POW heads to Squaw Valley for the 2nd Annual POW Riders Alliance Athlete Summit
Last week, the POW team headed to Squaw Valley to host our 2nd annual POW Riders Alliance Athlete Summit. From early ups to learning the latest on climate science, it was a fun-filled few days.
About 20 of our athletes descended on Jeremy Jones’ home turf in Tahoe to learn more about climate science, policy issues, solutions and storytelling, while coming up with the most effective ways to communicate and fight climate change.
Day one was packed with a rundown on the latest climate science courtesy of Professor Liz Burakowski of University of New Hampshire, who not only knows her science, but is also quite the snowboarder. Industry leaders in clean energy including Tesla and SunRun came to speak about where the energy grid is going and what’s next in clean energy innovation. Later in the afternoon, our friends at NextGen Climate joined the party to talk about where the local climate fights will be in the upcoming months and how we can all be most impactful in the media, as we band together to spark a climate revolution.
After a day packed full of information, the POW crew focused on how to tell the climate change story. Climate change can be complicated – so with the athlete power in the room, we strategized about how we should talk about climate to our community, to our friends and family, and of course to our favorites, the climate deniers. Luckily, we had everyone from social media experts and public speaking coaches to storytellers on hand to help us better communicate our passion for fighting climate change.
A huge thank you to Squaw Valley for hosting us once again and to all the speakers that joined us and shared their expertise. But most especially, to the committed athletes that took time away from their careers to learn more with us and become true climate activists. We’re honored that you came.
For 2017, POW has an all-new policy agenda that we will be sharing soon, as well as ways for anyone to get involved in your community in the new year, so stay tuned!