For the second year, The Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center will be home to an event aiming to help businesses, individuals and communities discover ways to aid sustainability and promote healthy LOCAL business practices. Go Local Tacoma's Shift Happens daylong extravaganza will feature seminars, food and booths from local businesses beginning at 1 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Attendees will have the opportunity to eat and drink local products, as well as tour booths representing each local business. Shift Happens will also, once again, include a State of the City address delivered by Mayor Marilyn Strickland.

The event kicks off at 1 p.m. with "sustainability smart labs" aimed at small businesses. For $10 registrants may sit in on "Key Indicators of successful Entrepreneurs;" "Unlocking Your Situated Advantage: the hidden wealth potential of body, place, and commons;" "Customer Acquisition Tool Box;" and "Becoming a BEST Business."

The rest of the event is free.

From 4-5:45 p.m. local restaurants and food vendors will serve food and drinks just outside the main room in a happy hour, networking atmosphere. From 6-6:45 p.m. Go Local Tacoma will hand out awards before Mayor Strickland tells us how it is. At 6:45 p.m. local vendors will be open for business.

The Shift Happens event is just one of the many programs Go Local Tacoma has launched to connect local independent businesses to consumers and resources in an effort to build a more prosperous community.

I tossed a few questions at Go Local Tacoma Headmaster Patricia Lecy-Davis to see what would happen

WEEKLY VOLCANO: What do you believe Shift Happens attendees will walk away with?

PATRICIA LECY-DAVIS: A connection with the Tacoma community that they have not known. The coolest businesses in town will be showing their coolest stuff. Attendees will receive a sense of togetherness and feeling that we can make a difference.

VOLCANO: What can they expect to eat for dinner that night?

LECY-DAVIS: People should expect to bring an appetite. There will be savory samples from wide variety of Tacoma's most passionate food purveyors. The food vendors will be open from 4-5:45 p.m., which will be a happy hour environment. A cash bar will be onsite.

VOLCANO: What excites you the most about Shift Happens?

LECY-DAVIS: I'm mostly excited about all the "new" businesses that have signed up. Ninety percent of our vendors so far are not last year's vendors and are brand new businesses, such as Fingerprint Connections custom candy, Home Makeover Specialists and clothing designer Chelsea Berry Clothing Designer. Sonia Silver will be at Shift Happens promoting her "new shop" that will open in Proctor this spring.

For more information on Shift Happens and Go Local programs, click here.