For those on the West Coast of North America seeking an Interesting fix you'll be pleased to know Interesting Portland is a go on April 9. Call for speakers is open through end of month.
Those across the Atlantic have Interesting Sounds to look forward to on April 26 with the Interesting Godfather Russell. In Bristol rather than London which undoubtedly will be interesting unto itself.
And thinking has begun around Interesting Vancouver's next iteration. Interesting paranoia is starting to creep in, to ensure we are as interesting this year as last...
It took a few months but video of all the great speakers at Interesting Vancouver is now uploaded to the channel.
And, the accountants completed their work, we ended at around a 10% margin meaning $209 was donated to Givemeaning.com's operating fund to help worthy causes raise funds for their endeavors.
Interesting?
Apparently!
Brains are turning and questions being pondered. Despite the release of High School Music 3 a full house and a day's worth of speakers in one evening.
Great live blog coverage by Miss604 for the immediate faster than CNN report from the field. Stay tuned for more to come over the following week including full HD video. Images are trickling into the Flickr group. Add yours.
And thanks to all the speakers, you were ace.
Until then talk amongst yourselves who had the better, more professorial, beard. James Chutter or Tom Williams?
Interesting Vancouver 2008 is officially sold out, for real this time.
There are a couple seats reserved for media, please inquire directly with me (me [at] brettmacfarlane [dot] com).
Otherwise lets use Craigslist Vancouver for last minute ticket exchange if anyone can no longer make it and anyone else really really wishes to attend. Use the tag interestingvancouver. Scalping it goes without saying is not in the spirit of the event. But I said it anyways.
Furthering the speaker trend of interesting people who sure do a lot of different sorts interesting things is Dave Ng. A geneticist and UBC academic Dave spends his time playing in a lab. The Advanced Molecular Biology Lab to be specific. Where he pursues his interest in science literacy and the intersections between science and art, and the dynamics of public engagement. On top of this he is also a part time writer.
Greetings from Portland. Been good to get on the road and think up ways to really make Interesting Vancouver outstanding. The media has started to pick up on it thanks to the great speakers. And the is or isn't it an "unconference" debate is sure to only fire up further.
The Interesting community from around the world is quite excited too. I attended Likemind Portland this morning meeting Emily who hosted two Interesting South's in Sydney and is about to kick off bringing the event to Portland with a planning meeting on the 23rd.
James has crabs, but he's not telling where he got them.
Okay, a pretty lame introduction but relevant to James' pursuit when he's not out building a new advertising model. James' day job is launching Adhack an open source approach to advertising. A model that I as an ad man find really really interesting.
When James isn't burning the entrepreneurial oil or dedicating time to Boxcar Marketing where he is a pricipal, you can find him pursuing the lost art of foraging. Urban foraging to be exact. Written up in this month's Vancouver Magazine, James is able to forage a 5 star meal from the bounty of everything the land this part of the world offers. And no, there is no dumpster diving involved.
Naomi Devine is another overacheiver. A climate change and sustainability policy advisor who recently joined the office of Campus Planning and Sustainability at the University of Victoria in order to help create the university’s first sustainability policy and action plan. In November 2007, she was appointed to British Columbia’s Climate Action Team, which offers the Cabinet Committee on Climate Action policy advice on measures to achieve its legislated greenhouse gas reductions of 33% below 2007 levels by 2020, as well as setting interim targets for 2012 and 2016.
In 2006 she represented Canadian youth as a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference [UNFCCC COP 12, MOP 2], in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a co-founder of Common Energy at the University of Victoria an organization that works to move the university ‘beyond climate-neutral’. She is a co-author on the report: Building on Progress: A Plan to move the University of Victoria Beyond Climate-Neutral. Naomi recently finished her term as Vice-Chair on the City of Victoria’s Environment and Shoreline Advisory Committee. A member of the Board since 2005 she is also the founding Chair of the Victoria Chapter.
Another outstanding Interesting Vancouver speaker.
Collin Keddie is an engineer at Ballard Power, one of the more fascinating and innovative companies in Vancouver. You may have even had a ride on their hydrogen bus. When not consumers with fuel cells and hydrogen molecules Collin is consumed with land speed.
