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National Brownfields Conference
Massachusetts to Host Thousands of Visitors at National Brownfields Conference In November
The 11th annual National Brownfields Conference will be held in Boston November 13-15, 2006, at the Boston Convention Center in South Boston. This is the first year this conference has been held in New England, and it is expected to draw over 5,000 participants both nationally and internationally.
The conference, titled "Brownfields2006," provides an important opportunity for environmental and economic development professionals to come together with communities, developers, state officials, and other people involved in brownfields-related projects to discuss ways to return once contaminated sites back to productive use.
This year's conference will feature over 100 panel presentations focused on issues related to environmental, legal, financial and other challenges posed by these projects. The conference will also feature several walking tours and mobile workshops highlighting successful brownfields projects throughout the state. Those include walking tours of the Boston Convention Center and the Phoenix Award-winning Kendall Square Project in Cambridge, as well as mobile workshops that will tour sites in Somerville, Lawrence, and Lowell.
Michael Porter from Harvard Business School will be speaking at the Welcome Plenary Session. He is known as one of the foremost thinkers on business strategy, national and regional competitiveness, and cluster-based economic development. Ray Suarez of "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" will moderate the Town Meeting Plenary for this conference, and former NFL All-Pro Fuad Reveiz will be featured at the Closing Plenary.
As the host state for this conference, MassDEP is seizing the opportunity to showcase the great work the agency is doing towards environmental protection and brownfields redevelopment. MassDEP will premiere a film at the conference that tours seven brownfields sites across the state where MassDEP assistance and programs have been critical to successful redevelopment. Sites to be featured include the largest contemporary art museum in the country, a local fresh produce company, the Basketball Hall of Fame, and a company that successfully implemented "green building" principles at their corporate headquarters. MassDEP will also co-host a state luncheon on November 14th with brownfields partner MassDevelopment. This will be invite only.
For more information about the Brownfields2006 conference, please visit: http://www.brownfields2006.org/en/
 
Left: former brownfields site in Cambridge. Right: Now stands the Genzyme building.
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