New England Local Business Forum

Join Local Economy Leaders from Across New England!

The next regional gathering of the New England Local Business Forum will take place on Friday, May 4th in historic Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.

Noted economist, author and speaker Michael Shuman will deliver the keynote address for the gathering, and will be discussing his latest book: Local Dollars, Local Sense, and the importance of community investing.

Our 8th gathering, co-sponsored by the New England Independent Booksellers Association, will bring together key industry partners in the book, bike and toy industry to greater connect our efforts year round and in the holiday season.  We will also have a keynote address from a  prominent speaker on local economies and a series of panels and workshops.

Register below to be a part of this great event!

Agenda (Subject to change)

8:30 -  9:30    Breakfast & Networking

9:30  -  10:00   Introductions & Welcome

10:00 – 10:30 – Keynote Address – Michael Shuman, Author Local Dollars, Local Sense

10:30 – 10:45 – Break

10:45 -  11:30 Speaker/Breakout – Spreading the Local Message – New Collaborations with Trade Association Leaders and Buy Local Networks

Panelists will discuss existing campaigns and programs, explore potential partnerships, and offer their own unique perspective on the local movement.

11:45 – 12:30    Sales Tax Fairness – Competing with and communicating about online sales tax issues

How do local businesses compete with online businesses that don’t collect sales tax? Hear about what is being done to level the playing field, how local businesses can get engaged in the subject and how local business networks might work to bring attention to this local economy threat.

12:30 – 1:30     Lunch

1:30  -  2:45    Panel Discussion:  –Winning in the Holiday Season – how to connect, promote and market buying locally or your business during the holiday season.

Moderator: Laury Hammel (SBN Boston). Panelists: Joe Grafton (Somerville Local First), Steve Fischer (NEIBA), Stephanie Seacord (Leading Edge, Portsmouth NH)

Holiday campaigns, like Shift Your Shopping, Plaid Friday and Small Business Saturday, are one of the most visible and fastest growing elements of the local economies movement. Panelists will discuss innovations and best practices in holiday messaging from a variety of perspectives. Attendees will learn new tools, techniques and strategies to amplify their holiday promotion and new collaborations will be discussed to further grow these efforts in 2012.

2:45  –  3:30    Workshop: The Top 10 Online Marketing Strategies

Facilitator: Joe Grafton (Somerville Local First).  Presenters: Michelle Mccormack (Secret Boston/Love the Cool), Andy Pyman (Truly Good Design)

The world of promotion has changed. While traditional marketing techniques can be effective, marketing growth is most concentrated online. In this workshop lead by innovators and experts, you will learn 10 tools and techniques that will immediately enhance your business or organizations reach.

3:30  -  4:00     Closing discussion, learnings, next steps

4:00 – 6:00    HAPPY HOUR – Drinks with our colleagues and friends from New England

Register Now!

When:
Friday May 4th, 9:00 AM to 5:00PM

Where:
First Parish Church, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA

Cost:
$35 per person,  includes lunch and coffee ($25 for networks who have donated to NELBF)
Register Now!

Your Registration Type

Gathering Registration (Contributing Networks) $25.00 USD Gathering Registration $35.00 USD

Name(s) Of Attendees

This event is being organized by the New England Local Business Forum and hosted by The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston.

By Danielle Kennedy

On October 21, New England Local Business Forum (NELBF) returned to its roots in Portsmouth, NH for its 8^th semiannual gathering. What started three years ago in the same city with a handful of local business leaders had grown on this sunny fall day to a collaboration of 30+ people from 17 Local First networks representing every state in New England.

This year, NELBF was even graced by two special guests, American Independent Business Alliance(AMIBA) cofounders Jeff Milchen and Jennifer Rockne, all the way from Big Sky Montana. After a morning meet-and-greet over coffee and pastries (locally catered, of course!), we all settled into Portsmouth’s gorgeous LEED Green Certified library for introductions and the morning panel, How Local Business Owners Can Engage the Movement and Customers. The great thing about Local First networks is that so many of the leaders are local business owners themselves. And who better to address the issues local businesses face than a lineup of four leader/proprietors themselves?

NELBF members engage in a panel discussion with Tom Roberts, Michael Kanter, Dave Warner, and Jody Breneman

A couple of the panelists reminded us that Local itself can be a branding in marketing. Tom Roberts of Beach Pea Bakery in Kittery, ME reminded us that pragmatism was key in this sense; while independent business has a duty to be socially responsible, it is still a business in the end and all would be for not if it is not successful commercially. Jody Breneman, co-owner of family-owned and run G. Willikers! Toy Shop in our host city told owners to keeping generating buzz about their small business: “Just keep talking about it.” For Jody, Buy Local is all about the small shifts. She shared an anecdote about a local couple on their way to buy a particular Christmas gift for their son at Toys”R”Us. Upon hearing a radio spot reminding them to buy local for the holidays, the couple, reminded, turned around the car and headed straight for local G. Willikers! instead.

This point brings me into the most important discussion of the day – that of the 2^nd annual region collaboration on the Shift Your Shopping holiday campaign and the first national partnership on the campaign. The campaign originally started in response to the American Express Small Business Saturday (to which SBN Boston executive director Laury Hammel half-jokingly suggested the slogan this year: “Support Small Business Saturday – Use Cash”). The credit card company ignored the demands and stipulations of NELBF, so we figured local does local better anyway and launched Shift Your Shopping. How do you do local on a national scale during the most commercialized time of the year? Our SYS website (designed by Somerville’s own Andy Pyman of Truly Good Solutions – and newest SLF board member!) will have a focus on individual community stories. It’s always about the local, people! With this campaign, we want to show that the individuals’ local stories are part of something bigger.

In the spirit of Occupy, we encourage consumers to Populate Main Street. As American Express and the like try to jump on our bandwagon, our biggest challenge as the grassroots is make sure you as the public stay informed and understand true ways to support local. Wrapping up a productive day, a group of us did what we do best and support local business, the Portsmouth Brewery.

What struck me about the NELBF gathering was that rather than a conference, it felt like an intimate get-together of like-minded friends – and it was. As one NE Local First leader proclaimed over Portsmouth brews, “We’ve brought 17 organizations together. New England really has something special here.”

Local friends bonding over some local drink

The next regional gathering of the NELBF will take place on Friday, October 21st in Portsmouth, NH.  This gathering will focus on our 2nd annual New Enlgand holiday campaign, our integration with a first-ever national holiday campaign and how our member businesses can maximize their benefit of being local during this holiday shopping season.

Click here to Register Now!

Here’s a draft agenda for the day:

9:00 -  10:00    Breakfast & Networking

10:00 -  10:15   Introductions & Welcome

10:15 -  11:15   Panel Discussion:  How Local Business owners can engage the movement, and their customers, during the holidays.

11:15 – 12:30   Workshop: Communicating the Buy Local message to busy business members

12:30 – 1:30     Lunch

1:30  -  2:45     The First Ever National Holiday Campaign: Information about the collaboration, tactics and resources for local networks.

2:45  -  4:00     The Future of NELBF:  Where do we go from here?

4:00  -  5:00     Closing discussion, learnings, next steps

5:00 – 7:00    HAPPY HOUR – Drinks with our colleagues and friends from New England

When:
Friday October 21st, 9:00 AM to 5:00PM

Where:
Portsmouth Public Library, 175 Parrott Ave, Portsmouth, NH

Cost:
TBA – Estimated $10-$25

This event is being organized by the New England Local Business Forum and hosted by Seacoast Local.