{"id":1545,"date":"2021-04-14T06:09:22","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T06:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uberlin.co.uk\/19-september-2011-uberlin\/"},"modified":"2021-04-14T06:09:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T06:09:22","slug":"19-september-2011-uberlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uberlin.co.uk\/19-september-2011-uberlin\/","title":{"rendered":"19 : September : 2011 : uberlin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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September 19, 2011<\/abbr><\/h5>\n
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Hello Etsy! Highlights<\/a><\/h3>\n

by James<\/span><\/h4>\n
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\"Hello
The opening introduction to Etsy’s first summit on small business and sustainability included the smart observation, “a conference is only as good as the people make it”. And sure enough, Hello Etsy felt like giant meetup, giving us a chance to get some hactual face-time with our online friends Raquel of Capital Sisters<\/a>, Cheryl Howard<\/a>, Georg AKA Digital Cosmonaut<\/a>, Simon of Berlin Unlike<\/a>, Melissa Rachel Black<\/a>, Katja from glamcanyon<\/a>, as well as Nina from the\u00a0travelettes<\/a> crew.<\/p>\n

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As outsiders to the Etsy\/craft community – with the exception of Melissa, who makes gangster rap greeting cards<\/a> – we found some of the sessions either irrelevant or a little basic. (Although as a journalist, blogger and former social media PR, I can vouch that Rachel Bremer of Twitter’s tips “secrets to good PR” were solid.)<\/p>\n

However, some of the talks were truly inspirational. Here are our highlights from two days of eye-opening events:<\/p>\n

1) Urban Farming and Local Empowerment<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most Berlin-centric talk we saw, and the greatest surprise.<\/p>\n

Prinzessinnengarten<\/a> is an urban (mobile!) farm cultivated on wasteland in the middle of the city by the couple behind Nomadic Green, and countless volunteers.<\/p>\n

Today, the not-for-profit project includes a garden restaurant and cafe and has inspired similar projects in Cologne\u00a0and other cities. Its open garden days\u00a0bring together different communities (old turkish women, hipsters, even “normal people”!) and when young people help out, they are paid a wage (“we don’t do social work”).<\/p>\n

Far from the special interest greenie talk I was expecting, this passed on valuable lessons that can be applied further afield, such as the project’s approach to informal learning: you don’t know, we don’t know, let’s find out together.<\/p>\n