Permaculture Voices 2014 Conference - March 13-16, 2014 - Temecula, CA

I wanted to jump in and speak to those questioning the 'value' of a conference like this-

Five years ago, two years into my personal farm adventure, I decided on a whim to travel from Colorado to St Louis for the Acres USA Conference. I had just purchased my first pair of dairy cows, had two small kids and a very pregnant wife, and really spent about the last of my farm savings to attend the conference. It wasnt cheap. I took the train with my two year old, paid for the expensive hotel, and the conference entry. Over $1000 in total, plus food and incidentals. Let me tell you, that investment has been repaid many, many times over in the last five years.

The opportunity to consult, often times one-on-one, with leaders in the fields of pasture management (Joel Salatin), soil fertility (Neal Kinsey), holistic cattle care (Paul Dettloff), biodynamics (Hugh Courtney), and more, was priceless. If permaculture is a passing curiousity to you, then sure, listen to some podcasts and stoke your fire. But if this is something you are serious about, something that you maybe intend to make a life from, the amount of knowledge available at these types of conferences is unmeasurable. Getting to talk directly with the master of the art allows you to go much deeper than listening to a prerecorded discussion. My experience was that these long time experts were honored to be able to help me make my farm dreams a reality. They truly enjoyed the opportunity to draw upon their decades of wisdom to give good advice to a rookie. Every day that passes on my farm, the value of their teachings increases in my mind. You just cant put a pricetag on this stuff.

Personally, I have not been to a big conference again since that formative experience five years ago. But this is special, way above the norm in term of the panel of experts Diego has assembled. I am really excited about participating a Permaculture Voices, and cant wait to learn many many things I never knew existed. For your future in permaculture, make it a reality to go. Money comes and goes, and seems like a lot at the time, but knowledge is forever.

Join us August 10th for the first Permaculture Voices Shout. A webinar featuring Larry Santoyo, Paul Wheaton, and Ben Falk.

Over 5 hours of live permaculture talk from 3 of the biggest names in permaculture for $3.00.

Each talk will vary between 1-2 hours long & each talk will be accompanied 30 minutes of Q&A.

No travel required, broadcast live online. One day only, August 10, 2013.

Watch with some friends or you local permie group. Stay for some or all.

-Larry Santoyo – Permaculture for Humanity: Beyond Buildings and Food
-Paul Wheaton – Building a Better World One Permaculture Brick at a Time [Paul's keynote from the 2013 Southern California Convergence]
-Ben Falk – 10 Years In A Cold Climate: Resilience & Regeneration. Principles in Practice.

$3.00 gets you the whole day. Preregistration required.

Register at No travel required, broadcast live online. One day only, August 10, 2013.

-Larry Santoyo – Permaculture for Humanity: Beyond Buildings and Food
-Paul Wheaton – Building a Better World One Permaculture Brick at a Time
-Ben Falk – 10 Years In A Cold Climate: Resilience & Regeneration. Principles in Practice.

$3.00 gets you the whole day. Preregistration required. Register HERE; more information here.

Diego, I'll be at a wedding all day so I won't be able to make it. Any chance of a streaming recorded version after the fact?

Maybe something like that could be a proof of concept for a future streaming/recorded/tedtalk-ish version of the conference.

I sent a PM to Diego offering my video services, we'll see if anything comes of it.

Chad Sentman wrote:I sent a PM to Diego offering my video services, we'll see if anything comes of it.

I will be getting back to you early next week Chad. Sorry for the delay.

Ok cool, no rush, and thanks for the confirmation. It was the first PM I ever sent and I wasn't sure if I got it right.

I'm super excited about this! I live about an hour from Temecula and thrilled that this will be in Southern California and so close by. I think also, serendipitously, it coincides with spring break (I'm a teacher). My partner and I want to go.

I am a little worried that much of it will be over our heads because we are newbies. I started a PDC years ago and then pregnancy interrupted the course. Since then I haven't done much more than garden in a couple of raised beds. I found the PDC overwhelming!

We saw Geoff Lawton at Cal-Earth last November...that got us thinking and talking and lately we've been talking A LOT. Baby steps!

