Monday, October 20th from 7-10 at the University of Alberta Tory Lecture Building (TL-B1)…
COST: Sliding scale of $10 - $20. All profits go to support the work of www.e-sage.ca
TICKETS: can be purchased in advanced at . . .
- Earth’s General Store
- The Blue Pear Restaurant
- at the door
Sure - Walmart’s an easy target.
So are the rest of the multi-national chain stores.
And buying local is important.
But why?
What do we tell our friends who say, “But Walmart brings in jobs! And it’s lower prices mean that the poor can afford things. Are you against the poor?”
Come and hear a compelling perspective to address your niggling doubts and wonderings in the whole “global vs. local” debate.
For the past 25 years, author and economist Michael Shuman has been an articulate voice of clarity in the rapidly growing Small-Mart Revolution. He has been taking on the Wal-Mart style Goliaths of multinational, big box chains and championing the local Small-Marts.
Over the past 25 years Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk a week – to universities, cities, legislators, economic development groups, and grassroots groups in nearly a dozen countries.
His work turns traditional ideas around Local Economic Development on their head and systematically challenges the assumptions of old, worn out models to show how we can live greener, more creatively, wealthier, happier and healthier lives by ‘going local first’. Think you need to attract a box store to your community for jobs and money? Think again.
You’ve probably never heard of him - but his work is recognized as some of the most important written about the role small, locally owned business can play in creating a vibrant, local living economy.
He is vice president for Enterprise Development for the Training and Development Corporation (TDC) of Bucksport, Maine. He has authored, coauthored, and edited seven books, including The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006) and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age (Free Press, 1998). The Small-Mart Revolution was just awarded a bronze medal for best business book by the Independent Publishers’ Association.
In recent years Shuman has led community-based economic-development efforts in St. Lawrence County (NY), Hudson Valley (NY), Katahdin Region (ME), Martha’s Vineyard (MA), and Carbondale (CO). He is currently preparing studies on state business subsidies for the Kellogg Foundation and on global models of local food businesses for the Gates Foundation. He served as a senior editor for the recently published Encyclopedia of Community. And he is a cofounder and active participant in the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and a founder of Bay Friendly Chicken, a community-owned company located in Salisbury, Maryland.
Shuman received an A.B. with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
* * *
THANKS TO OUR CO-HOST:
- E-sage
AND TO OUR SPONSORS:
- Edmonton Small Press Association
- Earth’s General Store
- Original Fare
- The Blue Pear Restaurant
