2008 Expo Weekend

Hi all! Here are the 2008 Expo weekend pics, as promised. The first two are courtesy of Kent Fields and the remainder are courtesy of WCN volunteer and friend Marty Varon. The weekend went like this. Friday we had an intimate donor reception, safari themed!, for our top donors at the private stables of Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki. Below is a shot of Akiko's adorable daughter on a zebra to show you the decor a bit and a picture of Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants thanking the guests for their support. Remember, you can always click on an image to enlarge it!


The next set of photographs is from the Saturday Expo, which is our event for public education. Approximately 600 people attended to enjoy a day of lectures, fair trade shopping, and perusing the informational tables of over 40 different environmental nonprofits. The first is me at the PDC table chatting with one of my favorite volunteers, Lori Komejan, and Amy Gotliffe, a friend from the Oakland Zoo.

This is Pepin, a dog that came from Working Dogs for Conservation (one of the guest speakers this year). He pretty much stole the show! These working dogs sniff out scat and other biological materials to help conservationists determine where a species occurs, what they eat, etc... He was so well behaved!

Just some more shots to show you the lay-out. We have two auditoriums that run simultaneous 30 minute presentations throughout the day and then each of the 18 speakers (11 WCN conservationists and 7 guest speakers) set up a table where they sell fair trade items from their country, display information, and accept donations.

Me and Sherry Paul, one of WCN's biggest donors and a really cool lady, hanging out. The Expo is in its seventh year and is like a well-oiled machine. The AMAZING volunteers we have just rock the day and I basically stand around with my clipboard and deal with the few emergencies and problems that arise.
So then on Sunday, we held the Garden Party at Charlie's (my ED) home in Los Altos Hills. This is a really relaxing, but long (12-9pm) day of live music, delicious food and wine, and live cats. The donors seem to like this event best because all the conservationists attend and it is the best chance to catch them for some 1:1 conversation. You can see many of the conservationists in the second picture below. We have them give two minute elevator speeches (that ran for about seven minutes each and messed up my schedule!) and they are waiting in line to give that speech in the picture below.