National Small Business Week. May 20-26, 2012

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. National Small Business Week is here! 28 Million Businesses Strong & Growing A Special Message from SBA Administrator Karen Mills It’s that time of year again! Today, SBA joins the entire Obama Administration in wishing a very happy National Small Business Week to the more than 28 million American small businesses, their employees and the people they serve! National Small Business Week is a public-private partnership to honor small businesses from communities across America. Small businesses all over the country continue to thrive, driving the national recovery and creating an American economy built to last. Building on that momentum, President Obama and I visited Taylor Gourmet, a local small business in Washington, to discuss his “to do” list for Congress to create jobs and help restore middle class security last week and kick-off National Small Business Week. > Read more Today's webcast begins at 3 p.m. EDT How Small Businesses Can Win Big with Large Companies > Click here to watch the live stream beginning at 3pm EDT Are you a small business with a great product, but have no idea how to get it noticed by a large company? Have you ever wondered how to get your merchandise on the shelves of a major retailer? How Small Businesses can get in Big with Large Companies will share the secrets to small business success with big business partners. With a panel comprised of a major retailer, a small business product developer, and a non-profit small business mentoring organization, the session will offer solutions from all sides of the equation that add up to achievement. Linda Boykin, Vice President of Merchandising for Office Depot, a leading global provider of Office Supplies and services, will share what retailers look for in small business partners. Holly Bohn, founder of See Jane Work, a stylish office and organization product company, will discuss her path to store shelves, and Mark Dobosz, president of SCORE, a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, will offer tips to grow the business while also generating attention from larger companies.  http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/

Institute for Alternative Futures

A free toolkit for communities, countries, and regions to explore their own futures
IAF has developed a free "pro-poor scenario toolkit" for use by communities, countries, and regions to develop scenarios of their own futures that explicitly include poor and marginalized populations.

Pro-Poor Scenario Toolkit: Workshop Materials and Global Forecasts for 2039

A sheet of "ground rules" for the scenario workshop can be found here.






How can the poor participate in shaping our global future? While many corporations, organizations, and government agencies frequently apply foresight methods, poverty is rarely included as an explicit issue for consideration.  To change that, the Institute for Alternative Futures, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, has developed an approach to applying foresight methods to expand social and economic opportunities for poor and marginalized populations worldwide.

As part of this effort, IAF convened a workshop of leading foresight experts at the Rockefeller Foundation’s conference facilities in Bellagio, Italy on March 16-20, 2009.  The meeting, which was co-chaired by Leon Fuerth and David Jhirad, highlighted the rationale and practice of pro-poor foresight in accelerating and enhancing “smart globalization” and in gaining a better understanding of foresight in relation to a set of key issues that are relevant to the global South.

The full report on the 2009 conference:  Foresight for Smart Globalization: Accelerating & Enhancing Pro-Poor Development Opportunities