Tag: events

Recap: Next Gen Community Challenge

Last night the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) and Edmonton Next Gen co-hosted an event called the Community Challenge at Orange Hall in Old Strathcona. The goal of the event was to bring together interested members of the next generation (roughly 18-40 years old) to share ideas on how to improve and better work with community leagues.

Upon arriving, attendees were given a name tag and were asked to place a dot on the map to show where they live. Additionally, everyone had a polaroid taken that was pinned up on the giant map of community leagues in Edmonton. As you can see, most people were from the core:

Next Gen / EFCL Community Challenge

The program kicked off at 7:30pm with some introductions from EFCL and Edmonton Next Gen representatives. The first activity of the evening was for each table to discuss two primary questions:

  • What can community leagues to do better engage the next generation?
  • What kinds of projects would you like to work on with your community league?

Every single group mentioned “Twitter” and “Facebook” among the answers to the first question. Other ways of getting young people engaged included ensuring website information is accurate and up-to-date, aligning community league benefits with the demographic, and making information available at more locations in the community. Projects included community gardens, car sharing programs, community health plans, block parties, and many more.

The second activity was to work as a group to get the ball rolling for one project. It seemed less effective than the first activity, but I liked the intent. Afterward many people stayed to mingle and consume the large amount of leftover food and wine!

Next Gen / EFCL Community ChallengeNext Gen / EFCL Community Challenge

Back in April I wrote about EFCL’s push to adopt social media as part of a larger strategy to attract a younger demographic. I think the Community Challenge event was a smart way to make progress on that. Social media is a powerful thing, but nothing beats face-to-face conversations in a room of passionate, enthusiastic people.

I asked Michael Janz, EFCL’s Marketing Director and co-host for the evening (along with Next Gen’s Angela Hobson), what he thought about the event. He told me he was “thrilled with the turnout” and that he thought “many people were inspired to participate further in their communities.” Michael said the results of the “collective brainstorming” will be typed up and posted to the EFCL site soon.

If you couldn’t make it out last night, don’t worry: you can still get involved. You can head over to the EFCL website to purchase a community league membership, or you can volunteer for your community league. Be sure to check out EFCL on Facebook and Twitter, and Edmonton Next Gen on Facebook and Twitter. You might also want to sign up for the Edmonton Next Gen weekly newsletter. Finally, keep an eye out for a similar event in August.

Edmonton Notes for 7/4/2009

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Edmonton Notes for 6/27/2009

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

These ashtrays have been on Whyte Avenue for a while, but they just started appearing downtown this week:

Ashtrays Downtown

Edmonton City Centre Airport Debate: Resources

We’re down to the final stages of the City Centre Airport review process. If you haven’t taken the time to educate yourself on the issue, the time is now.

Here are the reports that were released last week:

  • Airport Legal Review and Analysis (Attachment 1 in this PDF)
  • Airport Lands Net Revenue Review (Attachment 3 in this PDF)
  • The Airport Lands Impact Assessment Final Report (PDF)
  • The Medevac Transport Report (PDF)
  • The Historical Impact Assessment Report (PDF)
  • The Economic Impact Analysis (PDF)
  • The Public Involvement Plan Results (PDF)

The Alberta Enterprise Group (AEG) posted a response to the reports here.

The big report is the Airport Lands Impact Assessment, at 299 pages. Here’s a Wordle of that report:

Here are some highlights from the various report conclusions:

  • “The planning of ambulance services is dependent on many local factors such as availability of resources, both financial and personnel; regional density of populations; road condition and geographic variations; and so forth. Clinically, outcomes for trauma and medical patients are mainly impacted by the services available rather than by type of transport.”
  • “The City Centre Airport ranks with the Rossdale site and the provincial government precinct as among the three most significant historical locations in the City of Edmonton. As such everything possible should be done to acknowledge that fact through commemorative and interpretive initiatives.”
  • “Redevelopment of the ECCA, as defined in the Demonstration Plan, would result in the equivalent of a net tax saving to the City of Edmonton. The value of redeveloping the ECCA Lands is, in aggregate, a net benefit to the City of Edmonton’s financial position.”
  • “Based on the review completed, the redevelopment of the ECCA Lands into a new residential and employment based neighbourhood represents a significant opportunity for the City to achieve established long term visions regarding sustainable development and a more compact urban form. The redevelopment of the ECCA Lands could allow for the development of a new urban community with transit as its centrepiece.”

There will be a public hearing on Wednesday (and Thursday/Friday if necessary):

What: Public Hearing on the City Centre Airport (Agenda in Word)
When: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 from 9:30am to 5:30pm
Where: City Hall
Request to Speak: Fill out this form to speak.

