Here at the Co-op, Justin and I had the opportunity to volunteer on the planning committee for Wiring the Social Economy. This event was intended to encourage cross-pollination and ideas development for sectors including non-profits, community economic development, social enterprise, technology, and community-based organizations.
Wiring the Social Economy began bright and early this past Saturday, December 4, at the beautiful W2 Storyeum space in Gastown, a neighbourhood well known for being a culture hub of Vancouver. The event was organized to be a mostly spontaneous, attendee-generated sessions, similar in format to ChangeCamp and BarCamp, though with the beginning of the day dedicated to three short curated keynote sessions.
For those of you tuned in to our Twitter feed, you’ll know that our CEO, Tim Beachy, was selected to be the third of the three keynote speakers (the first two were Carol Madsen of SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development, and Irwin Oostindie of W2). We were – and still are – very excited about this speaking engagement for Tim. Video is below:
[vimeo vimeo.com/17652357]
Justin and I later facilitated sessions ourselves – mine was called “Ask a Dumb Question” for anyone who wanted to know more about the Internet and social media but was afraid to ask, and Justin’s was “Collective IT Solutions” for individuals and organizations frustrated by holistic IT services. We also hopped around to see what other people were talking about, and you can see full notes on each session on the event wiki.
The topics were so diverse and greatly applicable to current practices, and incredibly engaging as well. On a more personal note, I was blown away by how many highly intelligent, well-spoken, and very charming people were there. It was wonderful to meet all of you – I hope that we can keep this momentum going and come together again soon to keep our culture and our sectors fresh, relevant, and vibrant.
Thanks to the driving forces behind this event: Steve Williams, Erika Harrison, Tom Kertes, Judi Piggott, Leah Nielsen, Trina Isakson, and others (I’m sorry if you’re missing from this list!). And thanks to all the volunteers who came out in droves to support us.