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Learning from Phoenix and Vancouver: An Interview

Recently, my good friend Taz Loomans contacted me and asked if I’d be willing to do an interview on my time in Phoenix and my thoughts after leaving.  Here’s what I had to say:

 

Life After Phoenix, a Retrospective

Firefly Living is happy to present a retrospective interview discussing Yuri’s thoughts about his time here in Phoenix.
photo 167 Learning from Phoenix and Vancouver: An Interview
Uptown Phoenix. Photo by Taz Loomans.
Taz Loomans: What do you miss most about Phoenix?

Yuri Artibise: I miss the weather, especially this time of year, but even in the summer, there is a quality to the sun light that you just don’t have in northern cities. I also miss the close-knit community of urbanists working together. While there is a great and very accomplished urban community in Vancouver, we are busy doing our own things and I haven’t been able to connect with others as closely as I did in Phoenix. It seems the adage that adversity brings people together is true, especially in an ‘urban desert’ like Phoenix.

Taz Loomans: What did Phoenix have the Vancouver doesn’t?

Yuri Artibise: Beside climate (and great tamales!), Phoenix has an affordability that Vancouver simply doesn’t; even before the economic downturn, Phoenix was an affordable place to follow your dream. This led to a more entrepreneurial culture that I miss. Vancouver has a lot of great things going on, but the high cost of living means that security comes first for a lot of people. Despite it’s often inward looking perspective the region has great potential as an incubator for social entrepreneurship.

Taz Loomans: What do you miss least about Phoenix?

Yuri Artibise: The lack of urban form in the city, even downtown.  I still pinch myself when I walk outside and see almost everything I strove for during my time in Phoenix, realized in Vancouver, from walkable streets, to mixed used developments to bike lanes, even dog parks! If anything Vancouver may be a bit TOO livable icon wink Learning from Phoenix and Vancouver: An Interview  as it’s desirability have driven prices sky-high.  (As a result, real estate is the number one topic of most discussions, as it was in Phoenix, just for opposite reasons).

Taz Loomans: From the perspective of someone who lived here and now has left, what do you think Phoenix’s biggest pitfalls are?

Yuri Artibise: First and foremost the extreme political climate. It is the question I am asked about here. Second is sustainability.  I know many Phoenix residents don’t want to hear it, but Andrew Ross got a lot right in his book, Bird on Fire.  I mean there isn’t even recycling pickup in apartments!  But seriously, while things like xeriscaping and shade are important, until the region drops the growth industry mantra and starts thinking seriously about things like residential water restrictions, limiting suburban expansion and significant investing in social infrastructure, especially K-12, the future of the Valley doesn’t look great.
In this regard, the sustained economic downtown may be a blessing in disguise, as you will be forced to do more with less. Hopefully politicians will stop looking to external investment as a way to disguise the great harms that that region’s (sub)urban form has done, not only to it’s long term environmental sustainability, but also it’s social and economic sustainability as well. I know that people there don’t want to hear it, but there is a reason that these issues keep being raised by outside commentators like Ross and expats like Jon Talton.

Taz Loomans: From the perspective of someone who lived here and now has left, what do you think Phoenix’s biggest opportunities are?

Yuri Artibise: Phoenix’s biggest opportunities are frankly the great expanses of vacant lots and empty storefronts. Combined with the entrepreneurial spirit and low-cost of living mentioned above, the city could become a great laboratory for sustainable desert living, in a manner like Detroit has become a beacon for rust belt revitalization. But to do so, the region needs to seriously consider ways to reconsider its relationship to its climate—not simply push for solar panels and rain barrels. I’m not sure that Paolo Soleri had all the right answers, but his radical rethinking of desert living are closer to what the region needs. Frankly, I didn’t see that thinking in the most of the current crop of so-called sustainable architects who pushed xeriscaping large lots and shade sails over private pools as sustainable solutions.

Taz Loomans: Would you ever come back to live Phoenix, given the opportunity? Why or why not?

