"Catalyst 2000: Turning Challenge into Opportunity" will feature a host of speakers discussing ways to cultivate resilient communities, prepare for 2000 and beyond and ways to envision a sustainable future.

The conference will feature Robert Theobald, a noted futurist and expert on community building; Rosa Zubizarreta, a teacher and founding member of Oakland 2001: A Y2K Network for Community Preparedness; Michael Dowd, an author and co-founder the Portland-Metro Citizen Y2K Task Force; and Larry Shook, a journalist and co-editor of Awakening: The Upside of Y2K.

A panel discussion with Ashland and Jackson County officials as well as a series of workshops will also be featured. Workshop topics include food storage, permaculture design, living on the edge of evolution, despair and empowerment process work, Y2K contingency planning, emergency medical treatment and co-housing concepts applied to neighborhoods.

The conference runs in three sessions: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Saturday's events are in the Dorothy Stolp Theatre in Southern Oregon University's theater arts building on Mountain Avenue. Sunday's session is in the Rogue River Room of Stevenson Union.