RE: Greenbuild 2020 scheduled the week of the Presidential Election, Nov. 3rd, 2020

I'm definitely going to drop them a line about this. Several of us were discussing this in Atlanta and we all anticipate it will be an issue from attendance, to shoulder events, etc.

I’ll post on LinkedIn about it, tag USGBC and ask for people to provide their opinions. Sent from my iPhone On

Just checked the GreenBuild site and they don’t have the 2020 dates listed...? Maybe they’ve already decided to change it? Sent from my iPhone On J

Cool--They still don't have dates listed on the site. They must be serious about changing them! I'd say that we should keep the pressure on, and see what they come up with.

Agreed. I wrote to several people at both Informa and USGBC. From responses received from Katie Gillham (Informa) and Mehesh Ramunajan, Kim Heavner and Kim Lewis (USGBC), they are exploring alternatives, including compressing the conference into the latter days of the week. I responded that a Wednesday-Friday conference would have unfortunate consequences: - Wednesday would become a travel day. - No Tuesday night SDL gathering, Tuesday workshops/ tours. - Would people focus on learning, networking, connecting? Regardless of the election outcome, it would be a major distraction. How can we attend on Election Day when the nation's future

Looks like they just sent out a call for proposals that shows Nov 4-7. It will be interesting to see how they shift the events. I do think Wed-Sat is a good call and will actually open up the conference to a more diverse group of attendees. Most of us are from organizations that support our attendance, and operate on a typical business schedule, however I think there are many people out there who would like to attend, but work for a company that can’t or is not willing to support them. This is part of the email I sent to Katie and Kimberly: · To be inclusive we shouldn’t assume that all who work in this green building movement are flexible or work for companies that operate w/in business hrs , or can afford to part w/ employees for 3-4 days. If there are some sessions on Saturday, and it is targeted for these audiences- this could engage people with a more diverse background to engage in green building, including: o University administrators, faculty and students o High school teachers and students o Employees whose company doesn’t subsidize or support attendance, who pay their own way and take vacation days to attend. o Youth groups/clubs o Construction/Trades o Sole practitioners who are more likely able and willing to attend stretching into a weekend due to work/life schedules and support o Volunteer Organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, 350.org, etc o Professionals who have childcare issues during the week/school activities and structure and are more likely to have free assistance on weekends. Kristen Kristen Fritsch AIA LEED AP BD+C WELL AP Sustainability Coordinator ELKUS MANFREDI ARCHITECTS [address] 25 Drydock Avenue, Boston Massachusetts 02210 [tel] 617.695.7954 [fax] 617.426.7502 [email] kfritsch@elkus-manfredi.com [web] www.elkus-manfredi.com ((( Rep

I humbly suggested by email that they use this opportunity to permanently shift GreenBuild to late winter, maybe the last week of February -- away from the ever-conflicting month of November with Thanksgiving & holiday season kickoff.  Harry  

I just attended Greenbuild India, held yesterday and today here in Bangalore.  Wonderful event.  I think about 400 people attended, which meant I got to meet a lot of people - including Kim Heavner, VP for USGBC in charge of the conferences.  I shared our feedback with her about holding the conference on Election Day. She said that USGBC had given conference organizing rights to Informa and Informa had booked out the conferences and venues several years in advance (she said that they are booked for the next 10 years, which seemed a little too much in advance).  When USGBC approved the schedule several years back, she said they didn’t anticipate that the US would be in the political situation that it is in today.  She does understand the importance of getting as many people as possible to the polls to vote and the conflict that is being created with the current Greenbuild schedule. Kim didn’t commit to anything, but said that they were talking with Informa about compressing or shifting the conference by a day so that people could be in their communities on Tuesday Election Day, and then travel on Wednesday.  It’s not something USGBC can do on their own.  They would have to convince Informa to make the change, on an event that was already pre-approved (big change order, I assume). She was a very kind and thoughtful person and really appreciated the feedback.  She also encouraged me to ask all of you to write to USGBC and Informa as well and share your thoughts, if you haven’t already. Here’s her address: kheavner@usgbc.org Brian  

The Dates for Greenbuild have been shifted by one day, the workshops and tours will now start on Wed. Nov. 4th.  The new dates are on the Greenbuild Expo Website and an announcement should be coming out from USGBC shortly.