COGreen Speaker Series: The Art of Community Engagement With Azuraye Wycoff

We'll be back at MMMHQ/FI Collective with a speaker in March, but for February's event, I wanted to help my friend Azuraye Wycoff with a developing situation involving her land. Yellow Barn is one of my favorite places on earth, and I'm excited to share it with everyone in the group.

What’s New:

This is part of the clean energy/sustainability speaker series I've been doing.

Azuraye will share how she's managed to get more than 1,200 local people to join her effort to stop Boulder County from spraying harmful pesticides near her family’s farm, and how anyone who wants to can get involved.

TL;DR:

• This will be a networking event with a live interview in the middle
• It will be centered around the theme of community engagement
• It will be on Tuesday, February 17th, from 6:00–8:30 PM at Yellow Barn Farm, located at 9417 N Foothills Hwy, Longmont, CO 80503

All event details:

Clean energy companies struggle with community engagement. Over and over again, we hear of NIMBYism (Not In My BackYard) halting clean energy projects.

Since I’ve heard story after story of solar projects getting stopped in this way, I wanted to make my next event all about how to engage communities the right way.

I landed an awesome speaker.

Why Azuraye is the Right Speaker:

Late last year, Azuraye found out that Boulder County was planning to aerial spray the pesticide Indaziflam in the hills above her family’s farm. This chemical would kill all seeds and sterilize the soil for years.

Azuraye has mobilized more than 1200 people against this effort, and though this is an ongoing battle, the amount of support she’s managed to get behind it is staggering.

I’m going to be interviewing Azuraye about community engagement live on stage and publishing the interview on my podcast, This Week In Solar.

If you're Colorado-based and you work in (or just like) clean energy, this one's for you!

When:

Tuesday, February 17th, from 6:00–8:30 PM

Where:

Yellow Barn Farm at 9417 N Foothills Hwy, Longmont, CO 80503

What:

A chance for anyone interested in sustainability or working in climate to learn the art of community engagement from someone who’s currently crushing it.

Who Should Come:

Anyone interested in sustainability, including solar or wind industry people, Greentech founders, backyard DIY solar nerds, sustainable agriculture enthusiasts, clean‑energy policy advocates, and anyone else curious about making an impact.

Schedule:

• 6:00 - 6:30: Networking and meeting cool people.
• 6:30 - 7:15: Aaron interviews Azuraye on stage, with a Q&A afterwards
• 7:15 - 8:30: More networking and meeting of cool people.

Important Note:

We’ll have a limited amount of beer and wine on hand, but this is a farm, not a bar. Please bring a snack or drink to share.

P.S.

Any questions? Email aaronjnichols77@gmail.com