Ironic to hold an event to raise money for disaster relief only to have the most epic outbreak of devastating tornados rip through downtown Raleigh, knocking over trees & power lines, demolishing entire buildings, throwing debris miles away, and cutting out electricity to thousands (including the venue we held the event), just an hour before the fundraiser was to begin.

Whenever I’m worried or scared, I always ask myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and I usually realize that it’s not that bad after all. “Everything will be fine.”

But what happens when the unthinkable happens? When something happens that really is worse than the worst that you could have imagined? What do you do when the one thing happens that you could never have prepared for, happens?

I had been planning a fundraiser PechaKucha Night event in downtown Raleigh for Japan in response to the natural disasters there for the past few weeks.

On April 16^th, 2011 over 100 cities around the world held fundraising events with the mission to “Inspire Japan” to rebuild. Collectively we were all supposed to give hope and our support to those trying to get through the tragedy.

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

The morning of the 16^th I woke up with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I spent the morning making last-minute preparations and reviewing the checklist. Guestlist, check. Food platters, check. Extension cords & lights, check. I actually spent more time worrying about getting to a presentation on time at 3pm that I was giving to a group of local artists than worrying about how the weather might affect the fundraiser turnout. The sky undeniably looked like it was going to break loose any minute and the weather service predicted severe thunderstorms in Raleigh between 4 – 6pm. I naturally expected a slight drop in attendance if not just for the fact that people don’t like going out in the rain, but I still hoped for the best.

On the drive to Peace College in downtown Raleigh around 2:30pm the weather service announced a tornado warning one county over; far enough away that I wasn’t concerned. In all of my 25 years I’d never known a tornado to touch down I the more populated areas of the Triangle. I naively thought tornados were reserved for anywhere but here.

I gave a quick presentation at 3:00pm as expected and by the time I left Peace College at 3:45pm to drive just a few blocks south to set up for the PKN fundraiser the sky opened up in full swing: heavy rain, lightning, and some strong gusts. Typical thunderstorm weather, right? For a brief moment I glanced up into the sky and noticed some type of debris floating above, then kept moving to get out of the rain. I’m not sure why I didn’t think more of it at the time…

Luckily I made it into the Alexander Square parking deck just in time. As soon as I shut off the car and started unpacking, the power to the entire deck shut off like in a horror movie and the emergency lights came on. Fire truck sirens started screaming and never seemed to stop. Seconds later the weather got suddenly worse—hurricane force winds, heavy sideways rain, hissing noises, lightning. I had no warning and just stood in the parking deck for a while wondering what was going on and if I needed to take more cover. I didn’t hear any tornado warnings on the radio, but friends in the parking deck were getting multiple phone calls and texts from parents and friends saying that the local news station WRAL said, “STAY OUT OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH. IF YOU’RE THERE NOW, TAKE COVER.” Cellular connectivity was terrible, but I finally saw on my weather app that there was now a tornado warning in Wake county due to a tornado that touched down a few miles southwest of where I was—and it was heading northeast.

At this point I naturally began to panic. Is a tornado heading this way? Do I need to take cover? Am I in the tornado already or is the worse still to come?

This is what we experienced:

All I could do was wait it out. When we finally  saw a break in the rain & wind I ran across the street to Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern where we held the fundraiser. The good news: the bartender was there and let us inside. The bad news: no electricity here either.

It was nearly 4:30pm, only 1 hour before guests were expected to arrive by the time all of us at the bar got word that the tornado had ripped through downtown Raleigh a half hour earlier and danger had passed.

What now? Vegas, the bartender on duty, immediately called Zach Medford, owner of Isaac Hunter’s, to bring lots of candles and evaluate whether they would be able to keep the bar open at all without power. We were all out of any immediate danger, but what about the event? Is it still on? There’s no light to safely walk around. No electricity to plug in laptops, a microphone, to play music, or to take credit payments for drinks at the bar. We couldn’t connect to a single wireless network so we wouldn’t be able to live stream the event on Ustream as we had planned or even send a message to guests about the status of the event. We couldn’t even use our cell phones because the cellular networks were all bogged down from heavy usage. Not to mention reports of tons of street closures due to down trees and power lines and dead traffic signals at some of the busiest intersections.

The irony of the situation became apparent. Here I am trying to raise money for disaster relief and it’s threatened by a natural disaster itself.

I was not going to let nature bring us down again. Our purpose was to inspire hope and that’s what I still planned on doing. I didn’t know what would happen or how we would continue on, but I made an executive decision: it’s still on; this is going to happen with or without electricity or guests.

