Mindzle

Over Valentines weekend we had the “Everything Green” expo at the Oregon Convention Center.

If knowledge is power than a green expo has Megawatts of potential. Very few times in your life do all the right conditions and critical mass come together to spark a massive change. I was at the begining of the dot com’s and fell when it crashed. I’ve also grown through the web 2.0 “thing” and note that it is little more than repackaging of the original dot com’s with realistic expectations. In the same manner, the green movement in the USA has been building from the ashes of the last.

The ideas of the green movement are nothing new, going back to Ansel Adams and others in the late 19th century who didn’t want to see the end of open spaces. It has taken generations working towards a better tomorrow and the looming threat of Global Warming, to gain traction with the US general public.

Much like the dot com bubble burst changed the expectations of the web, and taught a new round of idealogues a better way to move forward. This new web 2.0 movement could not come about without the failings of the dot coms, which weren’t even possible until the break-up of AT&T. Making the internet a tool of more than university scientists and the military. The new green movement feels much like the current web 2.0 and not like the dot coms of the early 1990′s.  I see this as a movement from the ideals down, that is not built on hype and over enflated expectations, but one built on concious decisions of right and wrong, of quality over vollume and healthy versus toxic.

Living in what many consider to be the epicenter of the movement gives you insights and opportunities that cannot be underestimated. Being here, I was able to attend the Portland, “Everything Green Expo”. I went in with, a very broad knowledge, and expectations of seeing nothing new. What I found was renewed energy, new ideas and many exciting new products. By the time I left I had made contact with manufacturers, entreprenuers, idealogues and green merchants galore. All of them excited by the future and the hope that a new day brings. But all of them realistic in their expectations and most built on solid fundamentals. I will be talking about these in the next part of this series.