Brett Macfarlane

Sending Thanks

Sending thanks, manually, to Jason, James, Mark and Lauren for making the third and most glorious year of Interesting Vancouver happen.

Homeless Copywriter

I really admire Geoff Vreekan. 

Geoff, like many, was laid off by his agency last year during the fiscal tightening most agencies faced.

He also knew that creative professional under 40 hardly, if at all give to charities. Though they do like sitting around an complaining.  So rather than do up a spiffy portfolio in an expensive hand crafted case he put his effort and time to work on behalf of Covenant House.  He made a campaign for those who could never afford an agency to help them out; street kids.

It was a honour for Geoff to take the stage and launch Homeless Copywriter at Interesting Vancouver.  I admire anyone who will stand up in front of 150 people to talk into a loud microphone about losing their job and then present new creative publicly for the first time.  It's hard enough presenting to a few clients, let alone 150 potential critics.  Bravo good sir.

Geoff is hosting a launch party this Thursday.  I'll be there.

IV 09: Ticket Protocol & Attendees Note

Ticket protocol is pretty simple, though the print is a little buried on Eventbright.  Simply print out the email confirming your ticket purchase.  If you've long deleted the email just bring some ID and we'll cross you off the master list.

Below is the schedule:

6:00PM - Doors open / Cash bar open
7:00     - Opening remarks (7PM SHARP / doors and checkin close)
7:05     - First Round speakers
8:00     - Intermission, snacks and drink refills
8:30     - Second Round speakers
9:30     - Closing Remarks
9:31     - Venue transforms to a pub for chats / bar remains open

Come early and enjoy the cocktail hour and avoid the last minute check in rush.

As noted we're trying food this year.  Though we will have some tasty treats and surprises please avoid getting too ravenous in advance.  We will have some hors d'euvers at the beginning and other treats throughout the evening. As most of the ticket revenue goes to renting the room please get some sustenance before you come if you have a hollow leg. 

Also, the bartenders and your fellow attendees would appreciate if you could bring cash to keep the line moving quickly, though cards are accepted if you prefer.

We've got a small block of remaining tickets.  Note, we're not planning on accepting payment at the door unless specially arranged in advance.  So tell your interested friends to go pick em up online while they can - http://interestingvancouver2009.eventbrite.com/

Best,

Brett

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Event: Interesting Vancouver 2009

Date: Friday, October 23, 2009 from 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM (PT)

Location:
Vancouver Rowing Club
450 Stanley Park Drive
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

For more information click here: Interesting Vancouver 2009

Message to IV09 Attendees

With under three weeks to go the following note went out to our attendees for Interesting Vancouver 2009

Hello,

We are excited to have you join us for Interesting Vancouver 2009.  With less than three weeks to go we are ramping up nicely to another evening of interestingness.

We will start building the anticipation with speaker spotlights later this week over on the InterestingVancouver.com site/blog.  Feel free to add your comments or questions leading up the the night.

Next week we hope to have the menu lined up so you know what we're serving and we're pleased to have home grown Hardbite Potato Chips on board sponsoring the affair with plenty of crispy tastiness.  Thanks to Lauren Issacson for arranging with the kind folks at Hardbite who as a local 100 mile food producer will pair nicely with a couple of our food related speakers.

There are still a limited number of tickets available.  Give your procrastinating friends an elbow or stern talking to so they don't miss out.  Also, there have been issues with Eventbright and Paypal.  If anyone wasn't successful in a prior attempt to acquire tickets it looks to be working now.  Due to this glitch we've kept the ticket price constant.

Yours in Interestingness,

Brett

Early Bird Tickets - Interesting Vancouver

This is a cross post from over at the Interesting Vancouver 2009 site/blog.

Only a few days left for the first batch of Interesting Vancouver tickets.

Some really good speakers putting up their hands.  New to the speaker's list is a mechanical engineer, a chololatier, lessons on how to smell, a member of the David Suzuki Foundation, salmon breeding expert and more. 

For a bit of interestingness today, MTV's global research tool Sticky posted on a talk from the recent Interesting London on what children 6-8 find interesting.

Interesting Children

View more presentations from AsiSharabi.

Interesting London 2009

The third installment of Interesting in London, UK takes place this Saturday the 12th. 

For those curious as the the provenance of Interesting Vancouver, the London edition is the original founded by Mr. Interesting himself Russell Davies.  (Sorry couldn't think of a more interesting name than Mr. Interesting.)

If you happen to be in London this weekend, though the 350 seats have long been sold out, something might pop up on the ticket wiki.

Otherwise, come visit us at Interesting Vancouver next month.

Interesting Vancovuer 09 Tickets

Now that summer's over, time for new distractions.

Interesting Vancouver 2009 tickets are available as of today over here.

Full details on the affair over at interestingvancouver.com

We sold out last year.  To avoid disappointment get in on the first batch of tickets at $25.

A second batch will be available in October to ensure the less hyper connected don't miss out on the fun, though at a slight premium for $30.

Apart from a few small tweaks the one big change from last year is instead of your ticket including your first drink, we'll provide food.  Probably not a king's feast, but something to keep the grumbles at bay.

Otherwise, same deal as last year.  Everybody pays, left over funds go to charity, and you can eagerly expect the unexpected. 

We have some exciting speakers lined up already.  Even more excitingly we're looking forward to whom else steps up to speak.  Shoot me an email if interested or wish to nominate someone you think to be interesting. There will be 15 total speakers, speaking for either 3 or 10 minutes.

Feel free to use the tags #IV09 or #interestingvancovuer09 if you kindly wish to spread the word.

Interesting Vancouver 09 - The Plan

Thanks to those dropping by for a chat.  This is the official playbook - last year on the left, this year on the right. 

We officially launch tonight. 

Interesting Vancouver 2009

With great fear of a sophomore slump Interesting Vancouver 2009 will be held on Friday October 23 at the Vancovuer Rowing Club.

Tickets will go on sale Tuesday September 8.  Sadly, because we sold out last year some folks who really wanted to go couldn't.  So, mark that date in your calendar you procrastinating Vancouverites.

I've got a few speakers lined up but really am looking forward to suggestions and nominations.  We loved the things people talked about that we didn't even know existed.  So please send me a note if you think you'd be good, or if someone you know would be good.  If you don't know me just jump over the the 'official' Interesting Vancouver site to find the contacts on the right.  Or just mail me at me [at] brettmacfarlane [dot] com. 

So far we've got someone lined up to talk about how to make a virtuoso violin, how to enjoy a trip to L.A. and a contributing editor from Wired UK talking about who knows what, but certainly something interesting.

Criteria for speakers is simple, you can't sell anything only talk about something you know or love. 

And if you were wonderful enough to speak last year, I'll buy you another beer and you'll get special front row VIP seating this year.

A number of kind and wonderful folks are keen to help out.  We'll have a disorganized organizers meeting on Tuesday August 25 at the Black Frog in Gastown at 5:30pm.  I'll pick up a couple pitchers and we can chat about what would be interesting to do this year.  There is very little "organizing' or effort required for this event, so ideas on cool things we could do or songs you could sing are much appreciated.