Hilary McLean wrote: We saw Geoff Lawton at Cal-Earth last November...that got us thinking and talking and lately we've been talking A LOT. Baby steps!

That's awesome, that's all it takes, baby steps. You are out there doing something which is better than 95% of the non-permies.

Check out the webinar this weekend, I think that qualifies as another baby step.

695 dollars!?!? At this rate the "voices" sound more like a whisper because 695 dollars is 695 dollars! Are there any attempts to appeal/cater to more budget conscious/constraint people? Maybe there will be a "buy a dvd" option for the peasants....

Amedean Messan wrote:695 dollars!?!? At this rate the "voices" sound more like a whisper because 695 dollars is 695 dollars! Are there any attempts to appeal/cater to more budget conscious/constraint people? Maybe there will be a "buy a dvd" option for the peasants....

I hear you, but $695 is very inline with every professional conference out there in every profession. And it is only $595 if you go with a friend, which makes it on the cheaper side. This is 4 days of the best of permaculture presenters with over 50 different presentations. The price is what it is, because that is what it costs to put on the event. I cannot subsidize everyone's permaculture education. $695 isn't that much money if you think that it will create more than $695 worth of value in your life. See the Adam Klauss post above for a discussion on conferences and value. Like Jack Spirko said earlier in this thread " Permaculture isn't supposed to be about doing without, it is to be about creating abundance. I get so tired of explaining that, "so how do I buy land?", um oh, I don't know get a job, get two, get three, start a business, deliver pizzas and kick ass and make tips, tend bar, do whatever you have to IF IT IS AS IMPORTANT YOU SAY IT IS. " If this is important to you and you find value in it, then you will find a way to make it happen. There are a lot of ways that you could pay for this if you think you will get value out of it. I am not going to go into all of the Adam Baker strategies, but you can find a way to get the money if you really think this is important. A lot of people will get value out of this conference which is why they already bought tickets. Some people can't justify the cost to value trade off, and that is fine. My job is to provide as much value as possible for the best price and I think that I am doing that. If you want awesome stuff, then it isn't going to be cheap, it just isn't. And it doesn't have to be expensive either, and at $595 Permaculture Voices isn't expensive (spend some time on Google and look up how much professional trade conferences charge - we are right in line). I am providing a bunch of free information along the way and I have this webinar coming up which only costs $3. There is only so much that I can do to help everyone else. I am all for helping self-motivated, ambitious people build themselves and their businesses up, but I am not for supporting peasantdom.

Well, I imagine there are expenses. I don't doubt it will be an interesting event and I don't question the value but due to the high sticker price it will be exclusive by its nature.

Amedean Messan wrote:Well, I imagine there are expenses. I don't doubt it will be an interesting event and I don't question the value but due to the high sticker price it will be exclusive by its nature.

You're right, it definitely will. I am trying to do everything that I can to help facilitate the spreading of this information. I am cutting costs and adding value as much as I can to make this event as affordable as I can without sacrificing quality. I am working 2 jobs just to make this event happen; so believe me I understand financial sacrifice, budgeting, purchasing value, and working hard.

And in regards to your previous comment about the DVD. I would love to do that to make this material available for so many more people, but that will ultimately depend on the budget available. That video will be cheap to buy, but expensive to produce.

There are too many opportunities I missed because I didn't think I could afford it, and that held me back. The "not worth it" or "I can't afford it" energy not only robs us of the experience, it makes it harder to accept money from others and keeps us poor. Also, when you pay, and the paying hurts a little, it puts your skin in the game, makes you take the information more seriously, participate more deeply. People who pay, even if it hurts, bring their energy with them, they are more committed.

I think that instead of getting pissed off when we feel priced out of something, we should see it as a challenge and play the game. We don't do people favors if we worry on their behalf that they can't afford it. That energy has to be shifted into envisioning them being able to joyfully make it happen. Then when it comes time for us to charge fairly for what we offer the world, we can accept that money.

Diego Footer wrote:

Amedean Messan wrote:Well, I imagine there are expenses. I don't doubt it will be an interesting event and I don't question the value but due to the high sticker price it will be exclusive by its nature.

