An Incredible Two Weeks at the CMG Catalyst Workshops
What an incredible two weeks in July! We are so excited about all of the wonderful connections and people from our first ever Catalyst Workshops.
We hosted one week focusing on Energy and one week focusing on Oceans at the Pinnacle Leadership Center in New Hampshire July 5-12. Each week was filled with incredibly talented and passionate individuals who are doing solid work to create a more action for a more sustainable world. Workshop participants included a Climate Fellow from the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire, a conservation graduate student and an underwater cinematographer each from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, producers from National Geographic and PBS, filmmakers from New York, San Francisco, Alabama, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Washington, DC; and three international participants, including a journalist from the UK, a filmmaker from China, and a marine conservation director from Turkey. Also joining us were our first two Filmmakers-in-Residence, Elicia Epstein and Eleanor Conover, who each presented on their works-in-progress.
Our workshop partners included some incredible organizations who are working in ocean conservation, renewable energy and sustainability education, including the Hurricane Island Foundation, Windustry, The Ocean Foundation, Sailors for the Sea, National Office of Marine Sanctuaries, National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation, the Mediterranean Conservation Society and the Darling Marine Center at the University of Maine. We also had a wonderful and experienced group of invited guest speakers & mentors who joined us in person and via Skype, including two professional cinematographers and an editor, an expert in creating social impact, multiple guests from funders and foundations, and online strategy experts from Greenpeace and 350.org.
For the first workshop, focusing on ocean conservation, we had 12 passionate individuals working on 4 Catalyst Capstone projects with our organization partners. We are so excited about the Capstone projects they developed, all of which are just the beginning of longer-term ocean conservation campaigns. While working with the teams on their call-to-action videos and engagement strategies, we also learned about creating carbon offsets by planting sea grass (http://seagrassgrow.org/), a international effort to engage sailors in lessening their impact on the ocean (http://www.sailorsforthesea.org/), the importance of engaging local community in managing marine protected areas (http://www.akdenizkoruma.org.tr/en), and more about our very special US marine sanctuaries (http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/).
During our second workshop we dove into sustainability and renewable energy with 10 really incredible participants, including two non-profit founders with extensive industry experience in both wind power and solar energy. The three Capstone teams developed new videos and engagement strategies for measurable change - all of which will be continuing as real world project beyond the workshops. We also got to learn about the benefits of small-scale community wind (http://www.windustry.org/), growing the female workforce in the solar sector (http://www.solwomen.org/), and the importance of engaging the next generation in sustainability and science (http://www.hurricaneisland.net/).
Watch our Facebook feed for more info about how these organizations and amazing individuals are moving their own professional work and the Catalyst Capstone projects forward. We can't wait to see what they do next! (And stay tuned for news of next year's workshop applications!)
What an incredible two weeks in July! We are so excited about all of the wonderful connections and people from our first ever Catalyst Workshops.
We hosted one week focusing on Energy and one week focusing on Oceans at the Pinnacle Leadership Center in New Hampshire July 5-12. Each week was filled with incredibly talented and passionate individuals who are doing solid work to create a more action for a more sustainable world. Workshop participants included a Climate Fellow from the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire, a conservation graduate student and an underwater cinematographer each from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, producers from National Geographic and PBS, filmmakers from New York, San Francisco, Alabama, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Washington, DC; and three international participants, including a journalist from the UK, a filmmaker from China, and a marine conservation director from Turkey. Also joining us were our first two Filmmakers-in-Residence, Elicia Epstein and Eleanor Conover, who each presented on their works-in-progress.
Our workshop partners included some incredible organizations who are working in ocean conservation, renewable energy and sustainability education, including the Hurricane Island Foundation, Windustry, The Ocean Foundation, Sailors for the Sea, National Office of Marine Sanctuaries, National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation, the Mediterranean Conservation Society and the Darling Marine Center at the University of Maine. We also had a wonderful and experienced group of invited guest speakers & mentors who joined us in person and via Skype, including two professional cinematographers and an editor, an expert in creating social impact, multiple guests from funders and foundations, and online strategy experts from Greenpeace and 350.org.
For the first workshop, focusing on ocean conservation, we had 12 passionate individuals working on 4 Catalyst Capstone projects with our organization partners. We are so excited about the Capstone projects they developed, all of which are just the beginning of longer-term ocean conservation campaigns. While working with the teams on their call-to-action videos and engagement strategies, we also learned about creating carbon offsets by planting sea grass (http://seagrassgrow.org/), a international effort to engage sailors in lessening their impact on the ocean (http://www.sailorsforthesea.org/), the importance of engaging local community in managing marine protected areas (http://www.akdenizkoruma.org.tr/en), and more about our very special US marine sanctuaries (http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/).
During our second workshop we dove into sustainability and renewable energy with 10 really incredible participants, including two non-profit founders with extensive industry experience in both wind power and solar energy. The three Capstone teams developed new videos and engagement strategies for measurable change - all of which will be continuing as real world project beyond the workshops. We also got to learn about the benefits of small-scale community wind (http://www.windustry.org/), growing the female workforce in the solar sector (http://www.solwomen.org/), and the importance of engaging the next generation in sustainability and science (http://www.hurricaneisland.net/).
Watch our Facebook feed for more info about how these organizations and amazing individuals are moving their own professional work and the Catalyst Capstone projects forward. We can't wait to see what they do next! (And stay tuned for news of next year's workshop applications!)