Charlie KoenenMore than two decades ago, Charlie left a company he founded teaching people to “Think Different” about Apple Computers, to start thinking different about Bees. He began developing an alternative to the stacked box hive. Six years later “CharBee” introduced the first Vented Top Bar Hive System and paralleled it with a training curriculum that not only taught beekeeping, but also emphasized education and advocacy of “what’s going on with the bees.”  BeeVangelizing has become CharBee’s mission. As Director of Beevangelists, an organization with a bee-centric vision regarding the plight of bees and the need to regenerate thriving pollinator communities in urban environments and beyond. Pursuant to a trip to Slovenia, he became an advocate for eastern european beekeeping practices using AZ hive houses and Layens insulated box designs. Over the years, Charlie has foraged close relationships with many private, public and religious organizations interested in promoting pollination in their spaces.  Whether hosting hives, leading bee parades or programatic curriculum, he shows how bees became the glue that binds communities together through their unique biology and their bringing abundance to nature’s bloom. He is President of the Milwaukee Waukesha Beekeepers Association, SE Wisconsin District Chair of Wisconsin Honey Producers Association, Former State Bee Inspector, Educator, Advocate and bee slinger for Heritage Honeybees, one of the nation’s largest bee distibuters right here in Sullivan Wisconsin. He heads up an organization called BeeVangelists which “Preaches the Gospel of Abundance According to Bees”