The Northland Bioneers held its second annual conference in the Twin Cities on November 2-4, 2007 at the UAW Ford Training Center on the Mississippi River.

A group is forming to explore hosting the Bioneers event a third time in the Twin Cities, tentatively scheduled for the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 21-23, 2008. If you are interested in becoming involved in the effort to host this year's conference, please contact Vonda Vaden by email or call 612.247.1448.

The Northland Bioneers held its first three day local conference on October 20-22, 2006. It brought the experience of this annual tradition to the people of the Twin Cities.

Presented at the Minneapolis Community Technical College, the conference included plenary sessions beamed in by satellite from the main Bioneers conference, which was held at the same time in San Rafael, California.

Minneapolis joined 17 other satellite sites throughout the country, from Alaska to Massachusetts, for this historic conference. To find the 2007 Beaming Bioneers Conference sites, click here.

Founded in 1989, the Bioneers conference is an opportunity for nationally reknowned speakers to present an annual report card on the state of the environment. These experts have focused on how we can solve the problems created by humankind's heavy footprint on the earth's ecosystem.

The first year's speakers at the plenary sessions includeded fifteen nationally known figures, such as: Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now;" Paul Stamets, mycologist extraordinaire; Tom Linzey, co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and "Democracy Schools;" and Paul Hawken, pioneer of socially responsible business, author, and activist.

The lectures presented by these speakers were beamed in from San Rafael and were supplemented by workshops and entertainment held locally at each satellite location, including Minneapolis.

The purpose of the Bioneers is to educate, empower and inspire people to work together for the purpose of restoring balance to our ecology and to improve our relationship with the earth and with each other. Topics have included bioremediation, biomimicry, and the many ways that Mother Nature maintains balance and restores herself. Paricipants were inspired to network and to learn how to use these same principles to restore balance in our own lives and the life of the planet once again.

Oram has attended and helped coordinate past Bioneers satellite conferences and participated the past two years in the Northland Bioneers effort in the Twin Cities. He had an Exhibitor's Booth at the event in 2006 and was the Facilities Co-coordinator for the event in 2007.

DVD copies of lectures presented at the plenary sessions in previous years in San Rafael are available on the Bioneers' website.