Beyond 2020 Sustainability Unconference

Beyond 2020 is a sustainability unconference.

The 3rd Beyond 2020 Sustainability Unconference, on May 6th, 2010, featured the following theme:

Collaboration for Sustainable Business

How can you put collaboration to work for environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable business? How can you use collaborative tools and processes to share and benefit from abundance?

When it comes to sustainability in business, there’s power in numbers. A coordinated group of people or businesses can make a greater impact than individuals acting alone. But in order for businesses to collaborate successfully, you must address several issues.

• What endeavors are best done collaboratively and how do you identify common goals?
• How can you find and join forces with fellow business leaders?
• How do you balance the goals, skills, and tasks among your collaborative partners?
• What are the decision-making and management options for collaborative enterprises?
• What are examples of successful collaborations in Portland and beyond?

Present your ideas and needs, and offer your skills for collaborative projects. Share experiences with collaboration tools and processes. Develop skills for collaboration toward sustainable business. Discuss what you need and can offer for collaborative projects to create more sustainable business and the world.

The following sessions took place at the 3rd Beyond 2020 on May 6th, 2010. Each session title links to its own wiki entry with notes, if available (if you were there, please help improve the notes by editing).

• Collaborate for cause: Nonprofit-business partnership and how they benefit you by Megan Strand
• Every job is a green job by Alison Dennis
• How to collaborate online: The case of “The Portland Bottom Line” by Peter Korchnak
• Ideas to get a “stuck” collaboration moving by Jayne Cronlund
• Leveraging our collective impact for collaboration /​ Money as a positive tool for change by Robyn Shanti and Mark Nedleman
• Self-sustainability and how it can benefit the homeless by Allie Callow
• Sharing construction jobs with specialists of other trades by Phil Norman
• Sustainability peer learning network by Gary Langenwalter
• Tools for collaboratin’ by Katrina Scotto di Carlo

What sessions will be at the next Beyond 2020?

You tell us. No one will know prior to the event. All the content participant-driven: You decide, at the beginning of the event, what sessions will be held around the theme (ours for the next one is “Collaboration for Sustainable Business”).

There is no agenda until you make one!

• Learn more.
• See below for sessions at past iterations of Beyond 2020.

What else is there to know?

• You must register to attend Beyond 2020 and come to the event to propose and facilitate a session.
• You hate infomercials or sales pitches, right? We do too, and so do your fellow participants. No session should serve as a pitch for any product, service, person, or company. If you’d like to use either of those as a case study, offer at least one or two other examples. We’re not here to sell, we’re here to discuss and act in a meaningful and impactful way.

Session format

Total length: 50 minutes, of which

• Presentation: max. 15 minutes
• Discussion: min. 35 minutes

Sessions at past Beyond 2020s

• #3: May 6th, 2010
• #2: January 21st, 2010
• #1: September 19th, 2009