Shift 2012 Smart Labs

Expanding Tacoma's Entrepreneurial Potential - 3 presenters will engage the audience in identifying sources of new business ideas, opportunity recognition to crystallize and share the best of them, practical tips and pointers, and asking the question of the day: how we, together, can create a climate of "Entrepreneurship - Tacoma Style." Workshops

Co-Presented by City of Tacoma, Go-Local Tacoma, the Washington State Micro-Enterprise Association and University of Puget Sound's Lowry Wyatt School of Business.

Speakers: City of Tacoma Economic Development Director Ryan Petty, UPS Professor Lynette Clare, and Theresa Lemmons from the Washington State Micro Lending.

Big business theory in the 20th century often reduced place and community to sets of interchangeable components. This strategy allowed increased scalability, but it could not account for their situated complexity and cultural particularity. Today, this reduction has left a vast reservoir of true wealth to be discovered at the relational nexus of body, place, and commons. Learn how to access this latent potential through new modes of tacit knowing and adaptive leadership which cannot be co-opted by multi-national corporations. Discover innovative new tactics and place-based practices for unlocking your Situated Advantage in ways that truly serve the flourishing of local places and communities.

Speaker: Paul Sparks is the President of Local Life Tacoma, which catalyzes the growth of identifiable human-scale neighborhoods through grassroots collaboration.

Speaker Derek Johnson is a serial entrepreneur, named by BusinessWeek as one of the top 25 under 25 entrepreneurs in the United States.

Derek Johnson at the age of 22, founded Tatango - a SMS marketing platform. With one message from the computer or mobile phone, the service has the ability to reach thousands of people, instantaneously. Initially built as a service to help fraternities communicate via text messaging, Tatango has grown to a leader in the industry, with small to fortune 500 businesses using their platform.

Go Local President, Patricia Lecy-Davis will be presenting the Shared Mall platform. Shared Mall is a truly local, green, and community-centric online e-commerce marketplace. A powerful opportunity for local businesses. Also included will be a presentation about customer loyalty rewards.

Colleen Hall Barta, Director of Development for the Institute for Environmental Research and Education will present an informational session on IERE’s Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) labeling program for U.S. made products through their Earthsure® program. The Institute uses the science of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to measure the environmental impacts of the manufacturing process which is displayed on the EPD label. Session will include basic background on LCA, the process for obtaining your label and the global outlook for the movement.

Have you been wondering what your business can do to be more sustainable? Let Citizens for a Healthy Bay’s Businesses for a Environmentally Sustainable Tacoma-Pierce County (BEST) Program help. Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB), the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, the City of Tacoma, and Go Local have partnered to create the EB (Environmental Business) Alliance. What’s good for the environment can be great for your bottom line. At this presentation you will learn more about the BEST Program and hear from local businesses that have participated and seen the benefits. You’ll learn how to save money by adapting energy efficient and environmentally sound practices and you will gain recognition for greening your business.

Please fill in all required fields for registration