Great Lakes Green Pages

What a great weekend.  So much to do, and so little time to get it all done.  Friday was the TEDxCLE event.  As much as I wanted to go, I missed my small window to buy a ticket and it was sold out!  Still, I heard good things about it…  I know that last year’s event was a winner and I was truly hoping to find a loose unused ticket somewhere in my network.  It was also the Green Dream.  The Green Dream is NE Ohio’s largest Green Business Showcase and is held every year by the students of Beachwood High School and Junior Achievement.  The Funds they raise go toward the Green Classroom a green education space inside the High School.  It was another successful year!

Saturday morning was a meeting of the Sustainable Business Incubator group at Gardens Under Glass in the Galleria.  We talked about community engagement, marketing, the business development plan and Earth Day events.  We also prepped our mini terrarium “Gardens Under Glass” to give away at the Earth Fest on Sunday.  The other Earth Day event that is planned is the Local Foods Extravaganza that will be held Thursday at the Galleria.  This event is being coordinated and organized by the Community Greenhouse Partners-a wonderful group dedicated to growing and provided healthful produce for Cleveland underprivileged families.

I only wish there were more time, as I was going to share with them the renderings that we produced for the Local Foods Restaurant Incubator and the NE Ohio Green Business Incubator.

The idea behind the Local Foods Restaurant Incubator was to allow entrepreneurs and restaurateurs the ability to try out new concepts in a cost effective way.  By negotiating good short term leases, folks who want to open a restaurant could try out their recipes, concept, etc in a way that is effective.  They could build momentum while making a little cash, fine tune food costs, plan menu items, all while still finding or designing a restaurant space.  What’s more, they could negotiate better pricing by partnering with other small restaurants, build a catering arm, or create a whole lot of buzz before their doors ever open.  To read more, check out the flyer we created here-and share it with that chef in your life as we try to build an even better food scene.

We also have been working on the Green Business Incubator idea.  The plan here is to band green businesses together to share expenses and build synergy in one space.  By having several like minded individuals in a single office setting, they can share ideas, clients, expenses, marketing, even host events together.  One or two person firms could have access to things that are usually reserved for larger companies.  The long term goal is to bring an assortment of green businesses to the Galleria, where they would have access to meeting space, green restaurants, educational components, and even test out ideas like solar panels where they could potentially monitor them all the time-all inside and under a single glass roof.

You can read about more of the concept and advantages here.

After the meeting, we whizzed off to Brecksville to meet up with friends, and then it was off to Akron.  The University of Akron was hosting an exhibition called Collider 3: Transform and was truly interesting.  It was the final day of the exhibit, so we had the place mostly to ourselves.  The entire exhibit was interactive-which is the art that I love.  One room had a projection of a woman in red wrapped in ribbons and as you moved about the space, the projection moved and changed, depending on how you moved about the room.  There was another that was a projection of a website and a large touch pad so you could work with it.  If you missed this project, not to worry, you can access it at wefeelfine.org. This program goes out to the web and mines blogs for phrases like “I feel” and returns them in an interactive data stream that gives interesting visuals and demographics.  WE then went by the Akron Museum of Art to check out the architecture of the building.  We had planned on seeing the Escher exhibit, but instead we were hungry for a bite to eat.

After the art, we stopped off for some of the best Mexican food that I have seen in a while at Rancheros Taqueria at 284 Cuyahoga Falls Ave-at Dayton St. in Akron.  If you like authentic Mexican food with a ton of flavor, I highly recommend this place.  Unobtrusive, and poorly decorated, this is the kind of place you might pass on if you judge by appearances.  Don’t!  The food is great!

Then it was time to high tail it back home to get ready for ART CARES.  Art Cares is one of the few really high class events that get to attend every year.  I always donate a couple of art pieces and they always seem to sell.  I am happy to be a part of this event, and happy that I am always asked.  The event was packed this year, and they netted some good returns.  I am sure that has a lot to do with John Farina and Adam Tully who were the key organizers for this year’s event.  Kudos to them and all their hard work.  I also got to hang out with friends and hear the awesome Lounge Kitty.  I am already thinking of what I can create for next year’s event.

If you have never been, you should go as it is one of the few times to get great art at reasonable prices, while having the best party time of the year!

Sunday was Earth Fest, the Earth Day event at the zoo.  I always go and work a table for some event.  This year, while Bud worked the NE Ohio chapter of the USGBC table, I was at the Gardens Under Glass table.  I was lucky, as were in a nice cozy worm environment inside, while Bud froze in the non-profits tent.  Of course, I got my reusable bags from Wal-Mart, chatted with Rebecca at Planet Green and Green Clean, and hung out with Trevor Clatterbuck of Fresh Fork Market.  Unfortunatley the high winds caused them to close at least one tent, and some of the events were cancelled.  Still, I got my free water bottle and hung out with all my greenie cohorts!

Our sign language class was cancelled, and I was actually quite relieved, as I needed the extra rest!  All in all, a great weekend…What did you do?