Tag: events

Edmonton Notes for 9/18/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Here are some upcoming events:

I was really happy to take part in YWCA Edmonton’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes on Tuesday! Here’s a shot of me and Councillor Henderson sporting heels:

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Decommissioning of the Rossdale high-pressure plant has progressed to the point where crews took down the first of three boilers on Friday. This procedure will be completed in stages over the next few weeks.

I’ll write more about it later, but for now, thanks to everyone who came out to What the Truck?! 2 on Friday night – it was a big success!

Pecha Kucha Night: Edmonton #11

pkn11Edmonton’s eleventh Pecha Kucha Night was held last night at the Myer Horowitz Theatre on the University of Alberta campus (if you’re new to Pecha Kucha, read this). More than 600 people attended the event which featured ten presentations on a variety of topics. As usual, attendees were asked if this was their first ever Pecha Kucha Night and most of the hands in the audience shot up. It’s great that Edmonton NextGen continues to reach new people, but I do wonder where everyone else has gone and if they ever come back!

In order of appearance, these were the presenters at PKN11:

  1. Jeremy Derksen, Adventure Writer
  2. Chris Samuel, Lawyer/ Starcraft Enthusiast
  3. Ryan Saunders, PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering and Co-Founder of ABCampusTec
  4. David Papp, Technology Advisor
  5. Darren Wagner, PhD Student, University of York
  6. Wendy Caplan & Wade Kelly, Educators
  7. Larry Retzlaff, Senior Planner, City of Edmonton
  8. Joshua Le, Business Student, University of Alberta
  9. Jeff Senger & Paul Cabaj, Co-Founders of SPARK
  10. Karen Unland, Journalism Educator and Consultant

The range of topics certainly seemed a lot broader than at PKNs past, with everything from Starcraft to Raw Denim. Generally I think the themed evenings work better, though I suppose there are hits and misses with both approaches. Last night had its share of both.

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Jeremy Derksen kicked things off with a bold statement, saying “Edmonton is a great place to have an adventure.” He argued for the consideration of urban adventure as we build the Edmonton of the future, and pointed out that risk can be healthy. I loved that he touched on graffiti – provide a legitimate space for it, and I think you get rewarded. Chris Samuel was up next with his introduction to Starcraft and the world of competitive gameplay as a sport. He taught us that there are official leagues, commentators, heroes, and everything else that you might expect with other professional sports. His highly entertaining presentation probably had the most tweeted phrase of the evening, apparently adlibbed on the fly: “Nerds come in all shapes and sizes.” Ryan Saunders gave a nice introduction to ABCampusTec, though the presentation was basically just a commercial for the organization. I really wanted to like David Papp’s presentation – he did a phenomenal job of bringing energy and passion to the stage – but I personally found it difficult to get past the fact that he was basically saying “look at how much traffic my site got” for 20 slides. I was also looking for the social media experiment, but it never came. Darren Wagner closed out the first half of the show with perhaps the most controversial presentation of the evening, a look at “nature’s naughty bits” though it was more of a historical look at how human societies have displayed genitalia.

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In a change from past events, door prizes were given out right before the break (Sharon suggested it may have been so that the winners were more likely to still be in attendance). If the opening presentations didn’t entertain you, Ryan Jespersen most certainly did. He was responsible for handing out the prizes, but of course, he had fun with it. He’s totally at home with a microphone in his hand – there’s a reason this has become his segment at PKN. I think @squiish said it best: “Ryan, you made door prizes pleasurable for the losers too.”

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While the Myer Horowitz is a great venue, it doesn’t work so well for drinks. That’s a picture of the one and only one bar at the break. If you were patient enough to get a drink, my guess is that you didn’t have time to drink it before the second half started up again! It was great to see two local beers on offer though, Alley Kat and Wild Rose.

Pecha Kucha Night 11

First up after the break was the duo of Wendy Caplan and Wade Kelly. As soon as they started their presentation – “4000 friends and 140 characters: Redefining our Social Lexicon” – I tweeted that I didn’t want to be preached at about Twitter and how it doesn’t bring people together. While their presentation was an interesting recap of long-forgotten behaviors (like taking film to the store and waiting weeks for it to be developed) I thought it was probably delivered at the wrong event. A large number of people in the audience met and became friends precisely thanks to the new tools and technologies Wendy and Wade were questioning. Larry Retzlaff was up next, to talk about Transit Oriented Development and the guidelines the City is currently developing. Important topic that I hope more Edmontonians get engaged with, and as far as awareness goes I suppose the presentation was a success, but when we’ve had outstanding TOD-as-LEGO presentations in the past, it sort of missed the mark. Joshua Le’s presentation on raw denim was interesting and educational, though it was somewhat similar to David’s – a recap of how far and wide word of his project spread. Jeff Senger and Paul Cabaj were up next, to talk about cooperatives. I learned that 2012 is the International Year of Cooperatives, but unfortunately I didn’t take much else away from the presentation. Karen Unland had the final presentation of the evening, a passionate discussion of what journalism needs now. I thought she did a great job of balancing humor and seriousness to get her message across.

