The Business Speaker Series kicked off on Feb.13 in building six, with Instructor & EcoVertex CEO Celia Canfield speaking about the green market shifts that is having an impact on the economy and is a regular speaker on the subject.

The Business Speaker Series is part of a series that educates students about Social Media impact on them and the world around them now, like in the case of Celia Canfield who spoke about the impact and the change that the current young generation can have on trends today, especially in the case of the Green technology where the current generation can push corporations to go green by making it a trend.

“It requires people who are smart and go in and make the recommends,” said EcoVertex CEO Canfield during the speech, when brought up on the issue of changing business practices so that they are using greener and environmental friendly technology.

Speaker Canfield has over 30 years of experience in both print and web publishing experience with some of the leading publishing companies in the world and is a regular speaker on the issues of sustainability, green marketing, clean tech entrepreneurship, and energy efficiency. In addition, she is a skilled communication expert.

“I love students who come asking questions interested, without knowing how to proceed and I picked up on a lot of pent up curiosity and if I can provide a road map, I’m a happy camper. So that’s what, I think, I was able to do today and that’s the future,” said EcoVertex CEO Canfield,at the end of the event as students thanked her.

Canfield continued, “I think that a lot of students are confused about what this industry is all about, and it is confusing because it’s an emerging industry. I wanted to clarify though questions and observation and let the next generation, if you will, take it on and come with what the industries will end up being.”

As pointed out by Canfield during her speech, while there are certain cases where green technology often runs afoul of political, that what is needed is for policies and business to develop a relationship that creates an environment where the two can work together towards the future.

In the case of business, this can be achieved by having the current generation provide the push so that business can push to develop more environmental friendly technology. “If you’re not interested in green, wake up people,” Canfield said. “I think that Skyline is kind of a change maker and so you see a lot of this on campus, on sustainability, green, the whole new Energy Systems Technology Management (ESTM), they are all excited to make change. And the fact that you’re sitting right in the middle of Silicon Valley.”

Canfield also teaches here Skyline College, as a part-time teacher in both the business and ESTM departments here on campus, where she helps students understand and learn the skills they need to achieve their dream whether it’s business or environmental. She also provides the link between the two, allowing students to learn the skills needed so that when they finally own their own business they are aware of environmental issues that concern business.

“We’re really fortunate to have her at Skyline, I think that as we build out our technology management program, she’s going to be really instrumental in doing that, so what she gives here today is kind of a preview of some of the courses that she teaches here,” said Project Coordinator of the Energy Systems Technology Management (ESTM), in an interview after the speech. “So all these things are vital of been education, what it means to be an employee and business owner in these days.”

The event was organized by Kappa Beta Delta, Enactus, and SparkPoint which was made possible by Skyline College President’s Innovation Fund.

“It totally surpassed my expectation, I’ve always believed in Skyline and the Skyline community but today they (students) showed a unity that I’ve always dreamed of having, and I’m very proud of what we accomplish and where we are right now,“ said President of Kappa Beta Delta Lloyd Pena.

Future Speaker Series events are set for Feb.27 with Speaker Rhonda Abrams , a widely recognized expert on small business and entrepreneurships and is one of the most influential women in Silcon Valley. The next Speaker event is on Mar.13 with Dr. Kehoe, who has helped develop an ethics course for the FBI academy and is the editor for the Annual Editions: Business Ethics which is published by McGraw-Hill.

This article has been edited to fix minor formatting issue. 2/15/2013 12:09 a.m.