Featured Speakers & Workshops
Geoff Lawton
In October 1997 Bill Mollison, upon his retirement, asked Geoff to establish and direct a new permaculture research institute on the 147-acre (0.59 km2) Tagari Farm. Lawton developed the site over a period of three years and established The Permaculture Research Institute as a global networking centre for permaculture projects. The institute is a non-profit company limited by guarantee. It is currently located at Zaytuna Farm at The Channon in Northern NSW, Australia where Lawton is managing director. The institute has since founded PRI USA, which is a registered charity - a tax-exempt organization under §501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Other permaculture research institutes that have been launched or are in the process of being launched include: PRI Jordan, PRI Canada, PRI Chile, PRI Turkey and PRI Afghanistan.
Keynote Speaker
Starhawk
Starhawk is a veteran of progressive movements, from anti-war to anti-nukes, and is deeply committed to bringing the techniques and creative power of spirituality to political activism. Her work in progressive movements spans over 30 years. She has organized, trained protesters, and been on the front lines of antinuclear actions at Diablo Canyon, Livermore Weapons Lab, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and the Nevada Test Site, among others. She traveled to Nicaragua with Witness for Peace in 1984 and made two trips to El Salvador to give ongoing support for sustainability programs. She continues to be a witness for peace on the front lines of the Palestine/Israel war, working with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists. A main focus for the last several years has been the global justice movement; Starhawk has taken part in many of the major actions, including those in Seattle, Washington DC, Quebec City, Genoa, New York City, Cancun, Mexico, and Miami. She co-founded RANT: Root Activists' Network of Trainers, and teaches non-violent direct action trainings for groups throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Palestine, and South America. She is active in the revived American peace movement, and works with Code Pink. Starhawk also works on countless environmental and land use issues, and is a founder and active member of the Cazadero Hills Land Use Council in western Sonoma County.
Starhawk consulted on and contributed to a trio of popular films, the Women's Spirituality series (directed by Donna Read).
Starhawk and Donna Read formed their own film company, Belili Productions. Their first release is "Signs Out of Time" (2004), a documentary on the life of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, the scholar whose discoveries sparked the Goddess movement. Watch Starhawk’s short videos on Permaculture - Tabor Tilth: Permaculture in the City, and Permaculture Principles at Work. Starhawk and Donna are at work on her next film, an Introduction to Permaculture.
Starhawk lives part-time San Francisco, in a collective house with her partner and friends, and part-time in a little hut in the woods in Cazadero, California, where she practices permaculture in her extensive gardens, and writes.
Mark Lakeman
Mark Lakeman is the co-founder of the non-profit placemaking organization The City Repair Project, and principal of the community design firm Communitecture. Mr. Lakeman has taken on the role of creative urban place-maker and community design facilitator in his commitment to the emergence of a sustainable cultural landscape. He seeks to make every design project one which will further the development of a community vision, whether it involves urban design and placemaking, ecological building, encourages community interaction, or assists those who typically do not have access to design services. His leadership in the City Repair Project has benefited communities across the North American continent including cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, and Ottawa where City Repair Projects are underway.
Stories of Mr. Lakeman’s projects have been told widely, including in such publications as Dwell, Architecture Magazine, New Village Journal, Yes magazine, and The Utne Reader. With City Repair, in 2003 Mark was awarded the National Lewis Mumford Award by the international organization Architects & Planners for Social Responsibility for his work with Dignity Village, one of the United States’ first self-developed, permanent communities by and for previously homeless people.
Keynote Speaker
Trathen Heckman
Trathen Heckman is the founding executive director of Daily Acts Organization, president of the board for Transition US, publisher of Ripples - an award-winning journal, and a backyard farmer. He is the former executive director of Green Sangha Organization and currently on the board of directors. Seeking to inspire the engagement of hearts, minds and senses, Trathen educates and works with community, business and municipal leaders to create programs, policy and models which harness the power of nature and inspired action to restore the health of our lives and communities. Trathen has given oodles of local, national and international presentations on Sustainability, Ecological Design and the power of our daily actions to renew the world. He lives in the Petaluma River Watershed where he grows food, medicine and wonder while working to compost apathy and lack.
Keynote Speaker
Erik Ohlsen
Erik’s design and field experience comprise of a huge variety of skills including, farm design and implementation, water harvesting/storm water management, erosion control, extensive earthwork operations, heavy machine operating, irrigation systems, ponds, food forests/orcharding systems, native plant systems, wildlife habitat enhancement, integrated pest management, microclimate moderation, roof water catchment systems, sustainable forestry, soil building, vermaculture, hardscape design and implementation, client relations specialist, project management, and much, much more. Erik has an innate ability to integrate a variety of disciplines into a holistic framework through facilitation of diverse groups of individuals and professionals. This skill is why many organizations and professionals in related fields to permaculture want to work closely with Permaculture Artisans to achieve excellence in their projects while benefiting entire ecological systems and communities. Erik has been teaching Permaculture design and implementation since 2001 and is known in Northern California as a premier teacher of Permaculture. His engaging, energetic, do-it-yourself teaching style has captivated hundreds of permaculture students from all over the world. Erik has taught courses in Permaculture and related subjects throughout the US, Canada, and the UK. He currently teaches with the Earth Activist Training, the Regenerative Design Institute and with The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.
Max Meyers
Kat Steele
Benjamin Fahrer
Bios of Additional Speakers and Workshops Coming Soon!
We encourage and are looking for more people to offer workshops, presentations, discussions, skill shares, and educational demos. To apply to offer a workshop click here, or email workshops@permacultureconvergence.com
Become a Sponsor of the Convergence & Display Your Organization’s logo
on Promotional Material. Sponsorship Package Opportunities Coming Soon.
Sponsors & Affiliate Organizations
Become a Sponsor of the Northern California Permaculture Convergence and advertise your organization through this event!
Become a partnering media sponsor and promote the Convergence through your organization’s website and network. The Northern California Regional Permaculture Convergence is a collaborative gathering put on in partnership, endorsement, or association with the organizations below and more. Our intention is to build a strong coalition of people, businesses, and organizations in the permaculture movement to generate greater strength, collaboration, and prosperity for our collaborative project initiatives. If your organization would like to get involved and become a partner or sponsor of this Convergence, please contact us by e-mailing: sponsors@permacultureconvergence.com or call 707-634-1461
Donations
At these times of growing ecological and social transformation, we have the opportunity now more than ever to come together and work collaboratively towards implementing regenerative solutions to the many serious problems facing the world today solutions that heal our disconnection from nature and provide abundance for ourselves, our communities, and the planet on which we reside. Many of the solutions we are seeking to the problems facing the world today can be found in Permaculture - a growing global movement for ecological and social regeneration.
The permaculture convergence is a strategic, collaborative gathering bringing together an exceptional collective of permacuture designer’s, teachers, and professionals representing some of the core organizations and people practicing and teaching permaculture in the greater San Francisco Bay area, Northern California, and beyond. Your support of this collective will greatly assist our ability to powerfully and effectively engage the world at large in the many project initiatives for ecological & social regeneration to which we are being called to rise. To donate to the convergence email: info@permacultureconvergence.com
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