Speaker: Mark Cabaj  
 Location: via conference call
 Date: Thursday, June 13th, 2013 - 11:55am -  1:00 pm, ET  
 Details: Join in this exciting free tele-learning with Mark Cabaj as he shares how to plan and evaluate policy change.
 
Mark Cabaj is a leading thinker on developmental evaluation and policy change.  He is a Tamarack Associate and regular facilitator of Evaluating Community Impact and the Communities Collaborating Institute. In addition to his work as the chief of Here To There Consulting, Mark is a dynamic speaker and community leader.  This will be a wonderful opportunity to learn more about planning and evaluating policy change.
There will be an opportunity for questions towards the end of the interview.  Do register for this learning opportunity, even if you cannot attend you will receive a follow up email with a link to the full interview.

Speakers: Adam Kahane and Paul Born  
 Location: via conference call
 Date: Thursday, May 30th, 2013 - 11:55am -  1:00 pm, ET 

Join Adam Kahane, key thought-leader at Tamarack's 2013 CCI: Accelerating Impact for a dialogue about how his experiences engaging leaders with diverse - and at times conflicting - perspectives to work together effectively on complex social challenges. Learn how and why processes like Change Labs and Transformative Scenario Planning are proving to be effective in creating accelerated impact on social change efforts that span a wide variety of issue areas and scales.

Despite the increasing growth and attention to farmers markets, CSAs, local food box programmes, etc., alternative food initiatives geared towards local production and consumption, many of which emerge from the social economy, remain minor players when contrasted with the conventional food system. A key challenge is how to scale-up alternative food initiatives so that they have a greater transformational impact in the larger agri-food system and also serve as a catalyst for broader societal change towards a sustainable and strong social economy.

The case studies examined in this webinar highlight the opportunities and challenges in scaling-up food relocalization without sacrificing commitment to social, economic and environmental values and goals. We suggest the need to focus attention equally on building physical infrastructure and capacity (production, storage, distribution, retail) whilst also investing in social infrastructure and capacity (coalition-building, partnerships, clustering) required for a robust and resilient local food movement. 

We hope to initiate a discussion about the challenges and tensions between pragmatic and transformational approaches to issues of food security, food sovereignty, food justice and sustainability.

Discussion highlights will include:

• How to scale-up alternative food initiatives so that they have a greater transformational impact in the larger agri-food system
• How can alternative food systems serve as a catalyst for broader societal change towards a sustainable and strong economy?
• Challenges and tensions between pragmatic and transformational approaches to issues of food security, food sovereignty, food justice and sustainability

Register Now and you will receive information about joinind the presentation once you register!

Where: this is an online envent You can check when this webinar is offered in your time-zone here

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This year’s ACE Institute will feature speakers discussing innovation in cooperative research, education and development from not just North America, but Latin America as well.  You can find a preliminary agenda listing speakers and topics here. Click on “REGISTER NOW!” to register for the Institute.

The 2013 ACE Institute will be held at the Verdanza Hotel in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. Hotel reservations will need to made separate from Institute registration.  You can make hotel reservations here.  Make sure you enter 'ACE' in the promotion ‘Group Code’ to receive the $115 ACE discounted room rate.

Who innovative cooperative researchers, educators and developers?  Nominate these influential ACE members for an ACE award!  You can find award categories and a nomination form here.

To register, click here.