Pavement people share auditorium with green advocates

Conferences make strange bedfellows.

Two years ago, International CES, the annual consumer electronics gala in Las Vegas, coincided with a large, multinational meeting of beef jerky and preserved-pepperoni-stick vendors. (I personally met the CEO and COO of Jack's Links.) Last month, one of the big clean-tech conferences took place in Palm Desert, Calif., a desert community that's been transformed into a garden with ecologically unfriendly amounts of air-conditioning.

Another example of convention incongruity presents itself this week: At San Francisco's Moscone Center, the Cleantech Forum, a showcase for the alternative-energy industry, is sharing the auditorium with the National Asphalt Pavement Association, which is holding its annual meeting of pavers and pavement supply manufacturers. Their theme is "The Streets of San Francisco."

The opening breakfasts for the respective conferences and speeches are taking place in adjacent ballrooms.