I attended the Good and Green Marketing conference for the second time this last month. It is held at the stunning Chicago Cultural Center and attracts the big wig corporate marketing VP’s such as Clorox, Kimberly Clark, General Motors and many others. I like this conference because it gives me a chance to see what happens in the big company initiatives that relate to LOHAS. I have been to a lot of green conferences that bring in CSR directors but this is one of the more intriguing ones because it attracts marketing executives that can bat an eyelid and change can happen on a massive scale with a green marketing strategy. These strategies engage consumers in mass hence building up the LOHAS movement.

This year was a smaller crowd than last but the intimacy played well into having deeper and more meaningful conversations with people. The sessions were a mix of company presentations which aren’t really my thing. There were some interesting things I did learn from such presentations. Did you know that Clorox owns Kingsford – the company that makes BBQ briquettes? Did you know they have a natural briquette now? And also Glad compostable bags? I hope these are available everywhere and takeover the conventional lines. They also own Brita water filters and that one filter is the equivalent of 300 bottles of water. Who knew Clorox was in on sustainable green business?

 I also liked the talk from Richard Seireeni, author of the GORT Cloud which is a great read. This book that focuses on several LOHAS companies – Seventh Generation, Terracycle, Dr. Bronners and many others. He describes their stories and what is similar among all these companies and how they make up what he calls the GORT cloud. I guess the Ort cloud is the dark matter that makes up the universe and these companies are part of the Green Ort cloud hence the term GORT. Get it? Yea I’m as quick as a slug on these things.

Another fun speaker was John Marshall Roberts who wrote Igniting Inspiration. He talked about the importance of communication and broke down society into various types of personality types based on their psychological maturity. This is a spiral dynamics theory and something I think many people can learn from on how best to communicate with others who may not be on the same page with you. This is so true in the LOHAS space. We so often preach to the choir and are kings of our own lunchbox. Then we go out to Red States and have people look at us like we are Martians. I highly recommend this book for those wanting to overcome skepticism of others.

I also had the opportunity to present and gave people time to break up into discussion groups and talk about challenges they face as marketers. This gave them some time to share thoughts and also start some networking with others. It seemed to work out quite well as many were eager to share their group discussion points. The Good and Green Marketing event was a great event to participate in and I look forward to attending next year.