Earth Day has come and gone, but at Vantage we definitely made the most of the special day. In fact, we started celebrating a week early and how else, but with a party! Actually, 2 parties in 2 cities. On Thursday, April 16 we brought together about 200 business, government and media folks for the Vantage Communications Bi-coastal Earth Day event. Offices in both San Francisco and Orlando celebrated Earth Day with networking, food and giveaways – with all proceeds benefiting the United States Green Building Council.

In San Francisco, at a special one night opening of the Autodesk Gallery, Vantage gathered with influential green individuals to network and share insights. The evening also featured a panel with speakers from the USGBC-NCC, San Francisco’s Green Building, Forbes Magazine, Autodesk, and Serious Materials who discussed “Sustainable Innovation in a Recession.” In case you missed the live streaming of the event, you can watch it here:

Vantage Communications Earth Day Panel

The Orlando green community gathered at the local Taste Restaurant, where a good time was had by all with drinks, savory appetizers and giveaways from local businesses and green companies. An evening of networking included guests from the local USGBC, Green Cities and CoLab Orlando.

For all who joined us, we hope the evening was as fun and meaningful for you as it was for us in making it happen. You also can see photos from the evening here.

The first U.S. Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, as a day to inspire awareness and appreciation for our Earth. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, and today, 39 years later, I think we can all agree that Senator Nelson would be proud of what Earth Day has become.

There are some that scoff at the idea, claiming Americans stop wasting for one day a year, and then return to our consumer-driven lives. But I think our country has finally taken notice of the destruction we’ve caused, and this Earth Day, things are different. In the past, Earth Day has come and there was almost no mention – this year, it’s all over my Twitter feed, I’m reading about things I can buy and get tax credits for and I’m thinking about what food to buy before I just throw it in my basket

So join in the festivities today, and every day. And let me be one of many people who wishes you “Happy Earth Day” today. 
 

Update: Thanks to everyone who participated and viewed our speaker panel discussing “Sustainable Innovation in a Recession” via our Live Stream and at our San Francisco Earth Day event on April 16, 2009 .  We will be posting videos of the panel discussion here on Vantage Points. So please bookmark and check back.

More details can be found here: Celebrating Earth Day – Vantage Style

Live streaming video by Ustream

Did you know that if you drink one beer after work, then throw it in the recycling bin – that one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch television for three hours? It is amazing how much of a difference we can make together if each person began cleaning up their environmental habits. With Earth Day just around the corner, the Vantage Team is celebrating the changes we’ve made to help Mother Earth, and hosting bi-coastal networking events tomorrow to do so.

Both the San Francisco event – sponsored by Autodesk – and the Orlando event will feature giveaways and collect voluntary donations to benefit the Northern California and Central Florida chapters of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), respectively.

The San Francisco event will also feature a speaker panel discussing “Sustainable Innovation in a Recession,” with panelists from the USGBC-NCC, San Francisco’s Green Building Program, Forbes Magazine, Autodesk, and Serious Materials.In case you can’t make it, the panel will be streamed live right here on this blog starting at approximately7:00 pm Pacific/10:00 pm Eastern – so check back! Please tell your friends and use the buttons below to share and tweet.

So whether you’re on the East Coast or West Coast, we hope you can join us! For full details, or to RSVP, check out the following links –

San Francisco

http://earthdaysanfrancisco.eventbrite.com/

Orlando

http://earthdayorlando.eventbrite.com/