[Part I is here. The whole Certification Challenges series is here.]

Best way to loosen up panel members before a potentially tense workshop: 4 bottles of Ca’ Del Solo red.

Of course, this also meant everyone was a lil hung over, and perhaps a lil extra on-edge, at the panel the next morning. In my defense, I drank most of the stuff myself.

Anyway — It made for an interesting Saturday night when the four panelists for the “New Challenges in Fair Trade Certification” workshop @ the United Students for Fair Trade convergence met up at the Mercury Cafe, the night before the big event .

[Left to right: Jean of TransFair USA, Monika of Co-op Coffees, Julia of Equal Exchange, Dan of Univ. Wisconsin-Madison. Go here for more deets on the orgs.]

We got along so well, drinking and arguing passionately. So well, in fact, that the panelists started dancing together. Voluntarily. I got photographic proof!

I left the dancing to go back to the bar for a cosmo and chatted with local people — Oak and Dew — yes, those were really the names they went by —

No devils were dancing at the Mercury Cafe this night, however. The title’ll make more sense after the next post —

[more pics from the dinner and dancing here]

Updates: Part III: a rundown of people and orgs who felt certification standards need to change.

[The whole Certification Challenges series is here.]