's rural areas and beyond. There are opportunities for presentations, panels, workshops or other innovative formats.

Share widely with your other colleagues and we will keep you posted on registration details as we move forward.