World Environment Day -- which actually lasts 5 days -- takes place in San Francisco this year, and kicks off tomorrow. Established by the UN in 1972, World Environment Day is an education festival, with lectures, product exhibits and artwork all meant to make visitors aware of the ways in which the environment can be improved. The theme this year? As seen to the right, "Green Cities."
The schedule for the five days covers topics near and dear to the hearts of WorldChangers:
(The site has a page letting you browse each day's activities, and a PDF showing all of the events.)
The events are free, and most can be attended on a drop-in basis (although some, like Thursday's presentation by WorldChanging allies Gil Friend and Joel Makower, The Sustainable Business Phenomenon: Leading Initiatives in Redefining Business, do ask that you sign up). Most of Wednesday's events are at Fort Mason, while the remaining days are largely at the Metreon center.
But here's the deal: the conference is set up so that all of each day's workshops run simultaneously -- if you attend Gil and Joel's talk on Thursday, for example, you won't be able to see Partners Planning for Sustainable Cities, Innovative Recycling Programs, or Smart Growth in San Francisco: Designing Cities for People and the Environment. Undoubtedly this is intended to keep each of the workshops to a reasonable size, and it will probably be possible to wander between them, but this is precisely the kind of situation that calls for smart mobbing.
So, are you going to the event? If so, we'd love to have you share your observations about the workshops you saw in the comments below. Even if you can't make it to San Francisco, you can still help out by alerting us to other sites blogging the conference. There are bound to be a bunch of worldchanging ideas presented these next few days -- together we can make sure everyone has a chance to hear them.
