conference

The 99% Percent Conference 2009

Posted by _tango! on April 9, 2009
Posted in: art, brand, conference, design, entertainment, experience, fun, green, ideas, information, inspiration, me, tech. 1 comment


Behance and Coolhunting bring to us their very first conference “99%” which “focuses less on inspiration, and more on how idea generation and organization come together to make ideas happen.” It all takes place next week at the The Times Center building  NYC, April 16-17, 2009… I’ll be there, so get your tickets here while they last!

A few of the speakers:
– Michael Bierut of Pentagram
– Cheryl Dorsey at Echoing Green
– Seth Godin of  Squidoo, and several Books (purple cow, tribes, marketers are liars)
– Ji Lee of Google and Bubble Project
– Jeffrey Kalmikoff and Jake Nickell at Threadless
– Scott Thomas of Obama for America
– full list here.

Dan Barber: Humane Foie Gras

Posted by _tango! on March 14, 2009
Posted in: conference, entertainment, food, green, information, inspiration, TED. 3 comments

“At the Taste3 conference, chef Dan Barber(Blue Hill Farm) tells the story of a small farm in Spain that has found a humane way to produce foie gras. Raising his geese in a natural environment, farmer Eduardo Sousa embodies the kind of food production Barber believes in.”

Pretty awesome story. Makes me think about sustainability, agriculture, quality, and just doing things naturally, how things are meant to be.

GSD: Power and Politics in a Networked Age

Posted by _tango! on March 11, 2009
Posted in: conference, design, ideas, information, inspiration, me, tech. Leave a Comment

If your in the Boston/Cambridge area today, there’s a pretty interesting panel discussion going on over at the Harvard GSD 5-7pm. I’ll try to be there.

“How do the new forms of connectivity enabled by the internet affect flows of power in society? Does electronic communication create new forms of self-identification, new political sensibilities, or new avenues of empowerment? Or do old hierarchies get reinforced and familiar divisions, such as those between male and female or right and left, get more firmly entrenched through new routines? How do design choices affect relationships of power, for example, by selecting who should be connected to whom and across what sorts of spaces? Drawing on studies of teenagers and professional designers, cities and the blogosphere, this distinguished panel will lead us on a fascinating journey across today’s changing public spheres. They will offer tantalizing glimpses into the democratic imaginations taking shape in cyberspace.”

Full description here.

Davos Annual Meeting 2009 – The Next Digital Experience

Posted by _tango! on February 22, 2009
Posted in: brand, conference, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, tech. Leave a Comment

Really interesting discussion if your into the future in digital mobile social networking.

“http://www.weforum.org
01.30.2009

The Next Digital Experience
Social networking applications and sophisticated mobile devices are combining elements of the real and virtual worlds, and delivering an augmented experience of reality.

How is this digital experience changing consumers and communities?

Hamid Akhavan: Chief Executive Officer, T-Mobile International, Germany
Eric K. Clemons: Professor of Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Chad Hurley: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, YouTube, USA
Craig Mundie: Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation, USA
Shantanu Narayen: President and Chief Executive Officer, Adobe Systems, USA
Mark Zuckerberg: Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Facebook, USA

Moderated by
Michael Arrington, Founder and Editor, TechCrunch, USA”

Brown University EP forum 2009

Posted by _tango! on February 22, 2009
Posted in: brand, conference, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment


I stopped by Brown Univesities EP (Entrepreneurship Program) this weekend in providence and was plesantly inspired by the 4 speakers who spoke. A few mental notes:

– Kiva.org: I learned from co-founder Matt Flannery that he worked at Tivo before, wrote down an idea a day for about a   month, then quit his job to work at a donut shop, while starting up Kiva, with several people saying you can’t just loan money to outside countries legally. Anyone can be your business partner! Kiva now get over 1Million dollars in loans every 10 days! via BrownEP

– Starbucks: Ted Garcia (Ex VP). Starbucks went from having 17 stores total to 5 stores opening each day up to an astounding 16,000 stores total in about 10 years! Starbucks success comes from 3 things. Performance, People, and Luck. Starbucks success was in having a constant open dialogue with all employees, and bringing up issues when employees did not perform as needed. via BrownEP

– Mark Victor Hansen: Spend, create ideas, do ideas, only you can make something happen. Don’t wait for it to come to you. Don’t do something to make money, or save the world. Do it to make the world better.  via BrownEP

– David Shrier: old school marketing techniques still work and can easily be measured in all channels. Some of the best examples are Ronco and Proactiv. Advertising money is not just to get to consumers, but also to reach largers distributions. I’m not a huge believer in older techniques, but David gave some very convincing examples.  via BrownEP

Jose Antonio Abreu: Help me bring music to kids worldwide

Posted by _tango! on February 19, 2009
Posted in: art, conference, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, music, TED. Leave a Comment


Unbelievable story! Multiple standing ovations occurred during Jose’s story and performance at TED. I’ll be helping out with this TED wish with my time this year and I just might be picking back up my violin of 15+ years experience for a bit. Come join the wish! Watch the above performance with your sound blasting!

“Jose Antonio Abreu is the charismatic founder of a youth orchestra system that has transformed thousands of kids’ lives in Venezuela. Here he shares his amazing story and unveils a TED Prize wish that could have a big impact in the US and beyond.” via TED

Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise

Posted by _tango! on February 17, 2009
Posted in: conference, entertainment, ideas, information, inspiration, TED. Leave a Comment

“Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.” via TED

Also watch his other talks here or buy his awesome book “Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less“

Bill Gates: How I’m trying to change the world now

Posted by _tango! on February 11, 2009
Posted in: conference, entertainment, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, tech, TED. Leave a Comment

Bill Gates gives a rather compelling lecture while releasing a jar of mosquito’s into the TED audience!

“Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world’s biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them.”

Q&A session:

Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius

Posted by _tango! on February 11, 2009
Posted in: conference, experience, food, ideas, information, inspiration, TED. Leave a Comment

A MUST watch from best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert of “Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.”

“Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.”