Panels/Workshops

A) Clean Energy and Maines Future Economy 

Maines clean energy entrepreneurs are looking to advance our states energy and economic future. Their work from tidal and wind to energy efficiency is a sector of our economy to be watched. What have been their challenges and accomplishments? What are the lessons to be learned for other sectors of the economy? With implications for businesses in many sectors, this interactive discussion will be an exploration of the energy future of Maine.

Michael Stoddard, Executive Director, Efficiency Maine & E2 Tech, Board Member, MODERATOR

Nicholas Cabral, Partner, Goose River Hydro

Ryan Hamilton, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Interphase Energy

George Haselton, Harvest Energy

John Luft, Liberty Branch Manager, ReVision Energy

B) If you cant trust the voice inside your head, who can you trust?

Think outside the box! In this workshop there is not box. Fly without a net and have fun doing it. Using improv acting techniques you will begin to identify what is holding you back in business and in life, in a fun and safe environment. This workshop can help with many important aspects of business including: management, communications, negotiation, sales, customer service, public speaking and presentations. Workshop led by Rachel Flehinger, Founder of InnerAction in Portland, Maine.

Moderator: 

Rachel Flehinger

C) Community Trust

The cornerstone to economic vibrancy and well-being is community trust. The Maine Development Foundations widely recognized programs, including the Maine Downtown Center, are built on trusting collaborations that enable networks to connect, learn and create to grow the economy. Come learn how these programs offer tools and technical assistance, leadership capacity building, educational opportunities, and trusted research. With collaborations, success stories and connections we will spark and ignite your ideas for growth.

Panelists: 

Harold Clossey, President & CEO

Lorain Francis, Sr. Program Director, Maine Downtown Center 

Ryan Neal, Program Director, Measures of Growth

Amertah Perman, Program Director, Next Step Maine

Carol Taylor, Program Director, Leadership Maine

Anne Ball, Program Coordinator, Healthy Maine Streets

D) Failing Forward Conversations  

Ups and downs, failures and successes of many degrees are something we all experience.  Our most valuable lessons as creatives, innovators, and entrepreneurs often come from those difficult failures.  This workshop will bring together exceptional speakers who will share their honest observations about the failures they have experienced and the redemptive lessons learned.  The workshop will be facilitated by Jess Knox from Blackstone Accelerates Growth.

Moderator: 

Jess Knox, Blackstone Accelerates Growth

E) Cultural Commerce in Vacationland

Cultural tourism is an important tool for celebrating, preserving and developing Maine’s authentic heritage. It is also an effective way to stimulate the state economy, increases opportunities for artists, encourage public participation in community activities and enhance the creative sector. 

Cultural tourism is a travel industry term that describes travel and visitation activities directed at arts, heritage, recreational, and natural resources of a region. Cultural tourism is one of the fastest growing sector of the travel industry, cultural tourists spend more than other travelers, stay longer at each destination, and have more income to use during their trip. These kinds of travelers are not new, but the ways of connecting these visitors to cultural offerings, and the way in which these cultural assets are developed, is evolving.

Jean Surette, Music NB

Suzette Mcavoy, Center for Maine Contemporary Art

Linda Nelson, Opera House Arts Stonington

Tracy Stutzman, University of Southern Maine

F) Discover Your Communication Style: Gateway to building successful working relationships

Communication is the lifeblood of relationships—we connect, we share, we achieve understanding, we collaborate creatively.

In this experiential workshop, you’ll discover the strengths and challenges that drive your unique communication style.  You’ll learn to better account for those strengths and challenges by developing specific communication tools.  Learning to work skillfully with your communication style gives you the confidence to have the important conversations that deepen trust, ignite creativity and innovation.

Robert V. Keteyian is a communication consultant, counselor and the author of Do You Know What I Mean?—Discovering Your Personal Communication Style.  Bob teaches in Leadership Hancock County, specializes in relational counseling, and consults with businesses and organizations.  In his consulting work, he focuses on team development, helping leaders align leadership and communication styles, company culture and helping people have important/difficult conversations.  Learn more about Bob at www.robertketeyian.com.

