Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a leading visionary on community economics. He is an Adjunct Professor at Bard Business School in New York City. He is also a Senior Researcher for Council Fire, where he performs economic-development analyses for states, local governments, and businesses around North America. He is credited with being one of the architects of the 2012 JOBS Act and dozens of state laws overhauling securities regulation of crowdfunding. He has authored, coauthored, or edited ten books. His two most recent books are Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: How to Invest Locally Using Solo 401ks and Self-Directed IRAs and The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing Pollinator Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity and Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street. One of his previous books, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006. A prolific speaker, Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk per week, mostly to local governments and universities, for the past 30 years in nearly every U.S. state and more than a dozen countries.

Jen Risley is the Director of Operations at the American Independent Business Alliance. She served as an early organizer of her local food co-op in 2007. In addition to her co-op work, she’s the Program Manager of The Local Crowd Monadnock, a community-based crowdfunding program for independently owned businesses. She holds a Master’s in Education from Antioch University New England in Keene, NH.

Wendy Wasserman's career has straddled public policy, strategic communications, and local economic development for over 30 years. She has created public outreach programs, designed strategic campaigns, and produced public programming for big names like the Smithsonian, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and Whole Foods Market always with an eye toward community wealth building. Wendy has also had small business experience as the founding publisher of Edible Iowa River Valley, a bed & breakfast innkeeper in Hawaii, and recently, the Communications Director at Washington, DC's famed indie bookstore Politics and Prose. Wendy holds a B.A. degree in American Studies from Vassar and an M.A. degree in American Studies from George Washington University.