You're right, it definitely will. I am trying to do everything that I can to help facilitate the spreading of this information. I am cutting costs and adding value as much as I can to make this event as affordable as I can without sacrificing quality. I am working 2 jobs just to make this event happen; so believe me I understand financial sacrifice, budgeting, purchasing value, and working hard.

And in regards to your previous comment about the DVD. I would love to do that to make this material available for so many more people, but that will ultimately depend on the budget available. That video will be cheap to buy, but expensive to produce.

Thanks. I can tell your heart is in the right place!

I think $695 is freaky cheap.

I've been to a lot of permaculture events where the ticket price is $100. And it was worth $100.

I remember going to a tech conference years ago and the price was $1500. It was held at a ski resort, so it ended up at $3000 total. But I learned more in five days that I learned in three years in the field. A lot of the people that were changing the industry were presenting. It was the biggest of the bigs. Flown in from all over the world. There were 700 people at this conference and the information exchange was mind boggling. So many things suddenly made sense. And for years afterward I was far ahead of my peers. The bigs cross pollinated with each other as well as all of the attendees. EVERYBODY experienced a powerful leap forward.

I attended smaller tech conferences and local tech events. Each time gathering bits of information here and there. But never did I learn even 1% of what I would learn from the good conference.

The little conferences/gatherings have small ad budgets and bring in a few people within a few hundred miles. The good conference pays for the bigs. What do we gain when the bigs exchange ideas between each other?

There are lots of little conferences that cost less. The time has come for a conference that brings in the bigs. We need the professional exchange. We need the conference that moves us all forward a HUGE leap.

700 people will be able to afford to go. And then those 700 people will have a massive leap forward in their knowledge set. And then those 700 people will share that information over the next year.

Someone once said that the great thing about permaculture is that you trade 10 hours of sweat for 9 hours of study and 1 hour of sweat. I think this conference will make it so that you trade 10 hours of sweat for 10 minutes of study and 10 minutes of sweat.

I suspect that THIS will be the event that sets permaculture consultants up with high paying gigs.

THIS will be the event that will be the springboard for a new generation of leaders.

THIS will be the event that connects permaculture instructors and consultants that have never met before. And build relationships so that when people need a speaker/instructor/consultant/advisor that you know who to call.

I know that from the tech conference I attended, I hired a lot of those guys for different projects over the years. And I was hired.

Building knowledge, plus building professional relationships.

It's a lot of money, but it's an amazing deal for what you get. Any two of those guys could draw that for a conference, more for a PDC. It's not just a regular conference. It's something special.
John S
PDX OR

A lot of people have asked for a ticket payment plan and Jack Spirko suggested that I do one. So I listened to everyone and set one up. You can lock in the early bird rate of $695.00 if you purchase your ticket by August 31. You can purchase the ticket outright or you can use the payment plan so you can then pay the ticket off via 5 monthly installments. Full details HERE: Doing what I can to help people that want to attend the conference get there.

EDITED by moderator to fix link. JPolk

For my two cents.

Diego, your price is very in line with a professional conference..there will always be people that disagree on price, no matter what you offer it at.. some people just can not afford it..and so be it..
your offer of the payment plan is awesome and generous..the payments should all be done by the date of the conference..so that is awesome as well and a win win.

You don't know me..but I have helped coordinate conferences for ESRI, and other companies that I have worked with..and the logistical nightmare that is involved..goes way past when the conference is over..so I applaud you. Most people that quibble on the price..have no idea of what goes into the coordination, with the hotel, the catering, the setup..the volunteers, your time investment, paying the speakers, just getting the speakers to say yes... So I applaud you..I give you a standing ovation..and hope that you don't have totally white hair when it is over.

That said..for the some that either can not afford to go, or can not go at all due to other commitments or distance..we hope that you will consider the live streaming..(premium cost) and the DVD, edited and at a lower cost, for those people. It is a bit of a head ache but at the end of the day, offers you a continued stream of income for years to come..as this is looking to be EPIC..and so capturing history on tape would be essential..so I look forward to finding out about that.. you would not want to announce that option, until close to the conference time..so that it is the last option available.

Let me just say, Diego: you are so awesome!

