Special Events

In addition to our Vision, Interactive, and Collaborative session programming, the BALLE Conference offers numerous special offerings during our pre-conference and main conference days. This wide variety of events, workshops, tours, parties, and other offerings are a great opportunity to deepen your experience with conference content and offer you an amazing and inspiring conference experience.

Wednesday, June 12: Living Economy Tour: Feed Your Soul: Buffalo’s Urban Farm to Fork Movement 

Take a tour of Buffalo’s thriving urban and sustainable agriculture initiatives and enjoy a chef-prepared lunch, led by Christa Glennie Seychew, food editor for Buffalo Spree magazine and owner of Feed Your Soul. We’ll visit three of Buffalo's most exciting urban farms, including Wilson Street Urban Farm, a family farm that makes use of previously neglected land on Buffalo’s East Side and is part of an urban ag cooperative called the Farmer Pirates. The Pirates work together by sharing farm equipment, knowledge, and resources. The group will also visit Massachusetts Avenue Project’s (MAP) Growing Green Farm. This nonprofit’s Farm Education and Youth Enterprise programs teach inner-city youths to raise crops and chickens, maintain two closed-system aquaponics beds, and also provides them with skills to effectively manage a business. Additionally, MAP's youth-run Mobile Market brings fresh locally grown produce to urban food deserts. A third farm on the tour is run by the Community Action Organization (CAO). Several greenhouses combined with a closed-loop aquaponics system for raising bass allow this farm to raise some of the finest produce in the city which is sold to a handful of Buffalo's best chefs. The CAO even raised its own saffron last year! During the tour an all-local chef-prepared lunch will be served at one of Buffalo's historic Olmsted Parks. Snacks, water, and some materials will also be provided throughout the day.

Register now.

Note: BALLE’s Living Economy Tours require an advance paid registration that is separate from the full-conference registration

Wednesday, June 12: Living Economy Tour: The New Urban Buffalo: Place-based Economic Development Strategies 

Join us on a tour led by grassroots economic development gurus Anthony Armstrong (Buffalo Local Initiatives Support Corporation) and Aaron Bartley (PUSH Buffalo), highlighting the unique successes and challenges of sustainable economic development in Buffalo. The tour will incorporate examples of community development, public policy and its effect on cities, de-industrialization, the shrinking city effect, silver bullet versus grassroots strategies, infrastructure and its ability to divide or unite our communities, and the power of preservation to create a unique urban environment. Tour highlights will include Buffalo’s Frederick Law Olmsted park and parkway system, PUSH Green Development Zone, Buffalo River rehabilitation, waterfront redevelopment, Buffalo Central Terminal preservation and transportation corridor reuse, many examples of Buffalo’s architectural assets, and a tour of local microbrewery, Community Beer Works. Snacks will be provided on the tour.

Register now.

Note: BALLE’s Living Economy Tours require an advance paid registration that is separate from the full-conference registration

Wednesday, June 12: Network Leaders Exchange and Buffalo Tour (Limited to current BALLE Members)

This year's Network Leaders Exchange is designed as your best chance to find and really pick the brains of the very people who are in our shoes, or who are in the shoes we want to be in. Come prepared with your burning questions, your best program ideas and your biggest challenges and be prepared to get great take-aways. We'll be engaging, sharing and learning together, utilizing the expertise within our Localist movement and our Fellows. Don't miss this great opportunity to engage with your peers on a day specially designed for all of us by leaders in the movement. After you register, you'll receive a survey asking you for your best program ideas to share and burning topics you want to discuss, plus your important questions so that we can all engage in the best conversations. The Exchange also includes a special ‘Best of Buffalo’ private tour designed for network leaders by local host, Buffalo First!

Register now. (validation code found on your member account page required for registration, login now!)

Wednesday, June 12: Integrated Capital & Connections:  A Gathering for Community Capital Catalysts (Invite-only)

Co-hosting sponsor: RSF Social Finance

This is a gathering for local economy funders, investors, financial institutions, and experienced community capital catalysts looking to take their Localist financing to the next level. We’ll work together to advance both the burgeoning community capital field and our own work, exploring integrated, place-based capital strategies.  Facilitated by Otto Scharmer, founding chair of the Presencing Institute and Senior Lecturer at MIT. Get more information.

Note: Looking to advance your understanding of community capital strategies and get your hands on tested models you can bring home and try in your community? We can help: 1) check out our main conference Community Capital sessions (coming soon), and 2) order copies of one (or all!) of our past two years of Community Capital how-to webinars.

Register now. (validation code from your invitation required for registration)

Thursday, June 13 and Friday, June 14: Mentoring

Back by popular demand (and better than ever), BALLE will offer attendees the opportunity to sign up for one-on-one mentoring with some of the Localist movement’s most successful social entrepreneurs, network-builders, funders, and philanthropists. Don’t miss this chance to get direct consultation with the brightest minds in the business. Keep an eye out for details.

Thursday, June 13 and Friday, June 14: Complimentary All-levels Yoga & Pilates Classes

Start your day off right on Thursday and Friday of the conference by participating in free yoga or pilates classes, offered before breakfast and sessions begin. All levels are invited to take these classes with some of Buffalo’s most acclaimed teachers. See your conference program for details.

Inspiring Short Films Exploring the New Economy

As an appetizer to our morning Vision Sessions, we will be showing short curated collections of films exploring Localism. Come in early on Thursday and Friday morning for some cinematic inspiration to get you ready for a day of inspiration. Different films on each day!

Evening parties

BALLE is a better party. And that isn’t just a metaphor. Great food, fun entertainment, super-charged community, and the celebration of the best of Buffalo’s Localist scene makes our off-site evening get-togethers a perennial highlight of the BALLE Conference experience.

After hours parties

And, of course, the party doesn’t ever need to stop! The BALLE community welcomes early-risers and night-owls alike, so if the first party of the night wasn’t enough, come to the next one…and the next one…and the next one…
 

Register now for the BALLE 2013!