The UN is coming to Salt Lake City!

On August 26th-28th Salt Lake City will host the 68th annual United Nations Conference. Salt Lake City is the first state to host the conference, outside of the UN’s home state of New York. The 68th United Nations Conference theme is building inclusive and sustainable communities.

To mix things up a bit, our assistant interviewed the business owners, Alex Mic-Poder and Julie Delong. We are sharing the interview with our Backyard Bookkeeping audience! Backyard Bookkeeper looks forward to being one of the 6,000 attendees at this conference from 120 different countries!  

1.  Why did you decide to be a part of the upcoming UN Conference.?

      “We believe in the mission and goals of the united nations conference, and we believe Backyard Bookkeeper supports that mission. Also, we want to interact with other organizations and companies with similar goals.”

2. How is Backyard Bookkeeper committed to Sustainability and being Inclusive? 

     “We believe small business is the backbone of the economy, and BB helps other businesses succeed, regardless of size or demographic.”

3. How can women be empowered to strengthen communities?

     “Women can strengthen communities when they have opportunities to use their unique talents to contribute and to participate in the local economy. Unfortunately, many women are not able to find appropriate work or business opportunities. However, BB both offers flexible work arrangements for women looking for work. The business owners of BB itself are women as well.”

4. Why do you think the United Nations chose Utah to be the first city to host the UN conference outside of NY headquarters? 

      “Well, the simple answer is because one of our friends campaigned for it! LOL. SLC is a great hub for the United Nations conference. It has international interests and internationally minded people. The city is close to one of the newer tech centers of the country (Silicon Slopes), and it’s a great place for innovative business ideas to get a start.”

5. What do you think youth and young adults can do to create an inclusive and sustainable community?

     “Youth can volunteer, seek employment, or start new ventures.”

6. How can society recover from conflict and nurture peace?

     “We need to address the basic needs of each individual for food, clothing, shelter, and community. Addressing these basic needs, is possible both through charitable work, and ensuring that all people regardless of gender, race, etc, have an equal opportunity to participate in the economy and the community. Peace happens when people’s basic needs are satisfied.   Several exhibitions and workshops at the united nations conference answer this question as well.”

7. How can we create more opportunities and economic success for youth?

      “We create more opportunities for youth, when we emphasize college education less and actual work experience more. Many college degrees don’t impart real job skills and just leave students with crippling debt. Therefore, we need to remove the stigma associated with not getting a college degree and encourage youth to experiment with work study programs and apprenticeships. Consequently youth gain real life experience rather than prolonging an educational experience that prolongs their dependence on others. (This is a controversial topic, these are just our personal views. Not sure how helpful they are here.)”

Please check back the week of the United Nations Conference in Salt Lake City for the second half of our interview! Check out the UN website for more information.