Yuri Artibise: One thing that I have learned after returning to Vancouver is that this is ‘home’ and where my heart is. However, Phoenix will always be a special place for me, and I’d love to opportunity to return, at least part-time.  I think that there is a lot both cities can learn from each other, and I’d love to help help this process.

Taz Loomans: What can we learn from Vancouver here in Phoenix?

Yuri Artibise: There is a lot, obviously, given my earlier comments, but first and foremost, Phoenix can demand more from it’s developers.  One of the things that has made Vancouver such a livable city is the high level of amenities that the City of Vancouver demands—and receives—from developers, especially when rezoning properties. This helps make sure that new developments are more complete communities, with access to daycare, transit, park space or cultural facilities.
Additionally, Vancouver has the greenest building standards in North America.  While Phoenix is applauding itself for adopting a voluntary green construction code,Vancouver requires all new buildings to be at least LEED Gold. Such requirements have been criticized by developers, and have been named a cause in driving our sky-high real estate prices, but I think they have been an important factor in making Vancouver such a livable and sustainable city.

Taz Loomans: What can Vancouver learn from Phoenix?

Yuri Artibise: One thing that it lacking in Vancouver is official neighbourhood input into planning decisions. While the city has an active and the speaking list at rezoning often tops 200 speakers, we have no equal to Phoenix’s Village Planning Committees.  As a result, many neighbourhoods feel that their perspective is overlooked in planning decisions.
Another idea that Vancouver could borrow from Phoenix is the percent-for-art program that funds public art throughout the city.  While Vancouver has a well-respected public art program, and public art is often included in the public amenity packages I mentioned earlier, it would be nice to have dedicated source of funding, and more integration of public art into civic utilities and infrastructure. While Vancouver has some great art in our parks and urban core, our highways overpasses are nowhere near as cool as Phoenix’s icon smile Learning from Phoenix and Vancouver: An Interview .

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Why I Remember

memorialhall 11 2011 Why I Remember

Memorial Hall at the National War Museum in Ottawa

Whether you call it Remembrance Day or Veterans Day, November 11th has always be a profound day for me. From the age of ten, as a Navy League cadet, through high school as a Air Cadet and into my university years at Royal Military College, I took part in ceremonies in cities across Canada. While it wasn’t always easy to get up and stand outside (particularly on a cold Ottawa day), I always felt honoured to take part.

But for me, the true power of the day didn’t occur during the two minutes of silence at 11 o’clock as we remembered the men and women who have served—and continue to serve—our country during times of war, conflict and peace. Rather it can afterwards at the Legion halls as I shared a hot chocolate—or a whiskey—with the men and women who have sacrificed for our country. Hearing their stories first-hand gave me appreciation of their experiences.

Their ‘war stories’ were not the stereotypical glorification of battles. They didn’t even talk much about what they endured, or about the brothers and sisters they lost. Often times their most interesting stories didn’t occur on the battlefield, but years afterwards as the returned home, raised families and followed their careers, and continued serving their communities.For these veterans, war wasn’t something to be either glorified or forgotten, but to be learned from and applied in other ares of their lives.

Thus, it wasn’t the details of their experiences that have stuck with me, but rather the power of the human will and spirit they reflected. When they returned home, these veterans would have had every right to walk away and say “I’ve served my country; time for somebody else to step up.”  The veterans I remember most didn’t use their service as an excuse. They use it as a launching pad to continue serving their community. They used their stories to create awareness; they used their leadership skills to coach sports, lead community groups, or run for office; they used their tenacity to start businesses to provide services and create jobs.

Whenever I have been defeated, or endured set back, I don’t dwell on what I have lost. Rather, I reflect on what I have learned from veterans and focus on how I can use the negative experience to strengthen my next endeavour. On the flip side, when I have enjoyed success, I  remember that we are never done serving our communities and begin looking for the next opportunity to engage.  This is why I remember.  Not to glorify war, or celebrate sacrifice, but to strengthen myself and my resolve to improve my community.