He'll be talking about the Buckey Bullet 2, the worlds first land speed streamliner powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Back in August, at Speedweek, the car reached a speed of 286.476 mph (461.038 km/h) - the highest speed ever recorded for a hydrogen-powered vehicle.
More on the Buckey Bullet on the blog. And listen more than watch this video to get a sense of speed.
Every great conference needs a great after party. Part of the venue choice for Interesting Vancouver was the after party. After the last speaker is done nobody need rush home as our space becomes the after party venue. A tended bar that is open late and beautiful view of Vancouver's skyline are the perfect forum for discussion and commradery into the night.
And if you are nice and the staff likes you they might just let you go for a midnight row (or not.)
Continuing the run of renaissance men at Interesting Vancouver is James Chutter. A man who makes you wish you did more with your life. James' activities and work includes working as a professional photographer (his work above,) actor, film maker (Dean's Honors grad of the venerable NYU Film School,) blogger, digital cultivator and most importantly a original Corporate Hipster.
Amidst all this James is also completing his masters in digital media at Emily Carr. His thesis on the evolution of the oral storytelling tradition in a digital world is a fascinating study of past and present modes of storytelling used by society. James will explain and elaborate on this topic at Interesting Vancouver. Be ready to take style notes too.
Roy Yen is a Producer, Consultant and one time Cultural Planner for the City of Vancouver. A couple months back after speaking at Pecha Kucha night in Vancouver he dropped by the new media innovation lab in the agency that goes by the name Radar DDB. He spoke about the urban planning/design of Vancouver and how it enhances or inhibits how we interact with our fellow citizens. One of the most insightful and thought provoking talks many of us have enjoyed this year.
These days live entertainment, concerts and Specialty Television Programming occupy most of his time. That and considering the current state of human connectedness occupies most of his mind. Closing in on the answer to all that ails the world, he looks forward to being a Bon Vivant all of the time very, very soon…which would be very, very…interesting as he puts it.
You have to love someone who aspire to be a full time Bon Vivant.
Interesting Vancouver is officially past the "oh good this isn't going to suck" phase to the "wow this is going to be fantastic" phase.
Our speaker list has undergone a couple changes this week. Though we are full we've managed to shoehorn in a few more:
As we approach the two weeks to go mark chatter is starting to pick up. Author James Glave is open sourcing his talk and asking for what rights you demand as a culdesactavist.
Great Vancouver blogs My Name is Kate, Miss604 and City Diorama are also in on the chatter. There are more and I'll post them shortly.
When we originally conceived giving birth to Interesting Vancouver, James Glave was exactly the sort of person we hoped to see emerge from the woodwork of this wonderful corner of the planet. An exceptional journalist, with a 17 year career under his belt, James has written for an enviable quiver of publications including stints as the senior editor for Outside Magazine and the online editor for Conde Nast's Wired News.
Recently James returned home to Bowen Island where guilt and desire to be a better resident of planet earth motivated him to build an eco friendly writers studio. James' recently released book Almost Green candidly chronicles the experience with insight, humour and a fair bit of drama.
You can read some of Jame's more recent journalism over at the Huffington Post or check out the very web 2.0 trailers promoting his book. And this little sad but funny tale reinforces why in addition to being greed free, Interesting Vancouver is crappy corporate schwag free.
For our Interesting Vancouver speaker profile series I wanted to start with one of the most intelligent and charismatic people I know. And that's saying a lot given my line of work. The charisma part at least.
Tom Williams, for the few who don't know, is that guy who was that kid who at 14 years old moved to Silicon Valley to work for Apple, after having already founded a couple companies back home in Victoria. Tom was a pioneer in the digital music space during his time at Apple and went on to consult for Fortune 500 Companies.
Today Tom is the passionate CEO of GiveMeaning.com one of the leading emerging digital giving models revolutionizing philanthropy through social networking. That is when he's not traveling the road with his wife Jessie Farrell a budding country music superstar.
Tom is an exciting and inspiring speaker. You can check him out on his interview late last year on The Hour with George Stromboulopolis.
