By the time you read this, I’ll be on a plane to Boston to hang out at Equal Exchange for the weekend.

Being the fair trade leaders that they are, the peeps at Equal Exchange are throwing not just a celebratory party for their 20 year anniversary, but also a stakeholder summit, “comprised of a small group of committed leaders and active participants in the Fair Trade system.”

The topics: Measures of Fair Trade Success, and Small Farmer Solidarity.

My main concern: Even if register at the v. last moment possible, I’ll need to be at the summit by 8:55 am on Friday morning. That’s like 5:55 am Cali time — not good news for a girl who usually wakes up between 11 - 12 Cali time… Already, I’m considering just staying up all night…

Luckily, Equal Exchange’ll likely have lots of its yum fair trade coffee brewing –

In any case, I’m super psyched. Lotsa cool fair trade peeps will be there. As long as I’m sufficiently awake, I’ll really learn a lot — maybe even do some liveblogging, depending on the wifi situation –

Plus, I’ll take a tour of the Equal Exchange roaster, do some coffee tastings, and def. take part in an activity named, enticingly, “Chocolate Seduction.” I might also jump into the kids’ section for a bit — they get hula hoops and 4 square!

Thanks to Julia and all of Equal Exchange for the invite, and to Jordan for putting me up in Cambridge while I’m there –

Updates on the summit: Deets from the kick-off, the workshop “How much fair trade volume is enough?” and the ensuing small-group discussions, the workshop “What makes a fair trade relationship?”, and a convo about whether or not fair trade certification matters.

Update: 10/29/06: Equal Exchange has put up a nice summary of what happened at the summit.

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