FIBA Workshop

Nov. 14, 8:00 a.m.-Noon at NACET.  Serious Resources: Amp Up Your Biz.  Critical help is here for local businesses.  National resource Jeff Milchen from AMIBA will be talking with Northern Arizonans about empowering the business community. Milchen has spent 15 years helping communities build vital local economies and enhancing economic opportunity through supporting local independent businesses. Milchen co-founded the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), which helps communities to launch and successfully operate Independent Business Alliances. These Alliances work to strengthen and sustain community-based businesses while promoting citizen empowerment over community development. Milchen pioneered this organizing model, directing the Boulder IBA in CO, starting in 1998. Since 2001, AMIBA has helped more than 80 of these Alliances form in a diverse range of communities across the U.S. and Canada. AMIBA already has inspired similar organizations and influenced countless others in the growing Localization Movement. Milchen’s prior work includes successfully operating his own start-up businesses in Vermont and serving as the director of Reclaim Democracy! His commentaries and articles have appeared in dozens of publications including The Chicago Tribune, Business Week, The Ecologist, Adbusters, and Inc. Magazine. Milchen is an avid outdoorsman and spends much of his free time in the mountains surrounding Bozeman, MT. This event is made possible in part by American Express’s OPEN sponsorship.www.flagstaffiba.com