As noted yesterday we are giddy over our Interesting Vancouver speakers. We've got tech gurus, an engineer, librarian, authors, film maker, digital artists and even a bon vivant amongst others. For the next couple weeks we'll do a daily profile of each speaker to get you excited for the big day. Not everyone has revealed this topic, as the surprise if half the fun, but you will get a taste of what's to come.
And to help you get over your procrastination here's a big button to click for tickets:
Designer Jason Landry took the daunting challenge of regionalizing the Interesting Vancouver logo. On his blog he's uploaded the working files and you are invited to remix.
I love what he did with the logo in not overly exerting a Vancouver influence. His rational:
You must respect designers who know what not to do in addition what to do. Thanks Jason, nicely done sir.
To be unfashionably gushy, we are over the moon with the line up of speakers for Interesting Vancouver. The event was announced without a single speaker three months ago. After a couple invitations, some volunteers and many nominations the full roster today features a wonderful and talented diversity of very very interesting folks. This is going to be a fantastic evening.
The room is starting to fill up and the amount of interest greatly exceeded expectations. That said, we need all of you who intend attend to go to buy your tickets today.
The further in advance everyone buys their tickets, the more great things we can do to excite and surprise you. If you wait till the day or two before you run the risk of standing room only.
And remember if we do have any funds left over it will be donated to a charity we the attendees decide. This a not for profit greed free affair. Every dollar goes to holding the event and everyone, even speakers buck up. This is a crowd powered affair.
So go on now, get your tickets. We look forward to seeing you there.
I was attended a company workshop this week at our venue for Interesting Vancouver. The Vancouver Rowing Club truly is a spectacular setting.
We will be doing a further site inspection later this week and scoping out how to incorporate one of the surprises we have lined up for attendees. You will have to be there to experience it but anticipate a multi-media art installation with dynamic South American interaction. Let me know if you want to join in on the site visit.
We are getting close to the final 24 hours to secure your official Interesting Vancouver badges for early bird ticket buyers. Everyone who buys their tickets before 11:59pm Thursday inherits a lovely one of a kind hand crafted Interesting Vancouver badge to wear, share and trade.
Jump here to secure yours.
In addition to an official logo, courtesy of Jason Landry over at Inkbase, Interesting Vancouver now has an official website. Ongoing details will still be posted here but the important facts and ultimately all the great video, images and chatter will be aggregated over there.
Just 9 more days to get in on the early tickets and your own hand made badge.
Interesting New York took place over this past weekend. A jam packed and impressive line up. Videos to be posted shortly but for now here's a summary and images of our Interesting sibling.
I'm stealing/sharing this badge from Interesting NYC that equally encapsulates part of the ethos of Interesting Vancouver.
This is a series of posts on particular aspects of Interesting Vancouver. Eventually all this detail will be housed on the website. Though until then use this space to pose questions and further discussion.
Get your tickets at Eventbright.
This one is especially for those trying to figure out how to expense their ticket. Firstly, Interesting Vancouver is probably the cheapest curated conference you’ll even attend in Vancouver. Though that's always debatable.
As noted earlier this weeky, there isn’t a specific outcome of the event, but we hope people leave inspired. Maybe a light bulb flickered about a problem they or the their company has been trying to solve for a while. Maybe you are an aspiring writer, CEO, photographer or lawyer. You’ll see some of the most creative and innovative such professions speak. Maybe you already are one and want to be better.
If you work in a corporate culture it could be a unique environment to take out a client or your peers. Nothing like new ideas to foster great working relationships. If you work in an independent culture or in the hard core technology or academic world it will be a great chance to meet more of you like and reach out to other circles.
In a nutshell you will walk away with new ideas, inspiration and hopefully a spring in your step to make your own life a little more interesting. It should be pretty easy to justify that cost.
Interesting Vancouver - Who is this for? Geeks or Suits?
This is a series of posts on particular aspects of interesting.
Most conferences attract a fairly narrow range of people. Even unconferences. But like TED, Interesting Vancouver has proven to strike a chord with folks from many backgrounds.
If you have to define it, Interesting Vancouver is for creative people. It is for people who may or may not work in a creative industry or a creative department. And who may or may not be interesting themselves. They simply are interested.