When Zach & Vegas asked us what we were going to do I didn’t hesitate, “We’re here. The food is here. The beer taps are working. I’m having a party whether anyone else shows up or not. Go ahead and start me off with the strongest beer you’ve got.”

That’s when I was able to get a handle on the situation and sent out my first tweets. First from my personal account:

I started getting multiple text messages, voicemails, emails, and twitter @ messages asking me if we were OK and if they should still come to Isaac Hunter’s or not. I needed a game plan fast. I sent the first message from the @pknraleigh twitter account around 5:00pm:

People actually started showing up. I had never been so happy to see their faces. I nearly cried. Sure, there was chaos. We had no idea how we would still give the 4 PKN talks without a projector, lights, or microphone. The guest list never emerged from my bag as I was thankful for every single person who walked through those doors. Food was hard to recognize in candlelight.

But people were there. We shared our experiences of the tornados and first-hand reports of the damage that I had yet to see. I was grateful that the tornado missed us, where half a mile south experienced complete devastation:

Update: The above video hit nearly half a million views so for some reason we can’t view it embed anymore. It’s on youtube here: http://youtu.be/ukuERsvfDMU

Volunteers like Dan Wilson & Simon Free pitched in big time setting up all the raffle items and engaging the crowd in a game to buy as many raffle tickets for Architecture for Humanity as possible.

When it became clear the electricity wouldn’t be coming back on, Isaac Hunter’s told us they’d have to close up shop when the sun set. That gave us about an hour to figure out how to go on with the 4 PKN speakers that remained. The presentations were all on our laptops, so we just set up the slideshow on 2 different laptops and put one laptop on each side of the bar and told everyone to huddle around! The speakers stood in the middle reading from note cards by flashlight in their regular voices as there wasn’t any noise to compete with. The silence was inspiring. For once nothing was competing for their attention and everyone was engulfed in watching the presentations given in the back of a dark bar during the last 30 minutes of daylight.

And then, as chaotically as it began, we rummaged together our belongings, thanked Isaac Hunter’s for their generous support, and disappeared into our own disaster-stricken city.

—————————-

The damage in Raleigh from a major EF3 tornado that traveled over 63 miles is no joke. A university is in shambles and canceled classes the rest of the semester. Children died. Hundreds lost or found damage to their homes. If you’d like to volunteer to help, complete this form from the City of Raleigh.

Despite the damage in our own home city, we came out relatively unscathed compared to Japan. More than 14,000 people lost their lives there. All the relief in the world still won’t be able to repair all the damage, but they need everyone’s help and now you know first-hand what it’s like to experience such a severe natural disaster so close to your own lives.

Please consider donating to Architecture for Humanity to help rebuild in Japan.

Related posts:

1. It’s a Free Market For Spreading Ideas
2. PechaKucha at ideaSPARK: Behind The Scenes
3. Recognizing Essential Communities

I quit my job at RTI International. My last day was Wednesday, March 2^nd, 2011.

I’ve already received many congratulations, which is exactly the response I was expecting to get. I’ve also received lots of questions like, “What’s your plan?” or “Do you have another job or interviews lined up?”

My “plan” really started a year ago and because RTI wasn’t part of my plan to achieve my goals, quitting was simply imminent.

No job lined up. So what is my plan now? I’m looking for the next big thing that will bring me closer to my goal of owning my own company and being a leader in my community by 2014.

I am still organizing PechaKucha Nights (oh hai, next one is coming up on Wednesday; you should come).

I am still heading up the Triangle Community of Developing Careerists meetups every month.

And I’m still putting in a few hours each week over at Live Work Play.

Most immediately my attention has turned to preparing for my upcoming trip to Austin, TX for SXSW Interactive from March 10^th through March 19^th. Oh, you’ll be there? Let’s meet up!

Taking it one step at a time…

[For more information about “what I want to do” see my Linkedin profile and resume; my bio helps, too.]

Related posts:

1. First Internship Lessons
2. Recognizing Essential Communities
3. Quit Planning & Just Do It!

I went to (and threw) a lot of great parties in 2010. Taking the best parts from each of my favorite events, I present to you my formula for throwing a party of epic proportions in 2011!

There shall be dancing!

Case Study: SPARKcon flash mob dance: Raleigh, NC

If you look closely, you can see my head bopping to and fro. Participating in a flash mob dance was something I got to check off my bucket list this year!

Music to my ears.

