On April 23, worker cooperative leaders from around the country will convene in Denver for Worker Cooperatives in Focus, a day of events co-hosted by the Democracy at Work Institute and the National Center for Employee Ownership. This exciting event will address a range of cooperative development topics centered on bringing the worker cooperative movement to scale, including cooperative ownership transitions, capital access, and the intersection of worker cooperatives and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).
The morning sessions are part of the Employee Ownership Conference. Thursday registrants can attend the suggested sessions below or any of the concurrent sessions offered at those times. We will be webcasting the afternoon sessions including lunch. We would like to thank the Denver Foundation for its generous sponsorship of this event.
- Register for the in-person event (Select Thursday Only Registration. The main conference is sold out.)
- Register for the webinar
Schedule
- Breakfast: 7:45 am – 9:15 am in the Plaza Ballroom
- Suggested Morning Session 1: 9:15 am - 10:30 am: What Coops and ESOPs Can Learn From Each Other: Governance, Financing, and More
- Melissa Hoover, Executive Director, Democracy at Work Institute
- Loren Rodgers, Executive Director, National Center for Employee Ownership
- Suggested Morning Session 2: 10:45 am - 12:00 pm: Socially Responsible Businesses and Employee Ownership
- Blake Jones, CEO of Namaste Solar
- Camille Kerr, Director of Field Building, Democracy at Work Institute
- Lunch: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: The Denver Worker Cooperative Ecosystem (Sponsored by the Denver Foundation)
- Jeff Ambs, Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center
- Patrick Horvath, Deputy Vice President of Programs, The Denver Foundation
- Linda Phillips, Attorney at law
- Afternoon Session 1: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Worker Cooperative Conversions: The Cooperative ESOP and Other Simplified Transaction Structures for Easier Replication
- Joe Davis, General Counsel, New Belgium Brewing
- Dave Hammer, Executive Director, ICA Group
- Melissa Hoover, Executive Director, Democracy at Work Institute
- Loren Rodgers, Executive Director, National Center for Employee Ownership
- Afternoon Session 2: 2:15 pm - 3:45 pm: The Changing Capital Landscape: New Options for Financing Cooperative Conversions
- Andrea Armeni, Executive Director, Transform Finance
- Elizabeth Bauer, CEO, Gilded Rogue Enterprises
- Maggie Cohn, Loan and Outreach Officer, Coop Fund of New England
- Camille Kerr, Director of Field Building, Democracy at Work Institute
- Jason Weiner, Attorney at Law
- Steve Wong, Project Officer, The Working World
- Afternoon Session 3: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm: Straight from the Source: Practitioners and Business Owners Discuss Lessons Learned in the Field and Answer Questions
- Rob Brown, Cooperative Development Specialist, Cooperative Development Institute
- Alison Lingane, Co-Founder, Project Equity
- Joe Rinehart, Cooperative Developer, Democracy at Work Institute
- Jeremy Shannon, CEO, Build with Prospect
- Alan White, President, Island Employee Cooperative