1st Innovators Symposium Proceedings
January 20-22, 2010
Stanford University

The Symposium proceedings will be listed in order of the Symposium Agenda. Please click the hyperlinks below to see the power point presentations from the workshops and plenaries. The Center for Responsible Travel is also compiling a video recording of the sessions for purchase along with the Symposium Proceedings in a DVD format. Please contact Kehan DeSousa at kdesousa@responsibletravel.org and 202 347. 9203 ext 414 to purchase the DVD of proceedings.

Thursday, January 21:

9:00 – 10:30: Plenary: Innovative Business in a Time of Crisis

• Dr. William Barnett, Director, Center for Global Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business, “Pragmatism or Greenwashing? Ideological Competition in Coastal Tourism”
• David Butterfield, President of the Trust for Sustainable Development,  Vancouver, Canada and Scottsdale, Arizona; former Chairman, Loreto Bay Company, and Chairman of Hummingbird Energy LLC  “Practical Lessons from the Loreto Bay Company and Other  Experiments with Sustainability”

10:45 – 12:15: Plenary: Innovative Green Finance

• Dr. William Barnett, Director, Center for Global Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business (Moderator)
• Jorge de Vicente, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), “Sustainability Scorecard: A Tool for Tourism Lending”
• Dan Berrien, Canopy Development and CREST consultant, SIFT (Sustainable Investment and Finance in Tourism) Network
• Lisa Galley, Galley Eco Capital "Maximizing Values from your Sustainability Strategies"
• Jesse Thompson, Business Development Director, Strategic Initiatives, Johnson Controls

12:30 – 2:30: Luncheon Plenary: A Conversation with Chris Blackwell, Founder and Owner, Island Records and Outpost Resorts, Jamaica

• Led by Brook Wilkinson, freelance travel writer and former associate consumer news editor at Conde Nast Traveler magazine

2:45 – 4:15: 2 concurrent workshops

Workshop 1: Architecture: Sustainable Sighting, Design and Construction

• Richard Franko, architect and Principal, Mithun, Seattle, (Moderator)
• Antonio Pares, Mithun, San Francisco
• David Sklar, Chief Architect and CEO, Star Island Resort, The Bahamas
• Kevin Parkhurst, Cheif Associate/Design Coordinator, Eric Lloyd Wright & Associates

Workshop 2: Responsible Coastal and Marine Recreation

• Bill Eichbaum, Vice President, Oceans Program, WWF, Moderator
• Dean LaTourrette, Executive Director, Save the Waves, “Surfing and Sustainable Coastal Development”
• Jess Ponting, Professor of Sustainable Tourism, San Diego State University, “Coastal and Marine Recration: 3 Examples of Innovative”
• Terry Gibson, Sportfishing writer and researcher, "Fish on!: Examples of sportfishing tourism businesses that improve local environmental and economic conditions"

4:30 – 6:00: 2 concurrent workshops

Workshop 3: Community Engagement

• Mark Spalding, President, Ocean Foundation, Moderator
• David Leventhal, Principal, Playa Viva, Mexico
• Eduardo Villafranca, Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) and former CEO, Grupo Punta Islita, Costa Rica, "Corporate Social Responsibility: the Instrument for sustainability"
• Manuel Ardon, Operations Senior Director, Peninsula Papagayo/Four Seasons, Costa Rica, "Peninsula Papagayo, in search of a model for a large scale sustainable residential and tourist resort"
• Deborah Szekely, Co-founder, Rancho La Puerta, Tecate, Mexico and founder of Golden Door, Escondido, CA.

