Big Event Schedule

Find the Big Event Map here

Note: If you have trouble with the Google Docs file below, then scroll down to the text version.

At-A-Glance

Schedule

Updated 4/28/2025

Asterisks (*) = open to wider ERG community (non-registrants), however some activities may be sold out | FC = Faculty Club

Sat 5/3

7:00a-8:00a

Volunteer Lead Set Up

Faculty Club (FC)

8:00a-9:15a

Big Event Registration & Coffee in the Glade

FC Glade (move registration to Howard Room at 9:30)

Kick off the main day of the Big Event at the Faculty Club with hot morning beverages. Coffee, tea and water will be available throughout the day at various stations in the Club.

8:30a-9:00a

Volunteer Leaders Thank You Breakfast (Invitation Only)

FC Seaborg

9:00a-9:15a

Volunteers Group Photo

FC Seaborg

9:30-10:00a

OPENING

FC Great Hall

Welcome by Rashmi Sahai, ERG Update by Duncan Callaway, Remarks by David Ackerly, ERGies Around the World Video
Seating in the Great Hall, with overflow seating in the Kerr dining room. Welcome from Rashmi Sahai ERGAN President, Duncan Callaway ERG Chair, and RCNR Dean David Ackerly. 

10:00a-11:00a

KEYNOTE: John Holdren

FC Great Hall

Live Streamed and recorded. 

11:00a-12:00p

Making Connections - Networking

FC start in Great Hall, then move to various rooms

Saturday of the Big Event ERG will be hosting a networking opportunity open to all registered attendees. This will be a wonderful opportunity for ERG students and early career ERGies to network with ERGies who have worked at the organizations you may be interested in joining, or tackled some of the issues you are interested in tackling, as well as for those more seasoned ERGies to network themselves. The organizer will utilize the information you provided in the Networking Session Information tab to structure the event. With all that is going on in job markets at the moment, we could all benefit from having strong ties to folks who can help us find the opportunities or talent we need.

12:00p-1:15p

Buffet Lunch

FC East Annex (Great Hall) & Heyns

Buffet lunch at the Faculty Club. Butter Chicken, vegan Baingan Bharta, naan, rice, salad, and delicious gulab jamun for dessert. Serve yourself from the lunch line in the Heyns room or the East Annex. Seating at indoor or outdoor tables.

1:30p-2:15p

Breakout Session 1

Social Sciences Building (rooms TBA) | More info here

Walk over to the first floor of the Social Sciences Building (formerly Barrows Hall) by 1:25pm; volunteers will be on hand to direct you to the right classroom for your session. You can check your registration to remind yourself of your choices; the volunteers will also have a printed list.

• How do creative financing solutions enable commercialization of novel climate technology?
  SSB Rm155

  • Description: A diverse panel of professionals experienced in a range of novel climate technology start-ups discuss the types of funding sources, and combinations thereof, these novel technologies must leverage in order to bring important solutions to a market, and to enable them to scale as needed to tackle climate challenges. The panel will share perspectives of VCs, private equity, incubator programs, government, and private industry, and can represent the full range of funding stages. The panelists have been involved in enabling solutions for diverse climate challenges, including: renewables power generation, building efficiency, electrification, water forestry conservation, water resource management, clean hydrogen, and much more. 

  • Leaders: Sara Mulhauser, Deepa Lounsbury, Lindsey Fransen,  Eric Hallstein
    
    

• Equipping and Inspiring the Environmental Movement's Next Generation
  SSB Rm151

  • Description: How do we build a stronger, more inclusive pipeline for the next generation of environmental leaders? Come explore approaches to climate and environmental education across K–12, community, and college contexts!

  • Leaders: Matt St Clair, Julian Fulton, Nia Jones
    
    

• Energy Policy: Health, Environment, and Equity Trade Offs and Decision Making
  SSB Rm136

  • Description: Leveraging this panel’s wide range of history at ERG (5 decades!), we will embark on an audience-centered discussion examining the range of ERG experience with the trade-offs between health, environment and equity.

  • Leaders: Garvin Heath, Bob Weisenmiller, Isa Ferrall-Wolf
    
    

• A.I., Datacenters, Software, and Energy
  SSB Rm60

  • Description:  Will computers use “too much” electricity? What are the costs & benefits of the growth of AI and datacenters? Come participate in a discussion of these critical questions facing the grid and society!

  • Leaders: Sam Arons, Andrea Vas, Jon Koomey
    
    

• Land Use and Decarbonization
  SSB Rm140

  • Description: The surface area of Earth is 510 million km2, of which 148 million km2 is land (and shrinking due to rising sea levels). There isn’t any more where that came from. Given this constraint, how can we feed 10 billion people, protect biodiversity, sequester carbon, and supply enough clean energy to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions? ERGies will address this question informed by recent analyses of net-zero energy systems with siting designed to minimize environmental impacts, biomass sourcing guidelines, and lifecycle analyses at the project level. While most of these analyses focused on the United States they were informed by global considerations and we encourage ERGies with international perspectives to join the discussion.

  • Leaders: Dan Lashof, Grace Wu, Kevin Fingerman, Ryan Jones, Dan Sanchez
    
    

• Project 2029: An ERGie response to Project 2025
  SSB Rm56

  • Description: Project 2025's destructive force has rocked us all. We must grieve and critique, but in this session we focus instead on vision and hope. We need to swing the pendulum back toward the light, so what will that look like? A silver lining to all this destruction is the hope to build back better. We will have a fun and structured discussion about what an ERGie plan for 2029 could be! Join us for a bit to dream about a better future.

