I am very excited to be speaking at the Going Local: Hope in a Time of Crisis Conference. At this stage the conference in Byron Bay on Sunday, March 22 about "Community Building and Alternative Business Models". And, can you believe it Russell Brand will be there, too! :)

Going Local is organized by Local Futures – The Economics of Happiness & New Economy Network Australia (NENA).
It's about how we could work together to create a different economic system and a better world. We are shipping items from one country to another (think Baltic sea shrimp being shipped to Morocco for peeling and then shipped back to Germany to be sold, empty 'ghost flights' within the European Union so airlines don't loose their allotted airport slots, ...).
We are in a time of crisis: first the drought, then the fires, then the floods and now a new virus.
Awareness is rising that we can't keep going as we have and need to think of new and better ways. We need to act now. There is "a path forward that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously restoring secure livelihoods and reweaving the fabric of community".

Here are some of my takeaways from spending five days in beautiful Marion Bay, on Tasmania’s East Coast, at this year’s Newkind Conference. In its 5th year it is “a conference for social change, designed to inspire and empower you to effectively address the social, environmental and economic issues we face as a global society.” It is all about “Inspiration. Integration. Action” and the overarching mission is to support full system regenerative change.

It was a bit different to what I expected, but nonetheless a good experience that inspired me to do more research on some topics. I was surprised about the activism focus, the young age of most of the participants and the fact that over 2/3 of the attendees were women – yeah!