Polynerd

I'll be the first to admit it, I was surprised at the amount of people who showed up for the Local Money Summit on Jan. 31, 2012 in a Edmonton room at the Stanley Milner Library in downtown Edmonton.

I know 70 some people RSVPed on Facebook but you never think that 70 some people are going to show up (to be conservative, it was probably around 60 people). Thanks to everyone we were able to raise a not insignificant amount of money for two of my favourite local non-profit organizations, E-SAGE (Edmontonians Supporting a Green Economy) and OFRE (Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton). Bullfrog Power even heard about the event and powered it with 100% green electricity.

The presenters blew me away as well.

Dan Ohler and Jeff Senger talked about how a local investment co-op helped save a small, dying rural community in Alberta. You can read this report on the Sangudo Opportunity Development Co-operative (Warning: PDF) if you're interested in the details. Essentialy a group of farmers got together, threw their money in a pot and identified an opportunity with a legacy business without a succesion plan. The local abbatoir and meat packing plant is an important piece of local economic infrastructure as many in the area raised cows and pigs for meat. Two entrepreneurs were able to tap into this money and breathe new life into this business and the farmers who kicked in the money? They ended up seeing a 13 per cent return on their investment last year.

When was the last time you heard of anyone getting 13 per cent.

Nadine Riopel, The Savvy Do-Gooder, talked about the importance of local versus international giving. Most of us have this very human desire to make the world around us a better place and Nadine gave us some of the tools needed to make sure that when scratch this itch, it's done properly. You can follow her on Twitter at the handle @philanthusiast.

The presentation by Mark Anielski was wide ranging, at one point going back all the way to King William of Orange but The Economics of Happiness author dropped some very interesting ideas. The amount of money that Edmontonians invest every year is staggering and devoting even a tiny fraction to local investable products could have a large effect on the economy. He proposed a local GIC type of investment product through the Edmonton Community Foundation and the possibilities of credit unions, becoming each others bankers and even an interest-free bank in Sweden.

Jessie Radies was fresh off a BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) fellows meeting in Newark, New Jersey and dropped some serious knowledge on the interconnected web of systems that make up a vibrant, unique and rich local ecomony. Really making the point that if we want to close our hand around the money that leaves our community it takes more than just shopping local, it takes a holistic view. One that takes manufacturing, design and banking into account as well as considers how they all work together. The founder of Live Local dropped a clear eyed, far-reaching vision of the local economy.

We also had two lightning talk speakers. Andreas Grunenberg of Greens, Eggs and Ham talked about the still nascent but awesome Slow Money Alberta initiative which he is spearheading. If you haven't already you should go like their page on Facebook. If you're curious about Slow Money you should check out their website.

We also had Glenn Johnson of EcoDomes Canada talk about his idea for a P4. A public/private/people partnership when it comes to public infrastructure like hockey rinks and recreation centres. An idea that might make a lot of sense if combined with the local development co-op idea.

We had some amazing speakers and from a purely selfish point of view I was glad I threw the event. I learned so much and made some important connections.

As a Facebook friend noted in a conversation after the fact it was amazing how the ideas talked about were similar to permaculture principles. Concepts like keeping money circulating in the system (analogous to letting water soak into swales), stacking functions on top of each other, close observation and starting right where you are were brought up by different presenters.

The importance of the credit union was brought up a bunch of times as well and I'd like to take this time to remind you that I'm running to be a director of Servus. If you're a member drop a line in the comments, I'd love to have a chat and I'd love for you to vote for me in the upcoming elections.

The stickiest wicket is always what comes next. I'd encourage you to contact our speakers if anything I talked about sounds like something you want to learn more about or enact within your community. I've been talking with Mark Anielski and we're getting a working group together to examine the idea of a local GIC with the Edmonton Community Foundation.

If you were there or have any ideas on where to go from here, please leave them in the comments.

Again, thank you to the speakers, to the attendees and to you for reading this all the way to the end.

Photo courtesy of vistamommy from Flickr