Spend a day without spending at Conkers

Here at virtual conker tweetup hq we are pulling together our last push for the next 10 days or so to increase the numbers of people attending, we already have a reasonable turnout but we would really like to double it! - as we are currently chasing and updating local newspapers and media machines about what we plan to do we are also pulling together content for Buy Nothing Day!

On Saturday 28 November 2009, one of the year’s busiest shopping days, just as people are starting to stock up for the Festive Season, Buy Nothing Day is asking you to stop shopping - for a whole day!  Why? Well, how many things do you buy without really thinking about whether you need them?

We live in a throwaway economy where convenience goods are discarded without a thought, plastic bottles, cardboard coffee cups, food packaging.  For every £70 you spend at a supermarket £10 goes towards packaging, so if you think about it, you’re paying for rubbish that your Council Tax pays to recycle.

Over the Festive Season we’ll throw away over 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, 6 million Christmas trees and 83 square km of wrapping paper in the UK. Buy Nothing Day is not anti-Christmas or anti-consumerist, however, it is an opportunity to challenge how much, what and where we buy.

If you’re looking for ways to cut waste and make your money go further, then why not join us on Buy Nothing Day at Conkers?  People from all over the country are coming to share experiences of sustainable living at “ConkerTU”, from energy saving systems to low impact living – practical ideas that you can use in your home.

A ticket to ConkerTU gives you free entry to Conkers, free films, videos and presentations and a free lunch – all at no cost to you!

Tickets are limited so visit http://www.conkertu.com to book soon.  If you can’t make it, follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ConkerTU. And if you really can’t Buy Nothing, save fuel, packaging and pennies by shopping locally - you’ll find some great ideas here: http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/

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As we are fully supporting Buy Nothing Day also on the 28th we thought we would repost this great track Peter Lundy has recorded - ‘Stop Your Shopping’ - you can download it for free from http://pharaohhousecrash.blogspot.com.

We are currently working away to get more promotion regarding our event on the 28th and are in the process in contacting all the local newspapers and media makers.   If you have any direct contacts please forward them on.

ConkerTU Line Up

08.45 The Green Bus departs Tamworth Station GPS & WIFI enabled journey into the Forest

09.30 Meet, greet & tweet over caffeine fuelled infusions @ Waterside, Conkers!

10.15 Conkerchoo or saunter over to the Discovery Centre, Conkers

10.30 Green Voice of Britain, Piper Terrett officially opens ConkerTU

11.00 Sustainable communities panel, including Penney Poyzer & Julian Dobson

12.00 Musical interlude, from celtic folk fiddler, Sian Phillips

12.30 Voyage of Discovery - extended lunch to explore Conkers & tweet with Millie, the owl!

02.00 Rural Energy explain how Conkers’ new Biomass heating system works

03.00 Hyperlocal pecha kucha, a quick fired contrast and compare, session with Q&A
including Nottngham Eco House, Lammas Project, Ibstock does Climate Change,
Self help housing

04.00 Summing up and thanks

05.00 The Green Bus returns to Tamworth Station - Bon Voyage!

In addition to the above there will screenings of various Buy Nothing Day and Climate Change media in the Discovery Hall, with a further last minute surprise to be confirmed!

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we have been very lucky to be allowed to use this track for ‘buy nothing day’ and our conker tweetup project on the 28th of November.  entitled ‘shop and buy’ we want to thank Eric Maddern again for allowing access to it.  i’m sure people are feeling the lyrics in this! :)