The Plenary – Rick, Al, Sheryl, and the World (live from Greenbuild)

When I found out about a week ago that I was going to Greenbuild after all — on an exhibitor registration — I didn't think Al Gore and Sheryl Crow were in the cards for me. I was prepared to accept that. Then folks at Cosentino North America came through with an invitation to their private box — and it turned out that not only did that invitation get me into a private box in the stadium, it was a pass onto the field level. I don't have attendance figures for the conference; I've heard guesses of 30,000 or more. I asked a cop directing traffic last night if he'd heard anything; "No," he said, "but it's a lot." The opening remarks by Rick Fedrizzi were the usual fare — we're fantastic, we're visionaries, we're saving the world.

A really nice touch, I thought, is that they had the leaders of green building movements from around the world also making statements. This is a global thing, it has to be. Video is going to be available at the Greenbuild website (and presumably at greenbuild365.org as well). Since none of it was earth-shattering, I'm not going to get into who said what; check it out in a few days at one or the other of those websites. It was about as reported in the Arizona Republic. I watched the opening statements and the plenary from Cosentino's box, up on the third tier and a little behind the stage. The audio in the stadium back there was unintelligible, so everyone trouped into the box to watch it on closed-circuit TV. After the plenary, I went down to field level; ran into some people I work with, some people I don't. The thing I like best about Greenbuild is the opportunity to see people that I never see anywhere else — once a year, at Greenbuild. One thing stressed in the opening remarks is that this stuff we're doing is about people, and I can get behind that completely. Sheryl Crow put on a fine show.