Case Study: Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Manchester, TN

Just pretend like you’re hearing music right now. Bonnaroo was the BIGGEST and BEST party of 2010 because there was literally music playing somewhere 24/7 for 4 days straight.

Playing dress-up.

Case Study: Revolution Raleigh Glow Party: Raleigh, NC & WKNC Afterhours’ dance party (Beach Style): Raleigh, NC

See that beach ball? Yea I brought that and decided to turn it into a game. I purposely threw it all around the room and everyone there drew on it. Props add dimension.

Glow sticks, while technically a prop, get a whole description to themselves. They make any party exponentially better.

Location, Location, Location.

Case Study: Bourbon Beach Club Reggae Beach Party: Negril, Jamaica

Parties in exotic locations are going to be memorable no matter who you were with or what you were doing.

No shoes necessary at this party. Actually... clothes aren't really necessary at all once you get in the ocean just a few feet away (luckily we didn't get pictures of that)!

VIPs

Case Study: PechaKucha Night at ideaSPARK after-party: Raleigh, NC & Brazen Careerist’s Network Roulette launch party: Washington, DC

The company you're in is really *the* most important aspect of a party. Being in the company of good friends at my events makes me 200% more joyous than if I were with strangers.

The VIP list could make or break the party. For example, Regina Twine and I drove 4.5 hours to DC just to meet Penelope Trunk, Ryan Paugh, and seriously so many other amazing people that I don't have space to list them all. The guest list definitely MADE that party :)

What’s Next?

Holiday parties galore. They will probably all include: music, dancing, costumes (hey — Christmas dresses count!), people I definitely want to see, but all in not-so-exotic locations.

In 2011, though, expect a lot more parties. This was the year that I found I’m totally passionately in love with planning events of all kinds (except birthday parties, weddings, and funerals) so it’s going to happen. I’m really *most* excited about all the SXSW Interactive parties more than anything, however :)

…

In participation with #reverb10.

Related posts:

1. On TNGG: Volunteering at Bonnaroo
2. Is SXSW Interactive Worth It?
3. Learning to Remember

#reverb10 December 7th prompt: Community.

Community has been such a significant keyword in my life throughout 2010 that I had to mindmap everything I could think of relating to community in my life this past year (hence the image to the left). Yea, a lot, right?

First of all, to answer the first part of today’s #reverb10 prompt, “Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010?” Believe it or not, online communities often help formulate IRL relationships. I know, hard to believe that having profound, intelligent, and sometimes emotional conversations in an online community could move you to actually want to meet a stranger in public. But it’s true. It’s 2010. That’s what people do. 3.5 places I found community this year:

• Brazen Careerist: If I were picking favorites here, I would pick Brazen Careerist (BC) as my favorite online community of 2010 (and part of 2009). I also want to take the time here to recognize two amazing community managers, Ryan Paugh and James Moreau, for being instrumental in helping me feel like a real part of the BC community and helping me to find (or create) good communities within the network. Oh, and Rebecca Thorman–because she encouraged me to participate more frequently & deeply by always posing the most interesting questions and continuing conversations offline about the network. So not only did I meet a group of motivated job seekers and professionals, we’ve continued to relate to each other as members of the community as if it were an alma mater. For example, just today one of my bosses interviewed a friend of mine for a job where I work. During the interview my friend explained that she met me through an online network, Brazen Careerist, even before she moved to Raleigh. And now we’re good friends. And I’m helping her get a job. Oh and I discovered (well, actually I beta tested…) Network Roulette on BC. It’s not exactly its own community, but it’s a great place to start to find just about anyone you may want to start/join/participate in an online or IRL community. In a nutshell: without BC I would literally would not be a part of any of the communities I am a part of today. It has been that important. Even if I’m not an active member every month, it’s importance will never go away.

• Tweetups: Tweetup: An organized or impromptu gathering of people that use Twitter. At fist I thought this was the geekiest Twitter fad ever. Then I realized they’re real. And fun. And not going away. Because basically it just means using Twitter to find people with common interests to join in on activities. Ummm awesome! Last I checked a community was “an interacting population of like-minded individuals”. Tweetups of all kinds have been instrumental in getting me out of my shell and into the community. I’ve gone to all sorts of tweetups: movie tweetups, social media tweetups, idea-sharing tweetups, ice-skating tweetups, not-at-sxsw tweetups, etc. I met some of my new best friends at these events. Whenever I travel somewhere and I have some free time I set up a tweetup or join in on one in the city I’m traveling to. I’m never worried about not fitting in with the crowd because anyone who knows what a tweetup is is a friend of mine and we’ll have plenty to talk about! The more the merrier! Thank god I have a social life!