Robert Keteyian, Interpersonal Communication Consulting

G) Passion, Purpose and Powerful Decision-Making

How to activate your body’s innate intelligence to make decisions that truly make a difference.

Do you struggle with making choices in your personal and professional life? Do lingering doubts drain energy from your conviction and slow the pace of your progress? Your skill in making choices you feel truly confident about—and that other people naturally trust in—is often the decisive factor between projects that joyously succeed or sadly sputter and fail. But what if you could make decisions in a way that left you both energized and invested in the outcome and confident in sharing your proposals with others?  In this 90 minute workshop, Mind-body Expert Dylan Newcomb will show you how easy it can actually be to tap into the power of your bodys innate wisdom as you make decisions. Through Dylan’s fun, engaging exercises, you’ll learn to actively engage your body as you brainstorm, evaluate and select your way to decisions that feel right, in your mind AND in your whole body! Renowned internationally for his unique approach to whole-person learning and for having good fun while getting a ton of learning done, Dylan Newcomb invites you to join him for this unique workshop and take your decision-making skill to surprising new heights!

Dylan Newcomb, Uzazu Mind, Body Method

H) Shared Space: Creating and Promoting Co-working Spaces

How do we share something as precious as our work space?  Work space is where we go for inspiration, for solidarity with our aims and ambitions yet where we recognize our need to produce results.   How does negotiating that in to shared space work for us?  Our panelists have been instrumental in both promoting shared space and creating in shared space.  Come hear how they have done it, their thoughts on what kind of community will embrace the true vision of co-working spaces in the future and how others can be a part of it.

Patrick Roche, Director, Think Tank Co-working

Nate Rudy, Director, Economic & Community Development, City of Gardiner

Jamie Ritter, MSLs Director of Reader and Information Services

I) Collaboration as a Tool to Success

The role of collaboration as a key factor to success for businesses and non-profits is growing. In the first part of this session, well be hearing from organizations that use collaborative methods as a central means for progress. One of the first steps to finding the right team approach is analyzing your own network. Well finish the session by learning how to map your own network and see how it overlaps with others in the session.

Kimberly Callas, Belfast Creative Coalition

Jane LaFleur, Friends of Mid Coast Maine

J) Trust and Politics

Trust may seem hard to come by in the world of politics these days, but trust in yourself, your colleagues, the electorate, and the political process is essential if we are to move our communities, our state, and our country forward.  Mainers engaged in the political process at a number of levels will share their perspectives on this important and timely topic.

Panel participants include Chris Rector, regional representative for Senator King and former state senator; Dick Woodbury, state senator; Tom Saviello, State Senator; and Seth Goodall, Small Business Administration and former State Senator.

Panelists: 

Chris Rector

Dick Woodbury

Tom Saviello

Seth Goodall

K) Ownership of Ideas: Intellectual Property (IP) Tools for the Innovation Economy

Do you own your IP? What should you do with creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce and the innovation economy? Patent, copyright, trademark, trade dress or trade secrets? How will you earn recognition or financial benefit from what you invent or create? These are the concepts and questions to be explored and answered by experts in the IP field, including representatives from Furman Gregory Deptula.

Furman Gregory Deptula

L) Food Access Innovations

The number of farms, farmers markets, and the overall availability of Maine-grown and made products has been steadily rising over the past several years.  By now, the local food movement in Maine is old news.  But some Mainers have been left out of this revitalization of local and regional food systems.  Those living in or just above poverty, those in urban or rural areas, the very old and the very young alike experience barriers to accessing good food- especially local food.  Luckily, food system leaders such as farmers, food entrepreneurs, and community organizers see that there is an opportunity in this challenge. 

Creating pathways between Maine farms and our most vulnerable citizens is not only a social good, but creates an ongoing investment in our state’s increasingly vibrant food system

Panel Moderator: 

Sara Trunzo,Director, Veggies for AllMaine Development Foundation

Panelists: 

Mike Gold, Maine Farmland Trust
Kristen Miale, Good Shepard Food Bank
Hannah Semler, Healthy Acadia