Interesting Vancouver is truly a multi-disciplinary conference. It seeks to impart new knowledge, things you’ve never known, or thought about. Open up parallel thinking ports. Activate parts of your brain that for even the brainiest person may have been neglected or unexplored. There will be a degree of spontaneity, unexpected moments, and learnings. This is what makes it exciting.
The audience is as interesting as the speakers. It will be a mix of artists, photographers, lawyers, librarians, social marketers, micro finance specialists, university professors, accountants, visual effects artists, journalists, marketing strategists, and more. The people sitting around you will be just as interesting as those on stage.
Often, the most interesting folks don’t think they are very interesting. They just know what they know, but that is often something very interesting. That said, there’s no pressure to perform, if you just want to soak up the experience and be on your way, that’s totally cool too. Life doesn’t always have to have an outcome. Though you will be guaranteed to learn something new, fill your head with new ideas, make new acquaintances, become acquainted in new ways with existing acquaintances, and be inspired.
Sounds pretty interesting eh?
Get your tickets at Eventbright.
There has been great interest in Interesting Vancouver and as Russell noted it's wonderful seeing how the Vancouver edition is shaping up in it's own way.
To reward everyone who's converting their interest in Interesting into actual tickets we're giving everyone who buys their tickets before September 30 a hand crafted one of a kind Interesting Vancouver 2008 badge.
These gems are from and inspired by The Regional Assembly of Text. Above is the first batch with more to come. My favorites so far are the ones banged off on a vintage Hermes typewriter.
You will get your badges at the event and trading will be encouraged. Hopefully we will sell out before the end of the month so that everyone can participate.
If you are hesitant because your schedule is uncertain, we will set up a ticket exchange wiki so the seats will be filled and you won't be out of pocket if you can't make it.
So go get your tickets here to get in the badge action.
As per Tuesday’s post this is a series on particular aspects of Interesting Vancouver. Eventually all this detail will be housed on the website. A little more succinctly mind you. Though until then use this space to pose questions and further discussion. Remember to get your tickets at Eventbright.
A key learning on Vancouver's unconferences is also the fact they are generally free. While there are costs involved to host any conference sponsors of unconferences pick up the tabs.
Interesting Vancouver will not have financial sponsors. This was a very deliberate choice. Once sponsors are involved it becomes a commercial affair. This is not a marketing conference and therefore there should be minimal marketing. It is simply about celebrating interestingness and as soon as sponsors write a cheque they rightfully expect something in return. Thus reducing the interestingness of Interesting. So, in return for covering the costs of the event, you are rewarded by not having to endure being sold anything or stare at banners every turn. There is no trade show, tote bags full of brochures or branded tchochkis you only take to avoid being rude. There will also not be any form of canvasing or requests for 'donations' at the event. It is truly fiscally obligation free the night of October 24.
As for ticket costs they were set at a rate to allow a first rate venue, good ambiance, and some surprises for you the attendee. Our plan is to not only put on a good show but also buy everyone their first round of drinks and put on some other surprises the night of the event.
Every dollar from your ticket goes into the event, and any left over funds will be donated to charity. How we choose that charity will be part of the event.
As for the ticket price itself it was set with two things in mind. Firstly, what it will cost to host the event without me personally incurring an intolerable financial risk. Secondly, based on the cost of Interesting’s around the world. Interesting London cost 20 pounds, so about $40 or so Canadian dollars, granted it was a 5 hour day time affair. Interesting Amsterdam was $20 Euros and Interesting New York is $35.
So, $25 seemed reasonable and in line and in fact cheaper than many events we attend in Vancouver. And we are confident it will prove to be well worth the value. And note that there are no freebie tickets, everyone including your's truly and the speakers will pony up for their tickets.
Now, in the spirit of transparency here’s the back of the envelope budget we’re working off of. Following the event a final budget, including the charitable donation will be published.
Room Rental 1500 Regular tickets 3750
Technician 0 Student tickets 250
Equipment 500 Revenue 4000
Bartenders 0
Bar minimum 1000
Eventbright fees 100
Surprises 500
Contingency 400
Expenses 4000
Hopefully that answers any dollar questions.
As per Yesterday’s post this is part of a series on particular aspects of Interesting Vancouver. Eventually all this detail will be housed on the website. Though until then use this space to pose questions and further discussion.