• PechaKucha Nights Raleigh: I MADE THIS! I’m so freaking proud of building this community practically from the ground up. I must thank my mom dearly for asking for my help when she wanted to bring another idea-sharing event to Raleigh, PK Nights and needed help with promotion and getting the word out about the event. I was so wary of getting involved in another project when I was trying to focus on changing my career, but organizing and creating this PKN community ended up being the best thing I could have done this year. Imagine, I actually somehow convince between 100-200 people every few months to come stand in a room for 2 hours watching people get up in front of the crowd and talk about their passions, however odd they may be. PechaKucha Nights manage to bring together a group of people all similarly passionate about being open-minded, creative, and sparking interesting conversation. These are truly my people. Gawd, it makes me all teary-eyed!

• TCDC: Aka the Triangle Community of Developing Careerists. Uhhh “community” is in the name of the description. I thought I had to include it. This is another community a fellow Brazen Careerist member and I spent most of 2010 defining and finally putting into practice by October. I won’t say too much about this because this is already getting too long.

The second part of the prompt asks, “What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?”

The fact of the matter is, I feel like I’m being pulled in a million directions these days. I only mentioned the most important communities above, but if you knew how many other groups, teams, and communities I belong to you would probably think I’m insane (maybe I am)! Matt Cheuvront actually reminded me in his recent post on community that sometimes we need to let go of some communities. So for 2011 I would like to commit more time to one community (aka a team) rather than spend just a little bit of time on a lot of communities. I want something to put all my passion and energy into. If this is cryptic in any way, what I mean is: I’m ready to join a company full-time, for pay, working with a team that I really feel a part of and doing work that I can really get behind. At this very moment (a situation that changes monthly) I’m working 20hrs/week with a “community” that doesn’t care about me in the slightest, 8hrs/week interning with a small local startup that I *really could* get behind, freelancing a few hours a month purely to help a friend out and get a little extra cash, and volunteer organizing events for two different nonprofit groups (PKN & TCDC).

…

And just for kicks, I think it’d be pretty cool if I could pull off more deeply connecting with:

• My UNC-Chapel Hill alumni network. I’ve been seeing alumni pop up all over the place recently and I have an even stronger connection with alumni now than with the students while I was enrolled at school there. In full disclosure, I actually only spent a total of 4 semesters on campus at UNC and never had a hell of a lot of school spirit. But now that being an alum appears to be a GOOD THING, I’m way more excited about meeting other UNC graduates :)
• Organized, stress-free, GTD people. Now that’s a community I’d like to be associated with. I used to be the “organized” person in the family–organized my sock drawer, my closet by color, everything was in its right place, etc. Then I don’t know, I guess my life got busy or something? I’ve been reading David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and I’m in love. I must find others who’ve made an organized life for themselves and be their friend. I hear that you start acting like the people you associate yourself with.

…

In participation with #reverb10.

Related posts:

1. On Justifying Social-Networking (Or Why I Might Abandon Social Media)
2. Triangles Crowdsource Our Careers (Brazen Style)
3. Lesson From Social Media Day: I’m An Expert, Too

You’re like “What the hell is a PechaKucha” right? First of all, it’s Japanese for “chit-chat” pronounced something along the lines of: ‘peh-CHAK-cha’

Nobody says it the same way, so whatever. I’ll move to what it is. Basically it’s an event featuring 8-12 speakers giving a presentation about something they’re passionate about in any way they like as long as it involves 20 {graphic} slides that each advance automatically every 20 seconds. Meaning each presentation is only 6 minutes and 40 seconds (20×20). Topics vary quite a bit from spoken poetry (complemented by photographs on each slide) to special interest group formations in the area to a tribute to a speaker’s 99 year old grandmother who had recently passed away.

I’ve been organizing these events since about February of this year with events in March, June, September, and last week. We cry, we laugh {a lot}, we get shivers up our spine, we sometimes get bored (because we really can’t be interested in *everything*), and we get inspired. We also make a lot of friends. You see, PechaKucha means “chit-chat” and we take that seriously. With between 100-200 guests at each event and plenty of time during the intermissions and after the formal presentations, there’s a lot of interesting conversation going on. It’s highly encouraged for audience members to go up to presenters after the event and continue the conversation with them about whatever struck them.

