Social Tech Brewing Vancouver in July

Rob Cottingham writes to remind me of a great event coming up next week here in Vancouver: Social Tech Brewing. I attended the last Social Tech Brewing at The Whip back in May and met some great folks. I also ran into some folks I hadn’t seen for awhile and renewed relationships.

Last week I recommended to my clients at the Pacific Salmon Foundation that they attend, so now I’m making the call open to everyone. Details below.

Social Tech Brewing Vancouver
Border-Busting: a conversation with Katrin Verclas
July 17th, Radha Eatery

If you work at the intersection of technology and community-building, we hope you’ll join us for a July 17th gathering of Social Tech Brewing’s Vancouver chapter. Social Tech Brewing brings together folks from nonprofit organizations, community service, social activism, social ventures and technology to share ideas—and beer!

Our July 17th event will feature a conversation with Katrin Verclas, the incoming director of The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (N-TEN), an American group that works to support the diverse people and organizations who help nonprofits employ technology effectively. We’ve booked a great quiet space in which to have this conversation, conveniently located above a great spot to drink beer.

Katrin will lead an informal discussion about whether/how US npos can work more effectively here in Canada. She’ll also introduce us to a new project from the N-TEN Technobabes Community: “BraCamp,” which we’re hoping will lead to a broader conversation about gender issues in nonprofit technology.

Katrin’s presentation and Q&A will start at 7:15 and wrap by 8, so please plan to arrive on time. If you’re early, folks will gather underneath Radha at the Brickhouse for a brew or two. And if you’re still hot to talk after we wrap, we’ll be moving back down to the Brickhouse again for another hour of libations, gossip exchange, and general consipracy-hatching.

Please RSVP on Upcoming.org’s dedicated Social Tech Brewing page.

We hope to see you there!

Details:
Date: July 17 2006, 7:00-9:00pm
Venue: Radha Eatery, 730 Main Street, Vancouver, BC. (Map to Radha)
Cost: Free!

If you’re thinking of hitting the event and want to share a ride, let me know. Carpooling is a service we offer less than seasonally.

BarCamp Vancouver: August 25

For the past few weeks I’ve been loosely involved in organizing an event called BarCamp Vancouver. Roland, Darren, Andre, Zak and I met up to get things started. We sat in the Bryght offices and had beer, pretzels and Pringles. Since then some other great people have jumped on the wagon and we’ll have to remember to bring more beer to the next gathering. Everything is set to happen over a 24-hour period from 6 pm, Friday, August 25th to 6 pm the following day, Saturday, August 26th.

So what is BarCamp?

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one. All presentions are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

And here’s a short video from Tara Hunt’s Horse Pig Cow blog that explains it.

So the Vancouver version of BarCamp will start where other BarCamps have left off, but will also break new ground in a new city. How? You’ll have to attend to find out.

I’ve created a posting for BarCamp Vancouver on Upcoming.org, if you like to look at listings and manage some of your social life like I do. But make no mistake! The de facto source of information, and the place to sign up if you want to attend, is the BarCamp Vancouver wiki. Operators are standing by now.

Work Industries Office Announcement

A few weeks ago I signed a lease for Work Industries to become a tenant at 70 East 2nd Avenue, on the corner of Quebec Street, here in Vancouver. We take over the high-ceiling, big-windows, open-air, brick-walled place on August 15. The Work space is an island in the centre of a larger space and I will be the man on the island. Look out ladies.

Sam Reynolds of Echo Memoirs and I did the paperwork. Then we talked about some crazy ideas. Echo Memoirs makes beautiful hardcover memoirs for people. They have an old fashioned bindery and press that not only look cool as design elements in the office, but actually get used in the book production process. The resulting books have a wonderful timeless feel to them that satisfies both the visual and tactile senses.

One Harebrained Idea Sam and I discussed is collecting family recipes as a key component of the memoir - creating personal family cookbooks from family recipes and family history: my.familyrecipes.com, or something like that. Family histories told through food and recipes. Keep your eyes open to see if anyone comes of it. Or, if you’re interested, get in touch with Sam to commission a cookbook memoir for your family.

So starting August 15, Work Industries lives at the following address:

James Sherrett
c/o Work Industries
Suite 302 - 70 East 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC, Canada
V5T 1B1

Harebrained Idea #3: ‘I’m busy’ Voice Mail

People talking on their cell phones while driving are worse drivers than those who are drunk. I’ve seen people walk into lamp posts while walking down the street, talking on their phone. I’ve been on my way to meet someone when I’ve received a call that I know requires my attention, attention I can’t spare at that moment. All I can do is fumble the phone to tell them I can’t talk or wait while it rings or buzzes to exhaustion or voice mail.

Why aren’t cell phone designed to do a better job with this situation?

I propose a button on the cell phone that interrupts the incoming call and routes it to a custom voice mail message saying something like: ‘Sorry I can’t take your call right now. I’m doing something that requires my full attention. I’ll call you back soon.” The person calling realizes that you have seen their call and routed it to a message. You get to pay attention to your driving and not act worse than drunk. Those around you like it too. Win x3.

Make sense?