Workshop 4: Good Practices through Certification

• Martha Honey, Co-founder, and Director of CREST Washington, DC office, Moderator
• Ronald Sanabria, Vice President of Sustainable Tourism, Rainforest Alliance, "Launching the New Tourism Sustainability Council"
• Linda Chipperfield, Vice President of Marketing & Outreach, Green Seal
• Guido Bauer, CEO, Green Globe

7:00 -- 9:00: Dinner Plenary: Impacts of Coastal and Marine Tourism on Ocean Ecosystems

• Presenter and Moderator: Margaret (“Meg”) Caldwell, Executive Director, Center for Ocean Solutions and Sr. Lecturer in Law, Stanford University and former Chair, California Coastal Commission, remarks on “Challenges for Coastal Tourism in California”
• Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sylvia Earle, Ocean Explorer, Founder, CEO, Deep Search Foundation

Friday, January 22:

9:00 – 10:30: Plenary Session: Climate Change and Coastal Tourism Development

• Dr. William H. Durham, CREST Co-Director and Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University
• Dr. Walter Vergara, Climate Change expert and Lead Engineer, Latin America Environment Department, World Bank, “Innovative Coastal and Marine Responses to Climate Change”
• Dr. Murray Simpson, Co-Director Caribsave Partnership and Sr. Research Associate, University of Oxford, “Caribsave Network on Climate Change”
• Lisa Curran, Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Roger and Cynthia Lang Professor in Environmental Anthropology

10:45 – 12:15: 2 concurrent workshops

Workshop 5:  Consumer Demand for Alternative Models of Coastal Tourism

• Dr. Martha Honey, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), Washington, DC
• Richard Kiy, President, International Community Foundation, “U.S. Retirement Trends in Mexican Coastal Communities”
• Dr. Pat Tierney, Chair, Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism, San Francisco State University, "Consumer Trends for Green Practices and Alternative Coastal Development"
• Jonathan Tourtellot, Center for Sustainable Destinations, National Geographic Society and Geotourism Editor, National Geographic Traveler, "Geotourism Consumer Surveys and Destination Surveys"

Workshop 6: Innovative Models

• Brook Wilkinson, Freelance travel writer, Moderator
• Roger Lang, former CEO, Sun Ranch Group and Preservation Capital, Montana and Chair, CREST Board of Directors, "Towards Biology-based Land Development"
• David Sklar, Cheif Architect and CEO, Star Island Resort, The Bahamas
• Alphy Johnson, Cheif Operating Officer, Candela Hotels, Seattle

12:30 – 2:30: Lunch & Plenary Session: Creating Sustainable Destinations

• Presenter and Moderator: Jonathan Tourtellot, Center for Sustainable Destinations, National Geographic Society and Geotourism Editor, National Geographic Traveler, Why Destination Management is Important, "Sustainability on the Edge"
• Keynote Speaker: Dr. David Orr, Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College, "Creating a Greener Destination in a Hotter Time"

2:45 – 4:15:  Plenary: Lessons Ecotourism Holds for Large Coastal Resorts
A conversation between big and small coastal properties

• Moderator: Richard Franko, Principal, Mithun, Seattle, Washington
• Big coastal/island resorts:
  • Garrick Isert, Director, Strategy - The Americas, InterContinental Hotels Group
• Eileen Donnelly, Group Sustainability Manager, Virgin Group

• Small coastal resorts:
  • Dana Krauskopf, owner, Hamanasi Adventure & Dive Resort, Belize
  • Ronald Sanabria, Vice President of Sustainable Tourism, Rainforest Alliace, Costa Rica

4:30 – 5:30: Closing Plenary: Challenges of Coastal Tourism in Mexico
Panel discussion on challenges and innovations in Mexico.

• Martin Goebel, Executive Director, Sustainable Northwest, Portland, Oregan (Moderator)
• Vicente Ferreyra, Sustainable Tourism Coordinator,  WWF, Mexico
• Deborah Szekely, Co-founder of Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico and Founder of Golden Door, Escondido, CA
• Sandra Guido, Executive Director, CONSELVA, A.C., Mexico
• Bry Sarte, Principal, Sherwood Design Engineers
• Alejandro Robles, Executive Director, NOS Noroeste Sustentable A.C.