GreenBiz Partners with Local Businesses; Empowers Bay Area Sustainability Efforts

OAKLAND, Calif. - Aug. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- On August 23, 2013 - sponsored by Salesforce and in partnership with Betti Ono Art Gallery, Neighborland, Popuphood, HUB Oakland, and Café Gabriela - GreenBiz Group will host, “Powering the People” - an evening to connect with Bay Area neighbors, discuss how environmental sustainability touches everyday living, and name community-wide pain points in order to generate challenge ideas for the upcoming Data Jam and hackathon, Hack City.

When discussing the importance of GreenBiz Group’s community outreach this year, Krys Freeman, GreenBiz’s Director of System + Technology relates, “People involved in tech get hackathons, particularly people involved in web development.  But when we’re talking about building and sustaining resilient cities, it’s important that we don’t forget everyone else in these cities.”

Freeman explains further, “Last year, small businesses made up 43% of high tech employment in America.  Numbers like that matter, particularly here in the San Francisco Bay Area where over 85,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs work and reside.”

“Our outreach is intended to get business owners and members of the community in on the ground floor.  We want people to know how and with whom to connect in order to solve their problems.  Luckily, we’ve teamed up with other companies who are just as committed to similar systems of community empowerment.”

 “Powering the People” will connect Bay Area community members and entrepreneurs experiencing transportation, material resource, and food, water, and energy challenges with coders and companies looking to solve them.  The event will also make plain the ways that technology - and more specifically hacking – can be used to create real sustainable solutions in the Bay Area and beyond.

All attendees are encouraged to contribute to a visual display of community needs to be exhibited in Betti Ono Gallery after the event.

To RSVP for “Powering the People,” or find out more about GreenBiz Group and Hack City with Hack City, visit http://hackcity.eventbrite.com or email hackcity[@]greenbiz[dot]com.