One of the most interesting learnings so far has been the fact that Vancouver has a very active unconference scene. In this part of the world, unconferences have grown to carry a fairly specific definition of what they are. In fact many may even be more unconferencey than what Interesting is aiming to be. With a generally very tech heavy theme local unconferences are great meeting places for ideas and solutions around various aspects of technology and day to day life. But not always.
Now, I’ve attended very few full blown unconference as I always seem to be out of town shooting something or at a bloated corporate conference and/or meetings. So I cannot astutely speak to exactly what they are. But in planning Interesting Vancouver we have collected a wide variety of reviews and opinions of what does and doesn’t work at them. James Sherrett and uber blogger Darren Barefoot in particular have been very insightful.
Barefoot really highlighted that around here there are many expectations of what an unconference is. Without getting into all the boring nitty gritty details here is a quote from an email I sent Darren on whether Interesting Vancouver is or isn't an unconference:
So is Interesting Vancouver an unconference? Yes. Is it different from other unconferences in Vancovuer? Yes. The key to me is curation combined with spontaneity of the affair. So moving forward to keep it clear we’ll avoid using unconference when speaking of Interesting Vancouver, out of respect for the great local unconferences, and although we live in a world folks love to put labels on everything we’ll simply refer to Interesting Vancouver as a conference of interestingness. Until we find a better label that is…
Next up, why isn’t Interesting Vancouver free? Tune in tomorrow.
Remember to go get your tickets at Eventbright.
Since announcing Interesting Vancouver in June there has been a great show of support. And as expected there have been many learnings early on. Now that the summer has passed and matters of work and indoor pursuits slip back into focus the activity on Interesting Vancouver is amping up.
In the coming weeks the official logo and website will be unveiled. And as with all things Interesting Vancouver they will be continually changing and evolving creations.
In advance of these releases I wanted to address publicly a number of questions intelligently posed over the past few months.
- Is this unconference like the other unconferences here in Vancouver?
- Why isn’t it free?
- Why aren’t speakers paid?
- Who is it for? Geeks or suits?
- What are the speakers going to cover – who’s the keynote?
- How can I apply Interesting Vancovuer to what I do?
- How can I help out?
So stay tuned and feel free to put forth any questions you may have.
And remember to book your tickets here through Eventbright.
After all the chatter, Interesting Vancouver 2008 is officially go status.
On October 24, at the Vancouver Rowing Club in Stanley Park Interesting Vancouver will kick off at 7:00PM.
Tickets available here.
Just $25 after taxes and fees, plus we hope to buy your first drink at the bar and share some other surprises.
If you're wondering what this is all about you can read the original description. Or just trust it will be an evening of great interestingness.
We have some great speakers lined up already and still have room for more. In particular it would be great to get a performer or two. 20 or 3 minute slots. Some of the early topics are urban foraging, digital nomads, evolution of story telling, canoe making and art galleries of Vancouver. Though speaker reserves the right to change topics right up until the day.
Hope you can make it, maybe speak or just soak up all the interestingness. And as Vancouver is one of the most Facebook obsessed cities in the world we've got an Interesting event page for you.
So we're off, and it would be great if you can reach out to your networks to spread the word - talk it up , blog it up, twitter it up, even dance it up.
The response for Interesting Vancouver has been outstanding and I'm really keen to nail our venue next week. The criterea is an interesting place that's uniquely Vancouver, holds about 150-200 people reasonable proximity to central Vancouver.
The Rowing Club is available and ready to book for Friday October 24. However, just as I was about to put down the deposit learned of a place called The Chapel. It's just past Gastown and houses a lot of gallery shows and simply is unique. Holds 150, nice stage. Good space for surprises. Has a little bar and afterwards we can enjoy a celebratory pint at the nearby Alibi Room for everyone who's helped out, which may just end up being everyone. I think we might have a winner.
I'm going to check it out tonight, if anyone has any experience with the venue attending or organizing let me know what you thoughts/experiences.
The 2008 edition of BarCamp Vancouver has been announced. Get in early to dial up all your un-conferencing quota for 2008. It takes place end of September, and will be a nice lead into Interesting Vancouver later September.