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The crowd favorite of the evening was probably Chris Samuel’s really unique presentation on Starcraft. I know I’m curious about the viewing parties that are held at local bars! It seems as though each PKN usually has a particularly memorable quote or phrase. With PKNX, it was “magpie town”. I think Karen’s quote (she had lots of great ones) was probably the winner last night: “French kiss change. Hump change’s leg!” Those were probably my two favorite presentations, though I quite enjoyed Jeremy Derksen’s as well.

Other thoughts: I think NextGen might have set a record last night for starting so close to the advertised time! The Edmonton Journal once again livestreamed the event, but a number of technical issues made it a less than smooth experience for viewers. This PKN was the first in Edmonton to be held at a venue that has already been used – PKN5 was at the Myer Horowitz back in October 2009. The event featured music by DJ Blue Jay and a visual art showcase presented by Timeraiser, coming up on October 15. There’s a great collection of photos by Dave DeGagné, the event’s official photographer, here. You can see my much crappier ones here.

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NextGen is currently planning Pecha Kucha Night 12 for February. Keep an eye on @EdmNextGen for updates!

Recap: YEGDT Patio Flash Mob

Yesterday the Downtown Vibrancy Task Force held an event at 105 Street and Jasper Avenue called the Patio Flash Mob. Our “awareness” subcommittee came up with the idea a few weeks ago. What we wanted to do was encourage people to think about downtown a little differently:

Falling leaves. Crisp mornings. But that doesn’t mean the fun stops outdoors as the summer winds down. Stretch that patio season a little longer. Celebrate the vibrancy of downtown Edmonton. A vibrant downtown brings more people, who bring yet more people and more business to the urban core.

The idea was to create a little bit of a spectacle, so we positioned tables and chairs on all four corners of the intersection. It’s a busy intersection, so we knew a lot of folks stuck in cars would see us. Anyone could stop by and have a seat on our “patio” and many did!

Patio Flash Mob

Our thanks to Martin Kerr (in the background there) who provided some excellent music for the patio party. We had some playing cards and sidewalk chalk available for people to play with, but it was great to see what people brought with them!

Patio Flash Mob

We did want it to really feel like a patio, so we engaged some local businesses to help us out. Flirt Cupcakes made some delicious free I LOVE YEGDT-branded cupcakes, and they even offered table service! Transcend Coffee also came down to offer free coffee – given the cooler temperature yesterday, I think everyone really enjoyed that!

Patio Flash Mob

To help build a little buzz, we also created some stencils and used temporary marking paint to put the I LOVE YEGDT logo all over the area. Simple but effective. We also gave out dozens of t-shirts with the logo on the front.

I <3 YEGDT

We didn’t get the turnout we were hoping for, perhaps due to the weather (we need to change this!) or the fact that it was Tuesday evening, but it was still great to see a bunch of people taking advantage of downtown streets and sidewalks.

Stay tuned for more cool stuff from the Downtown Vibrancy Task Force, or if you’re feeling inspired, go and create something awesome for downtown yourself!

See you at What the Truck?! 2 on Friday!

Edmonton Notes for 9/11/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Let’s look at some events coming up this week:

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Photo by Jonathan Janke

Edmonton Notes for 8/28/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

The Calm Before the Storm
The Calm Before the Storm by Braeden Petruk

I heart yegdt
It was fantastic to see so many people in Churchill Square on Thursday for the I heart yegdt BBQ!

Alley of Light
The Alley of Light got a makeover today!

Edmonton Notes for 8/21/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

The Edmonton Police Service launched a new video series this week called the Community Crime Update. Here’s the description:

In support of the Violence Reduction Strategy, the Edmonton Police Service is launching a series of weekly Community Crime Update videos, to provide an inside look at some of the ways police are dealing with crime issues as well as the ways that the community can become more involved. Please feel free to email us your comments at crimeupdate@edmontonpolice.ca.

And here’s the inaugural video:

Life is [not] like a game of chess.
Photo by Braeden Petruk

Edmonton Notes for 8/7/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Pyramids in the City
Pyramids in the City by RandallTT

Capitol Theatre
You can see more photos of the new Capitol Theatre here.

Edmonton Notes for 7/17/2011

I’m off to Norwalk, Connecticut early tomorrow morning for work, then to Toronto on Friday to meet up with Sharon for the weekend. That means I’m missing some good stuff here at home, but it’ll be nice to have a change of scene!

