BALLE Live! Webinar Series
Through our BALLE Live! Webinar series we provide access to the best thinkers, thought leaders, business leaders and others who are re-imagining and re-inventing what a thriving local economy can be.
These engaging and interactive dialogues with experts are a unique opportunity to learn from those who are leading the field.
Plus for the price of admission you get a recording of the webinar and the “how-to” packet of slides, often replete with budgets, legal forms, and project plans that would take you significant time and money to start yourself.
Our BALLE Live! webinar series center around our Core Four (Community Capital, Local First, Better Together, and DIY Entrepreneurs), and our overarching work toward Prosperity For All. Our current series offerings include Community Capital and Local First webinars.
Ready to register for a webinar? See what webinars are available and register now.
Host a Webinar Viewing Party
- Gather with others from your area to participate in a "viewing party" for each webinar. Groups can attend using just one member's registration.
- Ask the presenters the questions relevant to your needs in your in your area.
- Hold a discussion group afterward to investigate how your community can apply what you learn.
Community Capital
This series features strategies for unleashing local money to build local economies, and is appropriate for businesses looking for capital, local economy conveners, community investors, foundations, innovative bankers, economic development professionals, and others. Learn about pioneering efforts around the country with respect to crowd-funding, community supported enterprises, triple bottom line banking and credit unions, slow-money investing, cooperatives, local investment clubs, direct public offerings and more. Featuring tested models and geared toward what you can put into practice in your community right away.
Read more about our Community Capital series and upcoming webinars. Also check out our past Community Capital webinars available for purchase.
Next Webinar:
► July 9, 2013 | 10:00am PT Click here to register
Lessons Learned: Capital, Coaching, and Connection with Claudia Viek, CEO, California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO)
We’ll explore how no matter the capital strategy we employ, it must be accompanied with entrepreneurship support and technical assistance that can get entrepreneurs ready for an infusion of capital, and help them succeed once they have it.
Featured Speaker:
Claudia Viek has been CEO of CAMEO since 2007. She has been a pioneer in both the Micro Enterprise and business incubation fields in California. She is the former Executive Director (14 years) of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center. Renaissance is an award winning training, financing and business incubation program in San Francisco. Claudia represents the State Micro-Business Associations on the AEO board. Claudia served on the Board of the National Business Incubation Association and founded the Pacific Incubation Network of business incubators from Baja to Alaska. Claudia is the past President of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of NAWBO and continues to serve on numerous nonprofit boards in her community.
Local First
This series features innovative strategies at the business and network level that effectively make the case for local and result in more buying and thinking Local First. We know driving demand for local products and service is a critical piece of building the Localist movement and taking Main Street mainstream. Locally produced goods and locally owned businesses have received a surge in support and awareness over the last several years thanks to many of the “Think Local First” campaigns around North America. We continue to support this movement through showcasing effective models, campaigns, policies and programs that expand ownership and shift purchasing towards locals first.
Read more about our Local First series and upcoming webinars. Also check out our past Local First webinars available for purchase.
Next Webinar:
► July 16, 2013 | 10:00am PT Click here to register
After learning about two non-profit social enterprise models for advancing local food procurement, and hearing from a pioneering procurement officer, we’ll dive into another example on the front lines – this time, a for-profit model for advancing local food procurement.
Jim brings an interesting mix of expertise to the question of local procurement: he’s a real estate developer and runs a diversified investment and consulting company. From this background he's stepped into the world of getting local foods to local and regional buyers, from retail to institutions. Along the way he met Jim Slama of FamilyFarmed.org, and they developed plans for Blue Ridge Produce including a feasibility study.
Jim Epstein believes that non-profits have led the way with local food procurement, and have built a foundation from which businesses like his can work to help local food procurement get to scale.
Speaker:
Jim Epstein, Chairman and Cofounder, Blue Ridge Produce, LLC and Chairman, EFO Capital Management
Jim Epstein's family has owned property in the northern Virginia Piedmont for more than 50 years. Over that time he has seen the agricultural landscape disappear, and with it a great farming tradition. As a real estate developer he understands the difficulty for farmers to hold onto their land as farm incomes dwindle and land values soar. In considering plans for the development of a village site in the heart of the Piedmont region, he began to imagine how his efforts could also protect and strengthen the local farming community by enhancing the local food system.
