Healthy Parks, Healthy People conference. (2011)

I love conferences. I love them when they’re full of moving lights and impossible ideas, and I love them when most of the attendants are barefoot and eating quinoa. The “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” conference was neither of these things. It was full of very smart folks very interested in making change– who were also in an excellent position to do so. Which means I was in a dizzied cloud of endorphins for most of it. Or maybe it was the free coffee (which came in silicone-and-ceramic-fake-paper-coffee cups! Yeah, those things! I was excited, too).

These folks did not let me hide in the blogger background. I was forced into breakout groups and brainstorming sessions, coaxed into collaboration with big players in public space and health. I’ll be posting about the experience on sustainablepractice.org and maybe inhabitat.com, but for now, let me just say how refreshing it is to watch government officials, corporate VPs, and non-profit directors draw mind-maps and talk about healthy communities. One director even took her shoes off.