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Lightning over Edmonton
Lightning over Edmonton by Nelson Webb

The SOS Fest crowd
Last week’s SOS Fest crowd by Brittney

Edmonton Capitals
Captain Capital!

Edmonton Notes for 7/3/2011

Happy Canada Day long weekend! Here are my weekly notes:

Millwoods Fireworks
The fireworks in Mill Woods, photo by Brittney.

Sunset Reflections Downtown

Recap: What the Truck?!

Last Friday night we held What the Truck?!, Edmonton’s food truck extravaganza, at Beaver Hills House Park downtown on 105 Street and Jasper Avenue. I think it’s safe to say that the event was a big success! The weather mostly cooperated, hundreds of people were downtown on a Friday evening in a park that is usually empty, and seven of our city’s best food trucks sold lots of food. It was a great feeling to see a relatively simple idea come together to result in a memorable evening.

What The Truck?!
Photo by Devin.

We did the best we could to prepare the food trucks and our volunteers for setup, but it was still a stressful couple of hours. We staggered the arrival times of each truck, but it was still tricky trying to fit them all in the park! We knew the space was small, and we wanted the casual feel that would result, but we didn’t realize how difficult it would be to navigate the poles, trees, and other obstacles in the park. Not to mention the fact that we were on downtown’s busiest street, blocking both cars and pedestrians while we maneuvered the trucks into place! Everyone stayed calm and got the job done, however.

What The Truck?!
Our volunteers – The Fenskes, Thom, and Su.

All of the trucks were situated around the circle with their windows facing inward, except for Funky Pickle. That was not intentional – it was simply a byproduct of the fact that we ran out of space to turn their trailer around! It really highlighted for me that most of our food trucks in Edmonton are actually trailers, which need to be towed by an actual truck or other vehicle. By far the easiest vendor to get setup was The Lingnan – the only one that is a self-contained truck.

What The Truck?! What The Truck?!

When the event officially got underway at 4pm, it was sunny and hot. It wasn’t long though before the sky turned dark and cloudy and the rain threatened. But it didn’t rain very hard or for very long. Not that it would have mattered – it was so neat to see absolutely no one bolt from the lines when it did start raining! Instead, a few umbrellas casually appeared.

What The Truck?!

All of the trucks were popular, but Filistix definitely had the most consistently long line of the evening (due partially to popularity and partially to the fact that they move far fewer units per hour than Funky Pickle does, for example). It was great to read the comments on Twitter after the event. Things like “Filistix was definitely worth the wait” and “Crepes from Fork & Spoon Brigade – Best. Thing. Ever.” It also seemed that long-time fans of Eva Sweet used the event as an opportunity to try a waffle with all the toppings for the first time. That people were feeling adventurous was reinforced by the fact that Carnival Cravings sold far more “OMG! Mini Donuts” than is typical.

What The Truck?!

During our early planning for the event, we briefly considered having live music at the event. We decided against it, to keep things simple and to ensure the focus was on the food trucks. Instead we asked the Urban Monks DJs to provide some music to help liven up the event. They did a great job, and even created a food-inspired playlist!

What The Truck?!

It was great to see so many families at the event, and to see people using the picnic tables and even just sitting on the grass in the park. It’s such a wonderful and generally underutilized space! Mayor Mandel, Councillor Iveson, and Councillor Henderson were among the VIPs that attended, and it was cool to see such a mix of familiar and new faces throughout the evening. One of those new faces was Luca Levesque, who stopped by to shoot a great video of the event:

Sharon and I had some key goals we wanted to achieve before we could call the event a success. At the top of that list was that the vendors were successful. Considering nearly every truck ran out of food before the evening was done, I think we can say we achieved that one! Filistix was so tapped out they couldn’t even make it to the City Market the following morning! The feedback we received from all of the food trucks that participated was really positive.

A few thank-yous are definitely in order. Thank you to everyone who came to the event! Thank you to our volunteers for all your help! Thank you to Thomas and Marc for the great music! Thank you to Gabe for the fun logo! Thank you to our sponsors for your support! Thank you to the vendors for taking a chance and sticking with us! And thank you to everyone else who helped us out and made the event a success.

Sharon & Mack
Sharon & I. Photo by Chris.

Are we going to do What The Truck?! again in the future? Based on how well the first edition went, yes, definitely. We hope to do it again sometime in September and have already started some preliminary planning (and have been in touch with some new food trucks too!). Stay tuned to the website for updates. We’ll also be doing some blogging over the summer about the things we learned along the way with regards to parking lots, permits, bylaws, etc.

what the truck?!

Check out Sharon’s recap of the event here. You can see more photos from the evening here.