Friday, March 6, 2009

Rotary Speaker Seeks Broader Public Support for Clean Energy Transition in Hawaii to ‘Get Off Oil’

We’re pulling out all stops today for some shameless promotion:

The Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunrise’s fundraising event on March 16th – “Business Game Plan ‘09” – will feature a leading renewable energy advocate, a multiple Academy Award winner and a leader who leads by serving.

They’re not the same person. Game Plan each year mixes three outstanding speakers, and this year’s lineup is perhaps the most dynamic in the event’s 14-year history.

The green energy advocate is Henk Rogers, creator of the Blue Planet Foundation of Honolulu, a frontline organization in the fight for renewable indigenous energy development in Hawaii. The Foundation’s goal: to end the use of fossil fuel on the planet, starting in Hawaii.

From Russia with Love

Rogers will update his Game Plan audience of several hundred on progress made so far toward that goal and what must happen next. Game Plan is also about passing on lessons learned from successful business careers, and Rogers’ presentation will include how he has made the Tetris video game the most popular electronic game in the world. (In 1988, he spotted Tetris at a Las Vegas trade show, flew to Moscow and won the distribution rights. More than 70 million units have been sold, as well as online gaming portal and cellular phone applications.)

Bring on the Oscars

The Academy Award winner is Dr. Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, who heads the creative team that has produced blockbuster favorites including WALL-E, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Toy Story. Catmull has received several Academy Awards, including the 2009 Gordon E. Sawyer Award, a Technical Achievement Award, Scientific and Engineering Awards and an Academy Award of Merit. He is one of the architects of the RenderMan rendering software, which has been used in 44 of the last 47 films nominated for an Academy Award in the Visual Effects Category.

Serving by Leading

Also appearing at Game Plan will be Dr. Kent Keith, author of Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments, based on a booklet he first published in 1968 for Harvard student leaders. Anyway became a National bestseller that was translated into 17 languages. The Commandments were also a fixture in Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta, India. Keith currently is the CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership in Indiana.

We’ll venture our subjective opinion that three more dynamic and inspirational speakers won’t be found on the same Hawaii stage in the foreseeable future. If you’re a renewable energy promoter or involved in green energy development in any way, come to BGP ’09 to support Henk and be inspired by all three.

An additional incentive: Your attendance will support Sunrise Rotary’s ongoing community and international service projects – including stamping out polio on the planet. It doesn’t get much more important than that.

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