This September 17th and 18th, Etsy, the world's handmade marketplace, will hold a global small business summit. The event takes place in Berlin, Germany, and partner locations across the United States. "Hello Etsy: A Summit on Small Business and Sustainability" is a hands-on gathering for entrepreneurs who want to connect with their peers, learn new skills, and be part of the movement to build sustainable micro-economies.

Hello Etsy will reach members of our community worldwide through DIY summits taking place in living rooms and auditoriums across the country. Thousands of individual participants will be connected to each other via a live broadcast from the conference in Berlin, which will be hosted in Etsy’s Online Labs http://www.etsy.com/community/online-labs. These local groups will explore how they can grow their own micro-enterprises and create community-based economies where they live. In addition, up to five small business start-ups will receive Hello Etsy grants to fund their initiatives.

Berlin is home to Etsy's new European headquarters, run by the marketplace's European Director, Matthew Stinchcomb. He and the other conference organizers have booked a diverse slate of talent. Environmentalist Bill McKibben (350.org) will deliver a talk on the transition from an economy of the big and few to one of the small and many. That speech will be webcast live, and will cap the Sunday talks in Berlin and introduce the conference to the U.S. locations.

We're thrilled to have an incredible group of partners and locations for this event: Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, NY; the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC; GOOD in Los Angeles, CA; the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA; and the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. Each of these locations will feature their own live speakers, panels, and workshops.

Stinchcomb, Etsy's European Director, explains, "It is high time for an event like this to happen. The prevalent corporate mentality has left us ever more disconnected from nature, our communities, and the people and processes behind the objects in our lives. The rise of small businesses around the world gives me hope that there are more and more opportunities for us all to help create micro-economies, and most importantly, to contribute to a more permanent future."

Brooklyn, NY
When: September 18, 2011
Where: DUMBO, Brooklyn (location TBA)
Web: http://helloetsy.com/us/brooklyn/
Hello Etsy Brooklyn will take place on Sunday, September 18, 2011, from 9am to 6pm. This free event will be a mix of hands-on workshops, lectures, and learning new business skills. Hello Etsy Brooklyn is thrilled to host Matthew Crawford, a fellow at the...