The next step is for any recommendations to be reviewed by Council on July 10, 2009. Don’t forget that you can watch or listen to Council and Committee meetings live online.

The City’s portal for the City Centre Airport Review contains a bunch of additional information and links, so be sure to check it out. There’s also some info at the Public Involvement site.

[geo_mashup_map height=”250″ width=”500″ zoom=”13″ add_overview_control=”false” add_map_type_control=”false”]

Here are some social media resources:

Some other stuff to read:

Lorne Gunter wrote a great article in Sunday’s Edmonton Journal: Muni is not ‘my’ airport. For some predictions on Council’s vote, check out Scott McKeen’s piece from yesterday’s Journal. He’s betting that Council will vote to close the airport. Also – you’ve got to look at this photo of Councillor Tony Caterina on the tarmac of the City Centre Airport. And finally, you might find my post (from May) about the ECCA debate on Twitter interesting.

For the latest news, check out #ecca on Twitter Search.

As you’ve perhaps figured out by now, I’m in favor of closing the City Centre Airport. I don’t feel that keeping the status quo is compatible with making Edmonton a more sustainable, vibrant city, and moving passenger service back to the muni isn’t possible. There is an opportunity to redevelop the lands however, and I think the City should act on that now before the opportunity passes us by.

Let’s close the City Centre Airport and move on.

UPDATE: Edmonton Airports has compiled a number of briefing notes related to the airport for presentation at the public hearings. (PDF)

Recap: EdmontonTweetup5

Tonight was our fifth “official” tweetup, hosted by iNews880! About 35 people or so descended on the Corus studios for free hamburgers and hotdogs. Our first tweetup was technically a family-friendly one (at Three Bananas) but there weren’t many locals on Twitter back then – today was a great opportunity to bring the kids, and many people did! It seemed like a long time since our last tweetup, so it was good to see everyone again.

We got the opportunity to tour the building, led by @britl, @Korinda, @NixonK, and @TheSpinDoctor. Kinda neat to see the behind-the-scenes. The cafeteria was decorated with lots of iNews880 banners, and even more little blue Twitter birds! There were dozens! Very festive. And of course, there was food and drinks. That’s really all you need to make a group of people happy 🙂

EdmontonTweetup5IMG_8742

Here are a few select tweets from tonight:

I had a good time at the tweetup and I think everyone else did too. Thanks to iNews880 for hosting us and to @britl and her team for organizing! Can’t wait until the next one! Stay tuned to the wiki for updates.

EdmontonTweetup5EdmontonTweetup5

You can see the rest of my photos here.

Edmonton Notes for 6/20/2009

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Homeward Trust in 2008

Homeward Trust hosted a reception last night to celebrate its new location on the 6th floor at 10242 105th Street, and to share its 2008 Annual Report. The past year has been described as “a landmark year”, the first under the banner of “Homeward Trust” (it used to be known as the Edmonton Housing Trust Fund). They’ve done some great work, and I think 2009 is shaping up to be an even better year for the organization!

The new office space is fantastic. It’s designed in such a way that you can walk around the entire floor in a giant square. They’ve broken the space up into sections, each with a specific focus. Numerous drink and food tables were setup throughout the office for the reception, and everyone was encouraged to explore. The office has some great views of downtown Edmonton!

View from the new Homeward Trust officesHomeward Trust Reception

The program started at 5:30pm with some entertainment, followed by a few speeches and award presentations. Mayor Stephen Mandel and MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie Naresh Bhardwaj both gave remarks. Among the other VIPs in attendance were Councillor Ben Henderson, MLA for Edmonton-Calder Doug Elniski, MLA for Edmonton-Centre Laurie Blakeman, and City Manager Al Mauer.

Homeward Trust Reception

The annual report for 2008 isn’t online yet, but I suspect it’ll be posted soon. Here are some highlights:

  • In 2008, 133 Edmonton families were homeless. 25% more Edmonton children were without a home than in 2006.
  • 59% of Edmonton’s homeless suffer from mental illness.
  • 3079 people were identified as homeless in 2008, an increase of 18% from 2006. More than 200 volunteers and 180 agencies worked on the count.
  • More than 1500 people attended Homeless Connect in October.
  • Homeward Trust allocated nearly $20 million for capital and support services in 2008.

Additionally, five Homeward Trust funded projects opened in 2008:

  1. Habitat for Humanity Norwood ($520,000)
  2. Our House Addictions Recovery Centre ($2,800,000)
  3. John Howard Society The Loft ($580,500)
  4. Catholic Social Services Rotary Centre ($1,526,548)
  5. Women Building Futures Training Centre Reno ($903,000)

I thought Jon Hall, Chair of Homeward Trust Edmonton, said it best: “What our annual report can’t show is the difference we’ve made in people’s lives.”