I’m an event planner. I make events. Most recently however, I actually created a PechaKucha presentation of my own in addition to organizing the event. Maybe I was over-committing, but an idea struck me and I just had to share it! Sometime between Thanksgiving and an hour before the event started at 7pm on December 2nd I had all my slides together and a vague idea of what I would talk about. It was my fist public speaking engagement in front of more than 100 people at once. I thought I would have been really nervous but for some reason I wasn’t at all. Perhaps because I was passionate about my topic or because these were my “people” or maybe just because I popped some Atenolol before I arrived. Just the same, I felt a huge weight off my shoulders the moment I stepped out of the spotlight and moved back into organizer mode. I much prefer the stress of something possibly going terribly wrong with the seating, microphone, drinks, or tickets than the stress of giving a presentation. Either way, I did it, and I’m damn glad I did!

You can see the slideshare of my presentation below (video to come in a few days):

Related posts:

1. PechaKucha: Creative Minds do Durham
2. PechaKucha at ideaSPARK: Behind The Scenes
3. First Speaking Engagements. Scary, Right?

PechaKucha Night at ideaSPARK on September 16^th, 2010 was by far the biggest and most seamless PKN to date. With 14 presenters—out of about 26

Me and Alex Gibson (our emcee) at the PKN after-party celebrating 1 year in Raleigh

submissions—and a packed room of about 200 attendees (out of the over 300 that registered), the fact that it’s popularity had seemed to doubled overnight was sort of obvious.

While I expected the PK night during SPARKcon to be a more popular event, I was completely unprepared for what actually happened. I predicted that recruiting speakers would be a much less laborious task as they would all just fall right into my lap and POOF there would be our lineup.

Except we got WAY TOO MANY submissions and ended up having to come up with a criteria for accepting some presentations over others, and then actually going through the decision process, and then actually letting everyone know they had been accepted, you know, or not. I learned that I’m really good at being rational, fair, and not letting my personal feelings get in the way too much, but I also learned that I hate telling people bad news (especially to people I like a lot).

Oh, and as far as filling the space, we were offered this lovely new space by KINGS that would fit far more people than previous events so I thought that would be a no-brainer too, expecting that say, if double the number of people show up to PechaKucha at ideaSPARK then we still wouldn’t even hit the space’s capacity.

I was wrong again. The event sold out (of 250 tickets, which was capacity) more than two weeks before the event and by the night before the event there were over 50 people on the wait list to get tickets. And then there were the 30+ last-minute VIPS (aka SPARKcon sponsors that donated oh say… $10,000 or something), press, and SPARKcon organizers and all their friends that wanted to come too. We didn’t even have to do any marketing because the tickets were already sold out! Not a bad problem to have, but still a problem. Somehow by analyzing every ticket order and maneuvering the guest list in just the right way I managed to get everyone on the list that were promised to get in.

I’ll be honest (and not modest at all), I’m incredibly impressed with myself for pulling it all off practically seamlessly without any real experience to lean on. I truly think this whole problem-solving, thinking on your feet, working under stress, and planning every minute detail thing is really my thing. Sure, I had some people to help me out (namely my partner in crime, my mom—which in itself is a whole other topic of discussion—and Janet Stracke, whom I’ve come to love dearly over the past 6 months working with her), but I really think of this event as my baby.

So nobody can say we didn’t put a lot of thought, effort, and time (because I seriously spent at least 40 hours making sure everything was perfect in just the 3 days prior to the event) into creating a pleasant and memorable experience for all of our speakers and guests.

I will be the first to admit, however, that there was definitely something missing at the last PechaKucha. I’m not exactly sure what it was. It could have been the larger audience, the different mixture of people in the audience, the presentations themselves, or maybe just the lack of free alcohol as many mentioned in jest, but in actuality could have a very serious affect on the audience’s mood. At first I was a little saddened that none of the presentations made me cry (or pee my pants from laughter) as they did at PechaKucha #3 in Durham, but then I realized that every event is going to be different. If they were all the same what would be the point of going? Of course every speaker isn’t going to leave a lasting impression on you, but hopefully at least someone does, and in that case that’s all you came for. Heck, after all, it’s free—how much more can you ask for?

What did I really think of the presentations though?

There were some that really hit me on a personal level (Katherine Droujkov, Justin Goeres, Chris Sopher, Jay Dolan, etc.) while I found others’ missions and goals really important to helping Raleigh and the surrounding Triangle thrive as a creative hub of the south (Ashley McClelland, Paul Reimel, Dave & Kim Turnage, Design Kompany, etc.). I expected the unexpected, and that’s what we got.

