February 4, 1999

Attending: Andrew Eszak, Tony Luppino, Daniel Botting, Darlene Vogel, Jay Burney, Michael Raab, Jean Brun, Umunyana Rugege, Bill Nowak

1. Goals of the conference:

• The conference will lay out likely 21st century environmental problems and the business opportunities inherent in solving those problems, we will do this by:
• Linking green entrepreneurs with business opportunities in Buffalo.
• Creating a policy framework that would foster the growth of green businesses.
• Developing the work force for the twenty- first century.

2. Scope of the conference:

• Discussion as to what extent the conference should be local, regional, or national.
• National presence would attract local businesses. However it was expressed that it may be difficult to attract national figures and this would affect the success of the conference.
• Focus on a more local conference may increase involvement and serve as a stepping stone promoting a national conference next year.
• Discussion of involving a sister city from the west coast, or in the Great Lakes region
• There was discussion as to whether to present a final product or to work with local and national companies to achieve our goals. Andrew Eszak suggested that we ask businesses about what they want out of the conference.
• Having a government presence to discuss policy issues such as incentive programs for businesses to go green or to allow already green businesses to get tax breaks and interest breaks from lenders.
• Utilize the Green Gold strategy to show companies that there is a market for their products and that it is economically sound to move their businesses to Buffalo.

3. Products:

• To create a market in Buffalo for green products
• Promote our region’s natural resources--Tourism
• Improve community education partly through a high school student essay contest focusing on environmental problems of the twenty-first century
• Synergy between green companies and buyers
• Publicizing the Green Gold strategy

4. Date:

• Late Fall
• One day- is less expensive and may increase attendance due to less time out of attendees schedules.
• Two days- more expensive but more time for programs and networking. Michael Raab suggested a format where programs would repeat throughout the day to allow people to attend based on their work schedule. Time would also be allocated for businesses to showcase their products and for buyers to shop for these products.

Next meeting of the conference planning committee is to be February 25, 1999.

Green Gold board meeting is to be February 18, 1999.