Here is a list of Sacred Valley Dialogues Speakers and Co-Creators; past, present and future
From the Conference in October 2014:
Polly Higgins, environmental lawyer and author. Polly Higgins is a legal expert on Ecocide law and author of award-winning Eradicating Ecocide and Earth is our Business. She speaks about Ecocide law all over the world.
About Polly by Polly: I am someone who cares deeply about the Earth. I’m also a lawyer who loves the Earth. It’s not often lawyers talk about love – and it can feel strange to do so. However, I believe love and law can be brought together and when the two meet, the potential to create new laws that put people and planet first is born. I’m rethinking law; my vision is a world that works from one simple overriding principle: ‘first do no harm.’ That is a world where people are thriving in harmony with nature. I believe in well-being for all beings.
Polly talks about Energy resources and environmental legislation; Ecocide law.
Jem Bendell is a Professor of Sustainability Leadership and Founding Director of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) at the University of Cumbria in the United Kingdom, which runs the world’s largest specialist sustainability MBA programme. Bendell is a strategist and educator on social and organizational change, with some 20 years of experience in responsible business development, sustainable development, transformative philanthropy and sustainable currencies. With over 100 publications, including UN reports and four books, he is an award-winning authority on innovation for sustainable development and has helped create a number of leading multistakeholder alliances. Bendell was co author of the World Economic Forum’s report on the Sharing Economy and co-organised the UN’s first conference on community currencies. Bendell is module leader for a Masters-level course on “sustainable exchange,” which he defines as forms of renting and sharing with or with our money, in ways that enhance quality of life while reducing ecological footprints. Bendell is Vice President of BoardaBoat.com, a boat-sharing system.
Jem talks about Local & Global Finance Systems:“The world of finance is changing. Challenged by the public opinion, government regulation and new online start-ups, it’s time for the Financial Sector to reinvent itself.”
Elisabet Sahtouris PhD (www.sahtouris.com ) is an internationally known evolution biologist and futurist, US and Greek citizen living in Spain. With a post-doctoral degree at the American Museum of Natural History, she taught at MIT and the University of Massachusetts, contributed to the NOVA-Horizon TV series. She is a fellow of the World Business Academy and holds its Chair in Living Economies. Dr. Sahtouris convened international symposia on the Foundations of Science in Hokkaido and Kuala Lumpur; her venues include the World Bank, UN, Boeing, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, South African Rand Bank, World Parliament of Religions, Tokyo Int´l Forum, Xynteo Foundation, governments of the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, Sao Paulo business schools, State of the World Forums, Bahrain banking conference, Sri Lanka Design. Author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution, A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us; and Biology Revisioned with Willis Harman.
Elisabet will talk about our four-billion year evolutionary trajectory and the relevance of current crises to the evolutionary maturation of humanity as a species. She will help us explore how to move out of our fiercely competitive economies to form social Ecosophies (Wise Societies) with healthy Living Economies that can sustain us in Earth’s transition to a hotter climate. She will also be happy to dialogue with us on the expanding scientific understanding of our Living Cosmos, our deep Oneness with each other and with All Life, our existence as spirit having human experience.
Special Guests:
Matthew Slater is a currency engineer who designs software for community currency accounting. Working for free and living on hospitality, Slater has spent years exploring the history and function of complementary currencies, time banks, mutual credit and other systems, and the meaning of “money” itself. Today we engage in a wide-ranging conversation exploring mutual credit systems, cryptocurrencies, credit money vs. commodity money, and the communities at the root of the monetary system.
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Stephanie Rearick is founder and Co-Director of the Dane County TimeBank (DCTB) – a 2500+-member timebank in Madison, Wisconsin, devoted to building a just and inclusive economy – and Project Coordinator of Time For the World, the research and development arm of DCTB. In addition to her work in timebanking and promoting grassroots-up economic and community regeneration, Rearick is co-owner of Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse. Rearick worked for Greenpeace for six years of young adulthood, helped launch Madison Hours local currency in 1995 and served for several years on the steering committee of independent local political party Progressive Dane. Rearick also works as a musician.
Sybille Saint Girons teaches, trains and facilitates cooperation through collective intelligence, alternative currencies ad indicators, and governance. She calls ontogoy (being + leading) her personal synthesis of methods and practices from very diverse cultures and fields. She co-founded Valeureux NGO in 2009 and devotes herself on actualizing wealth in communities. Her years of formal experience in IT are now bearing fruit in a software project, Wezer, which will support organisations to work together more effectively.
For future conferences:
Anders Wijkman – Author and opinion builder, former assistant secretary general of the UN, President of the Club of Rome, Former member of the European Parliament. Anders has been a member of the Swedish parliament, secretary general of the Swedish Red Cross, and president of the International Red Cross Disaster Relief Commission. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is also a councillor for the World Future Council. Anders’ most recent book is “Bankrupting Nature” written together with Johan Rockström (Director, Stockholm Resilience Center).
John Thackara is a writer, philosopher and event producer. For three decades, he has traveled the world looking for live examples of what a sustainable future can be like. He writes about these stories online, and in books; he uses them in talks and workshops for cities, universities, and business; and , as director of Doors Of Perception, he organizes social harvest festivals in which project leaders share experiences with each other. John is the author of a widely-read column at designobserver.com, and of the best-selling book In the Bubble: Designing In A Complex World. He is a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art in London, and a Fellow of The Young Foundation, the UK’s social enterprise incubator. He is a visiting professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the Ambedkar University Delhi, in India. John is a member of the Design Commission of the UK Parliament. John, who is English, lives in southern France. W: doorsofperception.com T: @johnthackara
Guillem Ferrer was a designer at Camper Shoes for 14 years gaining international success for his work. One day he stopped, wanting to realize the meaning of a phrase he learned from Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see in the world”, thus becoming an activist who promotes the care of the earth. Guillem went to the mountains of Mallorca. He bought a farm in Manacor de la Vall and built a house with the criteria of green building, integrating and being respectful of the environment, using non-polluting and local materials, which work with the sun. Guillem wants to be self-sufficient, making his own bread and drinking rain water. As a social activist Guillem belongs to Poc-a-Poc group, promotes SlowFood-Illes Baleares projects and has collected his ideas in the Manifesto of Design in advocating for a shift in consciousness with trees as a symbol because “the tree is a great example, all it does is feed the earth. We should imitate“.
Alberto Fraile is a journalist and strategy and communication consultant. Bachelor of Information Sciences (Universidad Complutense), meditation instructor (Yoga School So Hum), group facilitator (Jane Hera, Findhorn Ecovillage) and Namaste magazine founder and contributor to several media outlets. Alberto is also author of “Voces Para un Nuevo Mundo” (Voices for a New World).
Alberto Fraile es periodista y consultor en estrategia y comunicación. Licenciado en Ciencias de la Información (Universidad Complutense), instructor de meditación (Escuela de Yoga So Hum), facilitador de grupos (Jane Hera. Ecoaldea de Findhorn), y fundador de la revista Namaste y colaborador de varios medios de comunicación. Alberto es tambien autor del libro “Voces Para un Nuevo Mundo”.