Overall the feedback received was almost all positive (hey, I can’t make everyone happy no matter how hard I try…). Most people provided us with suggestions for the future and I plan on taking into consideration each and every comment. PechaKucha has such an amazing community following and I fully expect this to continue to be an event for that community.

You can view all of the presentations on the www.pknraleigh.com website soon, including their slides (thanks for Kelly Stracke for videotaping the event and getting the videos to us so quickly).

Mark your calendars now for our next event on December 2^nd. If you’re thinking about submitting an idea to present, please email pknraleigh@gmail.com and we’ll chat!

Related posts:

1. PechaKucha Night #4 at ideaSPARK
2. PechaKucha: Creative Minds do Durham
3. I Made a PechaKucha {presentation}

SPARKcon opens with 5^th Annual ideaSPARK at KINGS

August 18, 2010—Raleigh, NC – SPARKcon 2010 will open with a sharing of new ideas and creativity at the 5^th Annual ideaSPARK. The event will take place at the recently renovated KINGS in downtown Raleigh on September 16th, 2010 at 7:30 pm. This year’s ideaSPARK repeats last year’s successful format as a PechaKucha Night. The Thursday night opener will be the fourth PechaKucha Night coordinated by PKN Raleigh organizers and sponsored by Lonerider Beer, KINGS, Yelp! and TechShop.

What is SPARKcon? SPARKcon is a showcase of creativity, talent and ideas of “The Creative Hub of the South,” the Triangle NC. SPARKcon is a “creative potluck” of SPARKs or creative themes such as art, music, film, fashion, etc. Each SPARK is organized & produced by individuals who are deeply embedded in that specific local scene. SPARKcon is a program of Visual Art Exchange, a Raleigh non-profit whose mission is to support emerging artists and connect the community to the arts.

What is ideaSPARK? For the second year, ideaSPARK has adopted the PechaKucha format. PechaKucha Nights are local idea-sharing events in the 20 x 20 format: speakers present 20 slides for 20 seconds per slide. Slides advance automatically to keep things moving forward at a rapid pace. Anyone can present, but the most meaningful PechaKucha presentations are the ones that uncover the unexpected — unexpected talent, unexpected ideas.  Many use PechaKucha Night to present their latest creative projects, work, or passions. PechaKucha is Japanese for ‘chatter’ or the sound of conversation. All of September’s ideaSPARK/PechaKucha presentations are closely aligned with the philosophy & mission of SPARKcon. The event is free, but space is limited. Reserve your seats at:  http://ideaspark2010.eventbrite.com.

Presenters:

- Mor Aframian (I Design Ethically) – www.morlove.org
- Christine Choi – christinerchoi.com
- Dipika & Akira Morita (DesignKompany) – www.designkompany.com
- Jay Dolan – http://theantisocialmedia.com
- Katherine Droujkov
- Justin Goeres – justingoeres.com
- Josh Johnson – www.jnjosh.com
- Ashley McClelland (Triangle Hackerspace) – http://trianglehackers.com
- Paul Reimel (Downtown Raleigh Alliance) – www.YouRHere.com
- Deborah Ross – www.deborahross.org
- George Smart (Triangle Modernist Houses) –www.trianglemodernisthouses.com
- Christopher Sopher – www.youngerthinking.com
- Dave & Kim Turnage

• Date & Time: September 16th, 2010, at 7:30 pm (doors open at 6:30)

• Location: KINGS, 14 W. Martin St., Raleigh, NC 27601

• Reserve tickets: http://ideaspark2010.eventbrite.com

MEDIA CONTACT:

Carlee Mallard | @pknraleigh | www.sparkcon.com/ideaspark | pknraleigh@gmail.com | www.pknraleigh.com

Related posts:

1. PechaKucha at ideaSPARK: Behind The Scenes
2. PechaKucha Night #5
3. SPARKcon

It’s already been three weeks since our last PechaKucha Night. Since we’ve already made a lot of headway getting the next set of speakers together for the September event at SPARKcon it feels more like months ago, though!

I wanted to take a moment to relive and reflect on that night.