Kudos to Susan McGee, Executive Director of Homeward Trust Edmonton, and her team for a great event and a fantastic year! You can see the rest of my photos here. For information on volunteering with Homeward Trust, click here.

Peter Newman in Edmonton discussing Resilient Cities

Author Peter Newman, in town this week for ICLEI World Congress 2009, gave a free talk tonight at the Shaw Conference Centre on some of the central ideas of the book he recently co-authored, Resilient Cities: Responding to the Crash, Climate Change, and Peak Oil. Presented by Edmonton on the Edge, the talk was hopeful in tone – a nice way to end ICLEI.

Here’s the handbill description:

A new approach to urban development needs to be forged that can, at the same time, enable cities to respond to the deep challenge of decarbonising cities and can use the transition to accelerate the development of what the UN calls the Global Green New Deal. Some hopeful directions will be outlined based on cities from around the world, including cities from down under.

Peter Newman in Edmonton

Peter is from Perth, Australia and he started by saying that Perth and Edmonton are similar in a number of ways (population, land distribution, etc). He next touched on Peak Oil (which Peter says happened in 2008) and the global recession. Peter positioned the Crash as an opportunity (his approach reminded me a lot of Ray Kurzweil). Peter showed a slide with five major economic downturns from the last 300 years or so, and pointed out the technological advances that were made after each. The rate of advance became faster over time, so that today we have exponential progress (this is essentially Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns).

My favorite part of the talk took the bulk of the remaining time – examples, complete with pictures, of cities around the world that have become Smart and Sustainable (together, the two characteristics of cities of the future, according to Peter). A couple of examples:

  • Phoenix, one of the worst cities in the world in terms of transportation by transit, recently replaced two lanes of traffic running through the centre of the city with light rail transit. Peter said if Phoenix can do it, anyone can!
  • Perth has completed significant rail developments in the last 15 years, with some lines going as far as 80km away from the core. During that time, ridership increased from 7 million passengers/year to 90 million/year. Amazing.

Peter introduced a number of acronyms during his talk:

  • IT: Information Technology
  • ET: Environmental Technology
  • TOD: Transit Oriented Development
  • POD: Pedestrian Oriented Development
  • GOD: Green Oriented Development

Naturally, IT and ET go together and TOD, POD, and GOD go together. You can’t have one without the others!

Peter Newman in Edmonton

Peter made reference to the concept of “place based cities” a few times, but unfortunately didn’t elaborate. The general idea is that you can make the local economy more viable by creating a stronger sense of place. Something about it really resonates with me.

The talk was followed by a reception, featuring music by Melissa Majeau. A number of other organizations helped Edmonton on the Edge make tonight’s talk possible, including the City-Region Studies Centre, University of Alberta Faculty of Extension, Edmonton Design Committee, ISL Engineering and Land Services, The City of Edmonton, and M.A.D.E. in Edmonton. Great event!

Pecha Kucha Night: Edmonton #4

Bigger, better, longer – tonight was Edmonton’s fourth Pecha Kucha Night (if you’re new to Pecha Kucha, read this). Held at the site of the ICLEI World Congress 2009, the Shaw Conference Centre, tonight’s event featured twelve presentations related to the theme of “inspiring sustainability”. More than 600 people attended, making PKN4 the largest yet in Edmonton. I’d say it was a major success!

In my review of PKN3, I mentioned that a theme might have made the event better. Tonight proved that a theme can indeed have a significant impact. I thought the presentations flowed much better and were more accessible, largely because they were part of a cohesive overarching topic. I hope Next Gen applies tonight’s lesson to future PKN events also.

Cary & StephaniePecha Kucha Edmonton 4

Tonight’s presenters were (in order of appearance):

  1. Jordan Schroder, Futurist
  2. Myron Belej, Urban Planner
  3. Simon Wunderli, Architectural Technologist
  4. Zoe Todd & Keegan McEvoy, Bicycle Commuters
  5. Natalia Pakin, Interior Design Technologist
  6. Liz Lepper, Edmonton Timeraiser
  7. Trevor Anderson, Artistic Director, That’s Edmonton For You!
  8. Pamela Wight, Conservation Planner
  9. Sherrilyn Jahrig, Light-Efficient Communities Consultant
  10. Lori Billey & Paige Weir, Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, AB Chapter
  11. Stephani Carter, LEED Accredited Professional
  12. Next Gen

The presentations were all really strong tonight, with only a few weak moments in my opinion. Kudos to Jordan for going first in front of the packed audience. I really liked Myron’s presentation on murals. He said “murals enhance our social sustainability”. Simon’s presentation about a super-efficient house in Switzerland was something different and intriguing. Fans of cycling would have loved Zoe & Keegan’s ode to the bike. They said that to make Edmonton great, “active transportation must be prioritized.” Natalia had some good points about marketing and overusing the word “sustainable”. Finishing off the first set of presentations, Liz introduced the audience to Edmonton Timeraiser, a silent art auction where you bid time instead of money (volunteers should check out CivicFootprint). The first such event will take place on October 17th at the TransAlta Arts Barns.