Nobody has ever done what you are doing, and it's going to be great. I'm starting a new job in a new state in October, but I'm going to write to my office manager now and see if I can get time off for the conference in March. Is there any chance of further cool activities, and if so, would they be on Wednesday before or in the following week?

I have wanted to buy a ticket for this since I heard about it, but my circumstances are less than ideal right now. However, I have now signed the contract, we're chugging our way through the reams of paperwork it takes for me to start seeing patients in Gresham, Oregon, and I feel a little more comfortable asking about time off. (I'm likely to work through Christmas, for example, as the new doctor. I hope this isn't Easter weekend!) The payment plan is marvelous, because I don't have much cash now, but I should later once I'm getting paid.

Julia Winter wrote:Let me just say, Diego: you are so awesome!

Nobody has ever done what you are doing, and it's going to be great. I'm starting a new job in a new state in October, but I'm going to write to my office manager now and see if I can get time off for the conference in March. Is there any chance of further cool activities, and if so, would they be on Wednesday before or in the following week?

I have wanted to buy a ticket for this since I heard about it, but my circumstances are less than ideal right now. However, I have now signed the contract, we're chugging our way through the reams of paperwork it takes for me to start seeing patients in Gresham, Oregon, and I feel a little more comfortable asking about time off. (I'm likely to work through Christmas, for example, as the new doctor. I hope this isn't Easter weekend!) The payment plan is marvelous, because I don't have much cash now, but I should later once I'm getting paid.

Thanks.

If there is a PDC it will be immediately after the conference, the two straight week version.

Any workshops will most likely be book-ending it on both sides.

You can now watch a recast of each of the three webinars. They are viewable individually for $1.50 each.

Larry Santoyo – Permaculture for Humanity: Beyond Buildings and Food (1:18hrs.)
Paul Wheaton – Building a Better World One Permaculture Brick at a Time (2:23hrs.)
Ben Falk – 10 Years In A Cold Climate: Resilience & Regeneration. Principles in Practice (1:24hrs.)

Once you register, the recast loads and plays. You can only watch it once and you can't close the window, so don't register for the recast until you are ready to watch the whole thing. You can pause it if needed.

Register HERE.

Diego Footer wrote:You can now watch a recast of each of the three webinars. They are viewable individually for $1.50 each.

Larry Santoyo – Permaculture for Humanity: Beyond Buildings and Food (1:18hrs.)
Paul Wheaton – Building a Better World One Permaculture Brick at a Time (2:23hrs.)
Ben Falk – 10 Years In A Cold Climate: Resilience & Regeneration. Principles in Practice (1:24hrs.)

Yeah..thanks so much for doing that. So question.. have you considered maybe posting the audio of the weby to iTunes so people can download them. I have not seen them but is there a big reason to actually see the screen or are they mostly just talking heads?

Rebecca Holman wrote:

Diego Footer wrote:You can now watch a recast of each of the three webinars. They are viewable individually for $1.50 each.

Larry Santoyo – Permaculture for Humanity: Beyond Buildings and Food (1:18hrs.)
Paul Wheaton – Building a Better World One Permaculture Brick at a Time (2:23hrs.)
Ben Falk – 10 Years In A Cold Climate: Resilience & Regeneration. Principles in Practice (1:24hrs.)

Yeah..thanks so much for doing that. So question.. have you considered maybe posting the audio of the weby to iTunes so people can download them. I have not seen them but is there a big reason to actually see the screen or are they mostly just talking heads?

I can look into doing that in the future, but it won't be anytime soon because I just have too much other stuff on my plate.

You would get value listening to the talks without the slides, but I think you would lose a lot. Some of the topics are definitely helped by slides. I am guessing that most people would get the most benefit by seeing the slides the first run through and then listening to just the audio for subsequent listens.

3 questions:

1) Can 2 people use 1 pass? I ask because I or my wife will have to watch our 2 year old while the other is at a presentation...

2) ...unless kids are allowed?

3) Is there a discounted rate if you buy 2? I think I saw that somewhere, but maybe I'm dreaming.

George Meljon wrote:3 questions:

1) Can 2 people use 1 pass? I ask because I or my wife will have to watch our 2 year old while the other is at a presentation...