So today, after you spend time remembering  the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country, why not head over to you local Legion? When you are they, buy a veteran a coffee or whiskey and chat for a while. You’ll not only learn more about them and their experiences, you will learn more about what humans—including yourself—are capable.

 

Why I Remember
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My Professional Network, Visualized

LinkedIN has developed a fun tool called LinkedIN Maps.  It pulls in data from your profile and allows you to view and tag a visual representation of your own network.  Here’s an image of my network.

 

My Professional Network, VisualizedUsing data on shared connections and companies, the map groups these connections into clusters, which are colour coded. The larger dots (or names in larger fonts) indicate people with more connections. The user can also zoom in to see a single name, which if clicked on, highlights that person’s connections.

While it is creates a cool visual, and it’s fun to see the inter-connections among my friends and contacts (six degrees anyone?), I’m uncertain about it’s ongoing usefulness.  But then again I’m not a data scientist.  LinkedIN’s Chief Scientist, DJ Patil is, so I’ll let him explain it:

 

If we’re not already connected on LinkedIN, please send me an invite.

 

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Who I Admire Most

A common interview question is “Who do your admire most.”  As I’m in the midst of a job search, I’ve been given this question a lot of thought. Since the answers also have a big impact on my writing, I thought I’d share them here.

What Leaders, Thinkers and Doers do I Admire Most?

While there are many ways to answer this question and a lot of candidates to choose from, I will focus my answer to people influential in the world of urbanism.

Leader: Janette Sadie-Khan

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Photo: Randy Harris. nymag.com

There are several definitions of a leader. Perhaps the most common is: A person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal. While this works in many circumstances, I prefer to take a tighter view of leadership and include somebody in a position of authority or influence. This stems from my military training and my public policy background. With this tighter definition in mind, the leader I admire most is Janette Sadie-Khan

Janette is the current Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. She has been a key player in efforts to transform New York into a green city focusing on livability and quality of life. Her leadership is clear in her successful efforts to create a pedestrian-only zone around Times Square along Broadway. But perhaps most importantly, Janet has redefined what it means to be a transportation leader. Traditionally the DOT is known as a large bureaucracy run by traffic engineers focused on moving as many automobiles as possible, as quickly as possible. Janet has flipped this formula on its head and is refocusing the DOT on the needs of New York’s residents, not just their vehicles. This is leadership.

Thinker: Jane Jacobs

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smartpei.typepad.com

This one is easy, if a tad cliché. The thinker I admire most is Jane Jacobs. The Death and Live of Great American Cities completely change how we look at cities. But her method of thinking was perhaps even more influential than here writing. Jane emphasized the power of everyday observation have in our thought process. Jane’s true power as a thinker was a result of her innate curiosity, about not only the city around here, but about everything and everyone she came in contact with.

As a result of this curiosity, Jane’s influence as a thinker was not just limited to cities. Indeed I first become acquainted with Jane through here writings on economics and the environment. When I  met her in 2004 during her tour for the book Dark Age Ahead, I was struck by the care and depth in the answers to even seemingly mundane questions. While she was doubtless asked the same questions at every session, she took the time to actually observe her audience and surroundings and responds in a meaningful way. To me this is the sign of a great thinker and a skill that we all should aim to emulate.

Doer: Andrés Duany

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urbanrealm.co.uk

Andrés Duany is the doer I admire most. This is a controversial pick in that I am not impressed with much of the results of the work that Andrés has involved in (aka new suburbanism).  I give him credit, however, for actually doing something, and doing it on a public scale. Too often there is a divide between urban theory and practice. Andrés is influential to me because he bridges this gap. He takes the theory and ideas of New Urbanism and actually puts them to practice through his firm DPZ.

Having spent a day with Andrés, I was able see a side of him that few people are lucky enough to witness. I also had to opportunity to talk with him about my skepticism of several of his projects. His response was t that in order for new—and even ‘old’—urbanism to gain (or regain) a foothold, there needs to be tangible examples to illustrate basic principles that otherwise would be limited to theory. Even if we don’t agree with the outcome of these projects, they became an important part of the public discourse. Moreover through actually doing that other just talk about, Duany learns important lessons that he is able to apply to his thinking and to future projects. As a result, we get better theory and practice. This is the power of doing.

