FLASHBACK TO 2009 (video): Eric Bonham introduced an international audience to “Convening for Action on Vancouver Island” at the Resilient Cities Conference
About the Resilient Cities Conference
“Sustainability imperatives, the call for climate action, and the pressure for new approaches in almost every urban system have North American cities scrambling to manage the shift toward ecological practices and greater resilience,” stated Gene 
Miller, a driving force behind the Resilient Cities Conference.
“To provide solutions to these challenges, three organizations – the Center for Urban Innovation, Smart Growth BC,and the Canadian Society of Ecological Economics (CANSEE) – combined forces to co-host Resilient Cities: Urban Strategies for Transition Times in October 2009. The conference was held in Vancouver.”
Creating Our Future: First, visualize what we want this place to look like
At the 2009 Resiilient Cities Conference, Eric Bonham opened his part of the “convening for action” storyline by telling an anecdote about John Muir, the 
American visionary who was responsible for the national parks system in the United States in the late 19th century.
“Everything is connected. John Muir managed to get the ear of President Teddy Roosevelt. He took the President to the top of Glacier Point in what is now Yosemite National Park. There they discussed the need for park protection.”
“The point of this story is that major breakthroughs happen when you have decision makers working with the grass-roots…where obviously John Muir represented the grass-roots and President Roosevelt was the senior policy maker in the United States.”
Mission Possible
“We are being bold in using the mantra:What do we want Vancouver Island to look like in 50 years? Rather than being guided by 3-year municipal and 4-year provincial government election cycles, we are saying….look 50 years out and backcast to determine what decisions we need to make now to create the future that we want.”
To Learn More:
To read the complete story posted on the Vancouver Island community-of-interest, click on Mission Possible: Creating Our Future on Vancouver Island
The video clip that has been uploaded to YouTube provides a record and captures the flavour of how Eric Bonham introduced the Mission Possible storyline at the Resilient Cities Conference. To watch the video, click here.
To download the set of PowerPoint slides that accompany the YouTube video, click on CAVI – Mission Possible.