Jordan SchroderMyron BelejSimon WunderliZoe Todd & Keegan McEvoyNatalia PakinLiz Lepper

Trevor AndersonPamela WightSherrilyn JahrigLori Billey & Paige WeirStephani CarterNext Gen

First up after the break was Trevor Anderson, artistic director for That’s Edmonton For You! I loved his approach – he asked the audience to say “that’s Edmonton for you” whenever the slide changed. Trevor said “make art for your neighbours” and that you value an artist’s work the same way you value a lawyer’s, “cash money”. Pamela’s presentation introduced me to EALT. Sherrilyn started off a bit slow, but ended up sharing some great points about light pollution. Paige & Lori delivered my least favorite of the presentations, attempting to focus on paper waste. Stephani was bold and went with a spoken rap for her presentation on inspiring change. Finally, some of the Next Gen members gave an overview of the organization. I’m not sure it was the most appropriate presentation, but it was probably good for those in the audience who were new to Next Gen.

I think there was some concern going into the event about the scale, but everyone seemed to be having a great time – maybe size doesn’t matter! One interesting thing during the intermission was the “ideas on twine” wall. Attendees were encouraged to write their suggestions for future PKNs on a card and attach it to the twine. Creative way to solicit feedback! They gave away a bunch of door prizes too, including the grand prize – a bicycle courtesy of redbike, highlevel diner, and the sugarbowl.

Pecha Kucha Edmonton 4Pecha Kucha Edmonton 4

It was great to see lots of familiar and new faces tonight! The next Pecha Kucha Night in Edmonton will take place on October 2nd at the Myer Horowitz Theatre at the University of Alberta. Don’t forget, we say it “peh-cha-koo-cha” here in Edmonton! You can see the rest of my photos here, and you can subscribe to the excellent Edmonton Next Gen newsletter here.

That’s Edmonton For You!

What a great weekend here in Edmonton! Lots of sun, temperatures above 25 degrees, and plenty of things to do. Perhaps the main event on Saturday was the Edmonton Pride Parade, which was a smashing success according to everyone I talked to. Dave has a good post about it here, and Paula has dozens of photos here. Also on Saturday was the City Centre Market followed by Al Fresco on 104th, which Sharon wrote about here. Summer in Edmonton has finally arrived!

Yesterday’s big event was That’s Edmonton For You!, a free concert from noon until 3pm featuring leading members of Edmonton’s indie rock scene at Louise McKinney Riverfront Park. The event was commissioned by the City of Edmonton for the ICLEI World Congress. Conceived of and produced by Trevor Anderson, the event featured Edmonton’s poet laureate Roland Pemberton (Cadence Weapon) and 13 other musicians. Each created new songs about sustainable community, drawing from personal experiences.

I arrived at around 12:30pm, just as the crowd was starting to grow. I took a few photos and checked out the information booths that lined the edges of park area. Edmonton Next Gen was on hand to promote Pecha Kucha 4, Vegans & Vegetarians of Alberta had a busy table, Epcor had a portable water tap, and The EATery at The ARTery was offering food and beverages. Before long I made my way back to the Shaw Conference Centre however, to escape the sun and heat! The one drawback to the venue is the complete lack of shade.

I did make one more trip out to the concert, but unfortunately missed most of the last hour (I was inside for the ICLEI opening). Councillor Don Iveson stayed until the end and said the final song, which featured audience participation in the form of key jingling and bicycle bells, was truly amazing. The crowd that gathered was quite impressive!

That's Edmonton For You!That's Edmonton For You!

If you couldn’t make it down yesterday you missed a great event, but don’t worry – you can download the full album of songs from the website! Very cool, and not something I expected.

Considering the concert was created specifically for ICLEI, I’m not sure it’ll happen again, but I hope it does! It’s a great showcase for local musicians, and a great opportunity for Edmontonians to experience an afternoon of music.

You can see the rest of my photos here, and don’t miss this collection of excellent shots by Chris.