If you tend so spend you days in Portland another unconference in a similar vein to Interesting Vancouver is coming under t
he name Cre8Camp. The inaugural event, in Portland takes place next weekend July 26. The Rapid Prototype Animation sounds great.
Interesting West is progressing nicely. We're getting close to finalizing a date and we've got a venue for about 175 folks to share in the interestingness. Tickets are looking to be about $20, a nice round number. And the folk at Desteenation.com have offered to design a t-shirt folks can opt-in to order on demand making them our first sponsor.
Jason Landry is lined up to design the logo and James Sherrett is lending logistical experience having organized unconferences like Northern Voice.
Early speakers are really interesting. Darren Barefoot, Shannon Labelle and Apple Wonder Kid Tom Williams to name a few. I'm especially looking forward to James' presentation on urban foraging.
We're still accepting speakers, so suggest the most interesting person you know or nominate yourself if you're got something particularly interesting that you're interested in that you'd like to share.
More interestingness to come.
Interesting Vancouver will be an unconference inspired by inspiring conferences like TED and Idea City, but accessible to anyone and with more of a uniquely Vancouver flavour.
Interesting was founded in London by marketing guy/writer and uber blogger Russell Davies who spent some time as a strategic planner at Wieden Kennedy and Nike. Following the first successful event, the sequel London edition takes place this weekend. And events in New York, Amsterdam, Sydney and soon Portland are on board for this year. As described by Russell the ethos of Interesting is:
"The plan is to have all sorts of speakers speak about all sorts of stuff. Not brands, advertising, blogging and twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things. I'm hoping to find fascinating people and to just ask them to speak about something they care about. I want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, musics, jokes and whatever."
So that's it. We thank Russell for starting Interesting and letting us give it a shot in Vancouver.
Event will be comprised of a number of speakers given either 20 or 3 minutes. It will be held in late October and cost $20 or so and hopefully we'll have enough left over for a beer nearby afterwards. Exact date will be confirmed in the next couple weeks and we'll probably use Eventbright for tickets unless someone has a better idea. We're debating a day long affair on a Saturday versus an evening affair on a Friday or Thursday. Want to find the right day when everyone's not being too west coast and outdoorsy to attend something indoors. The nifty confines Performance Works on Granville Island is our leading venue which will be confirmed with the date.
Everything about the conference will be tagged with interestingvancouver2008 so that all the discussions, writing, images, videos and whatever else of both the event itself and the pre/post organization will be cataloged for attendees and anyone not able to attend, no matter where you are.
Your input on all this is welcome. Interesting is a collaborative affair. And while it will be very non conference like - no tote bags, logoed stress balls or weak coffee - we are going to need some help organizing a few details and identifying speakers. But part of the founding spirit of Interesting is to be an easy event to attend and organize so the burden of participation is low.
In addition to myself, Rob Newell and Stefan Hawes are birthing Interesting Vancouver and a few other folks have already put up their hand to pitch in. Thank you, but there's still room for more to jump aboard. Here are some of the areas we're seeking hands. Leave a comment or send me a note if you want to join in - 'me' at 'brettmacfarlane' dot 'com'
1. Conference things:
- Design / branding. We need a logo
- Web people to build a bit of a hub to archive of all the interestingness.
- Nourishment - coffee, snacks, etc....
- AV support.
Anyone who pitches in will be a sponsor. We aren't looking for cash, just services or things. So it's low commitment, and you'll get some recognition but we won't over promise more than a mention from the stage and celebration in the blog.
2. Speakers:
We have a few in mind but want attendee suggestions or self
nomination. Shoot me a note or nominate your most interesting friend.
We'll have a preliminary speaker list when tickets go on sale so you
know what you're showing up for. Here's who spoke in Amsterdam over the weekend to give you a sense of the type of thing it might be.
3. Spread the word:
Please spread the word by whatever means you deem appropriate and you can use interestingvancouver.com which points temporarily to this thread. This is where details will be released and comments, suggestions and excitement will be collected.
So that's it for now, hope you come along for the ride.
Interesting Vancouver 2008 is coming.
Prepare to be whelmed.
Raise a hand to be in on the ground floor - email to 'me' at 'brettmacfarlane' dot to the com.)
Follow the original in London to piece it all together if none of this makes any sense to you.
