The second annual VerdeXchange Arizona conference will bring together business and community leaders on May 1 and 2 to the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel to discuss creating a better and more sustainable life in Arizona.
The conference will feature 100 speakers from around the state including Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, Kimber Lanning of Local First Arizona and representatives from city departments and businesses from around Arizona.
Doug Bruhnke, founder of VerdeXchange Arizona, brought the conference to Arizona after visiting its parent conference in Los Angeles.
“I was very impressed with the way it talked about economic development for the region,” Bruhnke said. “The way it brought business and government together talking about growth of business, growth of the economy, was so impressive that I wanted to bring it to Arizona.”
The two days will consist of 19 moderated sessions featuring speakers with knowledge in areas like health care, education, international trade, sustainability, energy, transportation, global engagement and urban planning.
The session topics of VerdeXchange Arizona are different from their California counterparts, and the difference is intentional, according to Bruhnke.
“Arizona is a little bit different from California, as we all know,” Bruhnke said. “These are really critical issues, we think. They need to be discussed and they need to be understood.”
According to Bruhnke, the focus in Arizona should be on sustainability by recognizing the need for water, surface transportation, technology growth, education growth and, ultimately, economic growth.
“We’re thinking about having Phoenix be great, or Tucson great,” Bruhnke said. “I’m not sure who’s thinking about that. Who’s really dreaming about a great city?”
Local First Arizona, a statewide nonprofit organization, will be represented by Lanning, the founder and executive director. The organization does work throughout Arizona to spread awareness about the importance of supporting local businesses. Lanning is an active member of the downtown Phoenix community, having also founded the gallery Modified Arts in 1999.
“We find that when you do make that shift to local businesses, up to four times more dollars stay in the local community and local economy,” said Erica Pederson, the communications director at Local First Arizona. “That creates an overall more vibrant community for community members in the sustainable local economy.”
Lanning will be at the conference to offer a perspective from the local business community and represent the organization’s 2,400 local business members, Pederson said.
That local perspective stands in contrast to the global issues also on the agenda. International economic development and global engagement are key topics to highlight as well, Bruhnke said.
“Local-international balance needs to be improved,” Bruhnke said. “We need to buy more locally but we need to grow the international perspective. It’s a yin and a yang. They’re both important.”
From global, to local, to right in downtown Phoenix, VerdeXchange will address issues that affect several communities. Dan Klocke, the vice president of economic development at Downtown Phoenix Partnership, said that downtown’s education and health care sectors are vital to its economy.
“Those two components are incredibly important for what’s going on downtown with the U of A medical school, the ASU campus and the ASU nursing school as well,” Klocke said. “To continue to build on those parts of the economy is critical for downtown and it’s great to see the attention being put to that.”
In addition to education and health care, Bruhnke said that cities need money, good construction architects and strategic urban planning.
“Great cities have all of these elements,” Bruhnke said. “We’re trying to get the thought and the conversation in all of these areas around being a great city someday.”
The conference will serve as an opportunity for businesses and organizations to network, including Local First Arizona.
“At Local First Arizona we’re always looking for unique partnerships,” Pederson said. “From the list of speakers who will be at this conference, we imagine that there will be a great amount of opportunity to connect with leaders in the state that we haven’t been able to connect with before. We’re really looking forward to this opportunity to attend.”
Bruhnke, who is originally from New York, said Arizona is a unique environment to launch a project like VerdeXchange.
“In New York or L.A., to do something like this would be very, very hard,” Bruhnke said. “In Arizona, it’s easier to … get people together to collaborate. There’s a lot of positives about Arizona. We are making a lot of progress. VerdeXchange is really only intended to try to help accelerate the process that we’re, I think, already going through.”