  • Leaders: Zach Burt, Laura Moreno

2:15p-2:30p

Passing Period

2:30p-3:15p

Breakout Session 2

Social Sciences Building (rooms TBA) | More info here

• ERGAN Strategy in the Next Decade
  SSB Rm140

  • Description: This ERGAN Strategic Planning session is an interactive session in which participants will be charting a vision and game plan for ERGAN's next five years. What programs would best allow you to stay connected with other ERGies? What resources would be most helpful to your career growth? Join this session to be part of shaping ERGAN's future!

  • Leaders: Rashmi Sahai, Lindsey Fransen
    
    

• Let Them Eat Cake: Hunger in a World of Oligarchy and Authoritarianism
  SSB Rm41

  • Description: ERG alumni Jesse and Malini, colleagues at American University’s School of International Service, will moderate a discussion (or therapy session) about our current conjuncture of upward wealth consolidation, oligarchical rule, and environmental crisis. Malini will open with providing some context of the rise of oligarchy and authoritarianism in both the US and India, and implications for the ecological crisis, and Jesse will speak about how hunger is always the product of elites getting richer, drawing from his work on West Africa and beyond.

  • Leaders: Malini Ranganathan, Jesse Ribot
    
    

• Electric Sector Climate Resilience
  SSB Rm60

  • Description: Come explore the facets of electric sector climate resilience - how it impacts grid planning, how communities can prepare, and how we can build a more adaptive grid.

  • Leaders: Anna Brockway, Julia Szinai, Arne Jacobson, Jessie Knapstein (Facilitator)
    
    

• Rockin' with Rochlin: A Celebration of Gene on his 87th Birthday
  SSB Rm136

  • Description: Gene Rochlin would have been 87 on May 3rd, 2025. If you did not know him, this is your chance to find out who he was and his 40-year role in ERG. If you did know Gene (in any capacity), join fellow ERGies in celebration and remembrance and thoughts on how to keep his spirit alive.

  • Leaders: Ronnie Lipschutz, Sascha von Meier
    
    

• Reflection and Connection Space
  SSB Rm151

  • Note: This session is scheduled for 2:15-3:45 pm, half an hour longer than other sessions.

  • Description: Reflection and Connection Space: It is not easy to fully acknowledge the intensity of crises unfolding in our times, and to maintain effort towards a meaningful collective response. This session offers a supportive facilitated space for heartfelt connection with one another, welcoming the many facets of our experiences. All will be invited to share and listen with deep attention and care. This session may extend past 3:15 depending on the group size and needs, although those intending to participate should arrive promptly to minimize disruption. This session is offered by Emma Lawrence Tome (ERG MS '18), currently training in spiritual caregiving through the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies Eco-Chaplaincy program.

  • Leader: Emma Lawrence Tome

3:15p-4:00p

Unscheduled Time to Socialize

3:30p-5:30p

Photo Booth Open

FC Howard Room

Visit the vintage photo booth in the Howard Room for old school printed photo strips. Open from 3:30-5:30p and again from 8:30-10:30p for unlimited photos. Strike a pose on your own, grab your BFF for a cutesy shot, see how many people you can fit into one photo… go to town!

4:00p-5:00p

Social Hour in the Glade

FC Glade & Howard Lounge (no-host bar)

Join conference attendees for hosted appetizers, lemonade, and beer (until the keg runs out) in the Faculty Club glade. There will also be a no-host bar, open 4 -10pm, if you'd like to purchase wine, cocktails, or other beverages.

5:00p-5:15p

GROUP PHOTO

FC Glade

Mandatory. For posterity. 

5:30p-6:30p

PLENARY: Zoë Chafe, Heather Cooley, Tracey Osborne, Isha Ray (moderator)

FC Great Hall

In the Great Hall with overflow seating in the Kerr dining room. Live Streamed and recorded. 

6:30p-7:00p

CLOSING: In Memoriam Remarks by Rashmi Sahai, Presentation, Thank Yous

FC Great Hall

We’ll take time to remember the ERGies we’ve lost since the last Big Event in 2015.

7:00p-8:30p

Plated Dinner

FC Various Rooms

Seat yourself for a plated two-course dinner service in your choice of the Kerr dining room, the Heyns room, the Lewis-Latimer room or the Heyns patio (Seaborg as alternate.) Hosted red and white wine will be offered.

Place your nametag ‘dot side up’ near your plate to let the servers know what entree you ordered. (If you did not fill out your meal preference a choice was made for you, taking into consideration the dietary restrictions you noted on your registration form.)

8:30p-10:30p

ERG PARTY! Dancing, dessert, photo booth & live music by The Noisy Neighbors

FC Great Hall & Howard Lounge (no-host bar)

After dinner it is time for music, dancing, and dessert! The Noisy Neighbors, ERGie garage band, will play in the Great Hall. Dessert buffet, coffee, and tea will be available in the Howard Lounge. No-host bars will be available for attendees to purchase drinks, and the photo booth goes until 10:30pm in the Howard Room.

10:30p-11:00p

Closing Time

Faculty Club

11:00p

Faculty Club Closed

Sun 5/4

10:00a-2:00p

Various Cohort Activities * 

Various Locations

Volunteers from various cohorts have stepped up to organize for their year - see current line up here. Those leaders will be reaching out to the registrants from that era with more details on time and location. If you don't see your era represented and can serve as a volunteer lead, email coordinator Dan Aas at danaas18@proton.me This event is open to the full ERG community; it is not part of paid registration.

11:00a-6:00p

ERG Gathering in Point Reyes with John and Mary Harte * (Sold Out) 

Drake’s Beach

10:30a-1:30p

Switzer Fellow get together * (Invitation Only)

Sol Taqueria