Mix a little bit of jet lag, a lotta bit of Fair Trade coffee and some in-depth discussions around Fair Trade and you can start to imagine my state of being right now.
I am currently in Boston, along with a gang of Global Exchangers and about 780 Fair Traders from all over the world for the Fair Trade Futures Conference where we have all come together meet and connect and talk about the movement.
We’re smack dab in the middle of the second day of the conference and it’s been a whirlwind of compelling speakers and interesting debates. In between sessions, people gather together to discuss panels they’ve just left and try to decide on the next panel discussion to attend. The halls of the convention are echoing with interesting discussions, stories and thoughts of the days events. For everyone it’s great to see old friends, finally meet colleagues we only know via conference call and e-mail and hear from producer groups who have traveled across the world for this conference.
Global Exchange is fully representing at the conference with Kevin Danaher opening up the day with a keynote speech on looking for answers of what Fair Trade is seeking to achieve and people throughout the day referring back to his speech in their panel discussions. GX is also displaying product from the wholesale line at the Fair Trade Marketplace each evening. Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel has a panel discussion about working with youth the create a Fair Trade Future and Social Media Director, Tex Dworkin is going to lead a discussion on how to spread the Fair Trade word through social media.
To follow the conference discussion in real-time, you can tune into the Fair Trade Futures Conference Social Media Cafe. See latest conference tweets or follow the Fair Trade Futures hashtag #FTFC10.
Lots of interesting discussions and debates are finally able to take place under one roof with all the major Fair Trade actors in one place. We’ll be sure to keep you all updated as the weekend goes on. A quick Fair Trade hello from Boston!