2) ...unless kids are allowed?

3) Is there a discounted rate if you buy 2? I think I saw that somewhere, but maybe I'm dreaming.

1. Yes.
2. Yes, but need a ticket.
3. Previously, but those sold out.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Also, do you have a release date on the schedule of classes?

I assume it will be like a large music festival where 3-4 things are happening at the same time?

Also, will this count as a PDC or credits towards that or whatever?

George Meljon wrote:Thanks for the quick reply.

Also, do you have a release date on the schedule of classes?

I assume it will be like a large music festival where 3-4 things are happening at the same time?

Also, will this count as a PDC or credits towards that or whatever?

Release Date: Not for a while. The topics are being refined right now. There are more macro topics listed. For example, Mark Shepard will talk on agroforestry. But the specifics will be set later.

Concurrent Sessions: Yes there will be. You can get a rough idea of how the schedule will play out HERE. While this isn't set in stone now, this is a pretty close to how it will play out.

Credits: No. Just for personal development and networking. Even a PDC doesn't really get you anything other than something saying you took the PDC. The key is that you learned the subject matter or were exposed to it.

If you have more questions, just let me know.

Early-Bird Pricing Ends Soon: More Info and Buy Tickets HERE Payment plans available.



Early-Bird Pricing Ends Soon: More Info and Buy Tickets HERE

Payment plans available. Info on those HERE

Help us out, and vote on Toby Hemenway's Permaculture Voices talk!

The permaculture icon Toby Hemenway has agreed to let you, the great permaculture people, choose one of his talk topics for Permaculture Voices. You get to decide which direction an epic Toby talk will go in.

Represent & Vote HERE

Vote as many times as you want. Toby and I thank you.

The topic with the most votes on October 1 will be Toby's talk.

Hey Diego - I hate to ask a really dumb question, but...

I bought 2 tickets with the bring-a-friend discount, so now I have 2 tickets with my name on them.

The ticket terms & conditions state:

Resale and/or transfer of the ticket are prohibited and any such resale and/or transfer is void to the maximum extent allowed by applicable laws. Any such unauthorized resale and/or transfer may result in cancellation of the ticket and/or refusal of entry to the holder hereof without refund.

TECHNICALLY... I am transferring the ticket to my friend who is paying me back. Can I safely assume that my friend can use the other ticket without grief from THE MAN?

Myron Weber wrote:Hey Diego - I hate to ask a really dumb question, but...

I bought 2 tickets with the bring-a-friend discount, so now I have 2 tickets with my name on them.

The ticket terms & conditions state:

Resale and/or transfer of the ticket are prohibited and any such resale and/or transfer is void to the maximum extent allowed by applicable laws. Any such unauthorized resale and/or transfer may result in cancellation of the ticket and/or refusal of entry to the holder hereof without refund.

TECHNICALLY... I am transferring the ticket to my friend who is paying me back. Can I safely assume that my friend can use the other ticket without grief from THE MAN?

Hey, hey, hey, don't call me the man. F the man.

Happy to work with you on that. Just email me the name so I can update the log.

Diego Footer wrote: F the man.

I second the motion.

Hooray, my office manager has blocked out this time for me, and I can go!

Diego, I've sent a message via the form at your website because I'd like to go for the installment plan--I don't start getting paid until mid-October, so spreading out the cost would be very useful.

Hurry everybody--today and tomorrow are the last days to register before the price increases, I'm guessing significantly.

Any locals with a couch to crash on? I have no problem paying for a top notch conference but it's hard to stomach paying big bucks for a bed I'll barely use.
I'm planning on flying in from the Great White North and trying to cut out unnecessary expenses.

Kevin Hiebert wrote:Any locals with a couch to crash on? I have no problem paying for a top notch conference but it's hard to stomach paying big bucks for a bed I'll barely use.
I'm planning on flying in from the Great White North and trying to cut out unnecessary expenses.

Checking into some options.

From Indiana to Temecula, 'twill be a fine time to go in March when the weather here is drab!

I now have a set date to prepare to get as much planning done for our homestead to get the most out of this conference.

Looking forward to more news as it comes out.