It was such a great event though that I can still feel the energy in the room. I remember the smiles as guests, organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and even curious passerbys walked into Relevance’s snazzy loft office space to grab some wine or beer, Mediterranean appetizers, and mingle with old and new friends. I remember the silence as everyone focused intently on the first three presentations about dealing with stress in our lives, issues of modern civil rights right here in Raleigh, and how our life should be more like the bees (packed full of graphic honey bee photographs). I remember the room full of laughter as up-and-coming improv comedian Nathania Johnson bashed the modern education system. I remember seeing some people even start taking notes after the first intermission during the presentations on business, nonprofits, and entrepreneurship. I remember the flutter of excitement & chit-chat during the breaks. And finally, I remember seeing tears as Gabrielle talked about the 10 lessons she learned from her grandma who had recently passed away, a tribute of sorts. As one attendee said, “the circle is complete.”

All in all, I was genuinely impressed by the entire evening. As an organizer I was probably more ecstatic about how smoothly everything went (especially compared to the March event) than all of the guests. Having a private space with amazingly helpful sponsors (Relevance, Lonerider Beer, NC Wine and Grape Council and Saladelia Cafe) and volunteers (Cyn Mallard, Janet Stracke, Brianne Villano, Kartik Bhavsar, Rianna Mallard, Shannon Prue, & Jeff Brenman) certainly helps. On the other hand, my one regret as an organizer is that I was so preoccupied with organizing that I wasn’t able to give all of the presentations my 100% undivided attention. Ahhh the sacrifices we make.

Nonetheless, there were a few presentations that really stood out for me personally that I’d like to share:

Nathania Johnson’s We Don’t Need No Education: Why the Worst Students are the Brightest Thinkers

HILARIOUS. I knew that she’d be bashing traditional education, but I was completely unprepared for the level of hilarity that ensued. Sometimes the best way to get your point across is to be as ridiciulous as possible. She succeded. I don’t think anyone could have left the room that night without rethinking their own educational choices, the education their children are getting at school, or how society got so far out of hand.

Thank you Nathania, for saying what a lot of us are thinking, but in a completely different way.

[you can watch the video of her presentation on her website here—and you really should!]

Gabrielle Kaasa’s Love, Life and Friendship: 10 Lessons From My 99 Year Old Great-Grandma

I didn’t realize it until nearly the end, but Gabrielle’s “mama” as she calls her, only recently passed away earlier this year. The fact that she was able to give tribute to her great-grandmother so soon after her passing was courageous, if nothing else. Not only that, but there was some real substance to the lessons she shared with us. My own grandmother was in the audience that night a few seats away and I immediately felt a closer connection with her than I had earlier in the night. She brought the audience a little bit closer to their families that night. Gabrielle reminded the audience not to take their family for granted and that if you listen closely, they might even have some words of wisdom to pass on.

[read how she was glowing after the event on her blog here]

Steven Keith’s Epiphany Farming

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Steven having never met him before, but with a title like Epiphany Farming I was intrigued. It was either going to be a huge bust or inspire an epiphany of my own. His slides ended up being the simplest of the evening: all the same background with one word on each, and of course there were 20 slides as necessary. At each slide he talked about one important point or tip for encouraging the flow of ideas, or epiphanies. With no tears, laughter, or captivating slides to distract me I paid attention to every word he said. The outcome? This man needs to mentor me.

I spoke with some of the other attendees and organizers after the fact and we’re intent on starting our own Epiphany Farming Meetup for young people who want to brainstorm or flesh out ideas with others. Can’t wait to see where this goes!

To see more photos of the event, check out the Facebook photo albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16168&id=127784347243885

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2465064&id=2717888&l=44545d7f1e

Related posts:

1. Pecha Kucha: A New Sector of Raleigh Creative Minds
2. PechaKucha at ideaSPARK: Behind The Scenes
3. I Made a PechaKucha {presentation}

Sometimes you need to step away from the daily grind and try something new. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing the past month:

1. Spoke at an “unconference”. As my most recent post stated, I gave my first presentation to a group of about 15 product developers, product managers, and others after giving a quick 20-second pitch to a group of about 100 at ProductCamp RTP on May 22nd. It was a fantastic success. I learned a tremendous amount about my own public speaking skills as well as learning how to teach and/or explain an idea to a group of professionals not only in a very different field than myself, but also much older & more knowledgeable about their fields. Our presentation ended up being voted the 2nd best presentation of the entire day (and you can listen to the audio of our presentation here and here). I genuinely did not expect that, especially being my first jaunt in the public speaking realm, but boy was I pleasantly surprised. It made my day to know that I could single-handedly contribute valuable knowledgeable to the community.
2. Started writing for iGrad.com. And then next thing I knew my little sister was moving in with me and turning my world upside down. She somehow convinced me to join a gym and sign up for a personal trainer with her the following week. So naturally I wrote about it and iGrad.com published it on their site on June 3rd! After the folks at iGrad asked me to submit something for their awesome new site helping college graduates transition into a post-college career & life, I knew it was right up my alley and I had to contribute! Hopefully I can continue submitting more pieces to help recent college grads when the inspiration strikes me.
3. Recruited Raleigh writers for a TNGG theme week. While contributing to The Next Great Generation is nothing new for me, I took on a larger-than-normal role coordinating the Raleigh, NC portion of Cities Week (which ran June 6th-13th) and writing an article of my own about why Raleigh is my home, sweet home :) It was pretty exciting for me to find other Gen Y peers who had opinions on the future of Raleigh who may not normally be given the opportunity to express those ideas to others. Giving someone else a voice for a change was awesome.
4. Volunteered at Bonnaroo. And then as that was all coming to an end, a really big opportunity fell into my hands. I was asked to volunteer for a local nonprofit called Grow and Share at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival for almost an entire week, all expenses paid (including free entry–yea, pretty sweet deal!). With my part-time work schedule and my sister’s complete lack of employment we jumped at the opportunity unaware of, for the most part, what we were getting ourselves into (which ended up being a life changing experience). We were eager to try something new, and having never really camped alone in our lives (or for more than one night or in torrential downpours at that) or been to a large music festival (heck, we’d never been to any music festival), this was definitely something new. We learned of the trip on June 4th and were on our way to Manchester, TN by 5am on June 9th. We returned 6 days later on the afternoon of June 14th, cherishing running toilets & showers, water that doesn’t smell like rotten eggs, clean clothes, a soft bed, and above all air conditioning to get out of the 97 degree heat we struggled with every day. But in the end, we loved it. The music was great. We volunteered for a cause that practically sells itself. We bonded with each other and with new friends along the way. It’s been a long transition back into the “real world” again, but as I reflect I will have more to say… just you wait and see…

Related posts:

1. Lesson From Social Media Day: I’m An Expert, Too
2. First Speaking Engagements. Scary, Right?
3. PechaKucha: Creative Minds do Durham

I found out today that I will be giving a 1-hour presentation at a conference (technically they call it an “un-conference”) on Saturday. I don’t think I’ve ever given a presentation in front of so many people at once before. And I have about, oh… 3 days and a few hours to prepare.

You’d think I’d be really nervous and freaking out, right? For some reason I’m not at all. Ok, maybe a little freaking out about how little time I have to prepare because I’m a perfectionist, but mostly I’m thinking, “No biggie. I got this.”

How is this possible you might be wondering? I was wondering that myself and came up with 3 main reasons I’m not sweating it:

1. I have help. Sure it’s mostly my gig and I’m listed as the one responsible in case it all falls apart. But, I asked for help from my team. So now I have a co-presenter to back me up during the presentation (or just laugh at all my jokes when they’re supposed to be funny). Not only that but I asked others on my team to help with the prep work. What goes into a presentation? You mean I can’t just get up there and start talking and hope it all works out? With help it’s sure to work out just fine.
2. They recruited me. Whew. I don’t know why this helps. Probably because I’ve spent my whole life proving myself to elders and backing up my theses with 15 pages of research. And this was just too easy. They came right to me and said, “We love what you’re doing and want you to talk about it.” If they already think it’s awesome, I don’t really have anything to lose, right?
3. I know my stuff. This is actually the most important reason of the three. I know the topic inside and out. I talk about it nearly every day. And I believe in it. I’m not scared that someone will ask a question I can’t answer. I’m not worried that people will think I’m dumb or incompetent. And I’m not scared of people walking out of my presentation because it doesn’t apply to them or it’s boring–because heck, I know it’s important and that I will inspire at least someone in the audience.

Seeing as how this is my first real presentation though, I do realize that there’s almost no chance it will go 100% smoothly. For all I know, there’s a chance nobody will show up, but I doubt it.

I have a lot to learn. More accurately: I have a lot of mistakes to make. Any last words of encouragement or advice?

If you’re going to be in the Triangle this Saturday, May 22nd, considering registering for ProductCamp RTP where I will be speaking and leading a discussion titled “PechaKucha: Small Talk About Big Ideas” about using the PechaKucha presentation format as a communication tool is the workplace.

Related posts:

1. Mixing It Up
2. I Made a PechaKucha {presentation}
3. Recognizing Essential Communities