(Net Impact's annual national conference was held Oct. 27-29, in Portland. Net Impact DFW member Trent Riley attended the conference, and was kind enough to share his experience with us in this post. If you want to know more about what went on at the conference, want to read post-conference comments from Net Impact Executive Director Liz Maws and view the keynote speeches, just click here. Thank you again very much for sharing, Trent!)

My name is Trent Riley and I'm a Sustainability Analyst at Accor North America.  I recently attended the 2011 Net Impact Conference in Portland, OR and I wanted to take a moment to share my experience.  

I became a Net Impact member in 2008 while at business school.  I was immediately drawn to the concept, but unfortunately, I wasn’t an active member (they kept us fairly busy at school).  After attending the 2011 Net Impact Conference in Portland, OR, I wish I would have made more of an effort to participate in NI events during school and I definitely wish that I would have attended a conference during that time. While I feel that the conference was geared more towards business students, I think that it was still extremely beneficial for professionals. 

My conference experience began on Thursday (10/27) afternoon.  I had signed up for a local business tour at the Brewery Blocks, which is a shopping and professional district located in Portland’s Pearl District.  As you can conclude from the name, a brewery  (the Blitz-Weinhard Brewery, in fact) was located here at one time.  The tour was led by one of the lead architects for the entire Brewery Blocks Project.  Every building we visited or walked past was LEED certified.  Just a few weeks before this tour, I had passed the LEED Green Associate Exam, so it was really interesting and beneficial to hear from and talk to someone who had worked on so many LEED projects and to see how Portland has proven that sustainable neighborhood development is achievable.

The Net Impact conference is somewhat unique, in my opinion, because the attendees and speakers are so diverse (which is great because there are so many different things to learn about).  The majority of attendees were students, most of whom were there for networking reasons.  While networking was obviously a nice benefit, I wanted to attend to learn and really, to be inspired (full disclosure: I missed a few networking events to watch the World Series).  I’m a Sustainability Analyst and Green Team leader where I work.  My job is great because I get paid to work on issues that I’m extremely passionate about; but it can be extremely frustrating and lonely at times, as well.  Hence, I had a strong desire to be inspired and speak to and learn from others who understand the difficulties that I sometimes face at work.

I sought inspiration at this conference and that’s exactly what I found, particularly during the daily keynotes.  I loved the opening keynote by Sir Michael Hastings, Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity at KPMG (you can watch the keynote in its entirety here: http://vimeo.com/channels/netimpactconference#31575583).  His entire speech was based on the concept that the best way to change the world is to …… (blank).  Eventually, near the end of his speech, he filled in the blank; which was to overcome adversity.  That definitely wasn’t what I thought he was going to say, but once he said it, a light bulb went off in my head and I thought, “that’s the perfect answer”.  Like all Net Impact members, I want to do my part to make this world a better place.  But as we all know, that’s easier said than done.  Essentially, when we’re trying to change the world, we’re challenging the way that things have always been done and a lot of people don’t like change.  Also, when you present a new idea, it’s so much easier for others to ridicule rather than embrace.  It’s the safe and easy thing to do. 

So what can we do to overcome this adversity?   One thing that was discussed during one of the sessions that I attended was to play to people’s emotions to achieve buy-in.  I think that’s one of the best strategies to overcoming adversity.  However, it will be different for each situation.  I think it’s important to remain passionate and persistent.  We may spend our entire lives trying to overcome adversity and make a real and lasting difference.  However, we may never achieve the change that we seek.  Obviously, that doesn’t sound very enticing, but personally; I’d rather spend my life trying than to give up.

Throughout the remainder of the conference, I heard passionate speeches, attended thought-provoking panel discussions, and met many like-minded students and professionals.  Attending the NI Conference was very refreshing and educational. Now that I’m back in Dallas, my focus is to take Sir Hastings' advice by working to overcome adversity.