We are less than 2 weeks away from the upcoming TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch event on November 6th, where leaders and innovators will come together to explore solutions for the global problem of plastic pollution. With speakers like Dr. Syliva Earle, Van Jones, David de Rothschild, and Ed Begley, Jr (with more being added daily!) the event will challenge humanity to stop plastic pollution. Anyone can be part of this historic event!

We encourage you to consider hosting a TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch watch party of the live video feed of the event on November 6th. You can register your event here http://bit.ly/TEDxGP2party. Please register your event (no matter how small) so we can keep you up to date with materials and last-minute updates!

Hosting a TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch watch party is easy. All you need is:
• space to host the event
• people to invite
• a reliable internet connection
• a computer that has speakers and a big enough screen for viewing for a small group
• a projector, screen and speakers for a bigger group

Anyone can show the Livestream of the event to a crowd as small or big as you’d like! You can invite local speakers, have discussion, or add on to the event as you think appropriate. The Livestream will be available FREE on November 6th beginning at 9 AM Pacific Time LIVE from the Annenberg Community Beach House in Los Angeles.

Click here to download a beautiful poster promoting the event that you can customize: TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch Promo Poster

Location and event planning
Are you planning an event for friends and family? If so you can host at your home. An event for the staff and constituents of your organization? Use your conference room. A public event in the community, with local speakers and additional content? You should think about a larger venue with a stage, PA system, and projector system so that the video feed from the event in LA is clearly visible to the group. Depending on the size of your event, you can supplement the live online broadcast with local speakers and discussion focusing on global or local action against plastic pollution. Your executive director, key academics or political leaders in your community can be invited to speak. If you know any restaurant or bar owners, ask them to Livestream their event on their screens. If you know anyone who would be in a position to Livestream the event from a public place like an aquarium, please ask them to host a watch party.

Inviting participants
The most important part of planning a successful watch party is inviting participants. If you’re hosting a private, small event, email your guests and ensure that they have all the pertinent information (time, location, etc.). For a larger event we recommend using a service like Facebook, pingg or evite to create an invitation that allows you to monitor RSVPs and easily message attendees. You can use the graphic image on this post as part of your event invitations.

Agenda / REFUSE Plastic Pledge and the 5 Challenges
We will be providing everyone signed up to host a watch party with the event agenda beforehand so that you can plan for timing. We anticipate that the agenda will be finalized as of Monday, October 25th. The culmination of the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch event will be the launch of the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s “5 Challenges” to humanity. The challenge to individuals will be to REFUSE disposable plastic- we hope that everyone at your event will sign the REFUSE pledge as a first step. We also encourage you to set aside time at the end of your event to discuss how the 5 Challenges relate to your community and how you can help stop plastic pollution. PPC will be posting model legislation and other tools in the coming months to help you involve your local community.

Planning Timeline:
With just a few weeks left until the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch event, it’s important to finalize a location and program, and get started on inviting people –
Here’s a rough timeline to make sure you’re ready for the event:

• Week ending October 22: Finalize location, program
• Week ending October 29th: Invite the community, your family, constituents. Alert local press and bloggers that the event is taking place. Use organizational social media, email channels to promote the event.
• Week ending October 5th : Send reminders to guests, finalize any food and beverage plans, meet with any speakers to discuss content of presentation, test technical hookups, invite press to attend.
• November 6th: Host event! Post photos and videos from your event onto the PPC flickr, Facebook and twitter pages. If you do get any local press on your event, please make sure to let us know so we can post links on all of our pages.
• Week ending November 12th: Send thank you notes, plan next steps on stopping plastic pollution!

Planning a plastic-free event
In planning this event you will want to make sure you’re implementing best practices in sustainability – and most importantly making sure you can produce the event without any disposable plastics! If you are planning to serve food and beverages at your event, plan carefully to use only reusable serving dishes and utensils, flatware, and glasses. Remember, no straws! You may need to work closely with any catering company you select to ensure they can produce the event without plastic. Ensure than any beverages are in cans or glass bottles (with plans for recycling) and that there is an easy source of water for people to use with water bottles. Consider providing or selling water bottles branded with your organization logo at the event for attendees! For comprehensive guidelines on creating a sustainable event, please see http://www.greenguru.in/. There are also links and resources on the PPC website if you want to purchase items in advance of your event – reusable utensils, water bottles, etc.

Communicating with Media
If you’re hosting an event in your community that is public, you’ll want to advise key members of your local media in advance of the event, invite them to attend, and encourage them to write about the issue of plastic pollution and the content of the event. We will provide all registered watch parties with a sample press release that you can customize for your local audience. We recommend emailing press releases to your local media outlets and following up with phone calls to confirm attendance. We can also provide spokespeople for interviews via the phone or Skype if you do get a request from a news outlet who would like an interview with someone from the PPC organization. We will also have photos available from the November 6th event available for download for the media on the http://www.tedxgreatpacificgarbagepatch.com site.

Communicating with your constituency / Social media
One of the goals of the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch event is to make the public aware of the plastic pollution problem and its solutions. One of the most effective ways to create this awareness is to communicate using social media. Make sure you’ve posted the link to the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch event on your personal and organizational Facebook page, twitter account, and written a special email to your supporters about the event. Those who aren’t able to attend your watch party may be able to watch the live video at their computers at home, or watch the speeches on YouTube after they’re posted the week after the event. Remember that the key to social media success is repetition without being obnoxious but you do have to send out regular messages and reminders – one or two probably won’t break through.

Sample tweets:
REFUSE PLASTIC! Find out why! Watch TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch event LIVE on 11/6 http://bit.ly/tedxgp2

Watch the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch event LIVE on 11/6 http://bit.ly/tedxgp2 (or URL for local event info)

REFUSE, reduce, reuse, recycle – stop plastic pollution http://bit.ly/tedxgp2

H.E. John Dramani Mahama “We are drowning in plastic. Africa will soon become one large plastic wasteland.” http://bit.ly/tedxgp2

Watch Dianna Cohen’s talk at TED Mission Blue about plastic pollution http://bit.ly/9y5RKb

PPC Facebook page:
Please “like” the page and repost anything of interest on your personal and organizational pages: http://www.facebook.com/PlasticPollution

Technical preparation and setup:
You will not need any specialized access to view the event broadcast online – just go to one of the sites below to access the video feed. The event will be broadcast online at the http://www.tedxgreatpacificgarbagepatch.com/ and on the http://www.livestream.com/ website. We will distribute code so that you can embed the Livestream on your website if you choose to. We will also be streaming the event on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/PlasticPollution. We suggest that you do a test of all of your technology the day before to make sure you have worked through the kinks beforehand and will give us time to make any necessary adjustments.

Connecting to the live event in Santa Monica
The best way to connect your local watch party to the live event in Santa Monica, California is through social media. We will be using the http://twitter.com/#!/TEDxGP2 account to post live tweets during the event, and using the hashtag #plasticpollutes. Send @TEDxGP2 messages during the day on Saturday November 6th and post your comments to the twitter stream and be a part of the conversation!