The Personal Touch

Interestingly, I have met two of the three people I admire most in my chosen afield. This is no too surprising.  Despite my love of social media for meeting and connecting with people online, there is no substitute for face to face interaction. Getting to know somebody in person helps get beyond their public persona and published work, and helps you understand not just what they have said and done, by WHY and HOW they did it. To me, this is the most important part of influence.

While I have not met Janette personally, I am very familiar with the world in which she operates, having spent a decade working in public sector bureaucracies. Nevertheless I hope to meet her someday soon.

Who do you admire most in your chosen field of work or study? Why?

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Creative Generalist: I Connect the Dots

I’ve always hated the question “What do I do?”  Even when I had a specific job with an official title, I found the question limiting. It is too often used to pigeon-hole people into various silos. That is why I like the term Creative Generalist.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

—Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love Creative Generalist: I Connect the Dots

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Locals and Tourists in Vancouver.Image by Eric Fischer

The concept of creative generalist isn’t new.  Indeed, some of the greatest minds in history were generalists and made their mark by connecting the dots in a variety of fields. Issac Newton, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and, even my hero—Jane Jacobs—were all generalists. Each was able to connect ideas from various fields and create silo shattering ideas.

My Evolution

At first I didn’t identify myself as a generalist.  I was a public policy specialist.  But as my government career progressed, I begin to see this wasn’t truly a speciality, rather it was a sub-generalization.  My peers were becoming specialists not just in public policy, but in environmental policy or fiscal policy or urban policy. I tried to follow a specialization first in international trade policy—building on my international studies undergraduate education— and later in First Nations policy.

I found, however, that delving deep into the intricacies of specific subject areas didn’t hold my passion.  Instead, I was apt to take a step back and see how the various policy silos related to each other.  This led me to thrive in roles in policy co-ordination and community building.

Just What is A Creative Generalist?

There is the old adage “Jack of All Trades Master of None.”  I disagree with this. While a generalist is indeed a jack of all trades, s/he is also a master of  one of the most important skills. This is connecting the dots and moving ideas forward. Generalists are experts at researching, analyzing and integrating ideas from a range of fields. They are also adept at working in concert with specialist representing a range of (often idiosyncratic) cultures and personality types.  By working in many worlds, generalists often see things others don’t.

Ideas cannot be limited to the confines of a silo. They need space to run around and occasionally bump into strangers.

—Steve Hardy

Creative Urbanism

I think my needs to connect the dots is why I love urbanism.  Vibrant neighborhoods don’t specialize.  They serve multiple purposes and are home to a variety of people with a variety of skills. Indeed, I believe that North American cities went off track in the 1950s and 60s.  This is when urban planners stopped looking at cities as web-like ecosystems and started looking at them in a linear fashion, separating property types, and more detrimentally, people types.

Development is differentiation emerging from generality, the process is open-ended and it produces increasing diversity and increasingly various, numerous, and intricate co-development relationships.

—Jane Jacobs in her book The Nature of Economies Creative Generalist: I Connect the Dots

Creative Generalist: I Connect the Dots
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My Personality at Work

entp%20cleaning My Personality at WorkMe and Myers Briggs

Most people are familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory. I was initially skeptical of the concept. However, after taking numerous tests over the past 20 years and getting the same result, I’ve come to a reluctant acceptance.  I am ENTP.

ENTP=Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving

While I couldn’t find any faults with the test’s assessment, I never felt like it offered an adequate explanation of my professional personality. So I stored the information in the back corner of my mind. I only brought it out when required at various HR sessions and team building retreats. At least the Myers-Briggs test was consistent—if not completely compelling—in it’s descriptions.

Logical Explorer

It was not until coming across the writing of Donna Dunning that I realized that  Myers-Briggs was more than simply four letters to mull over. It can be used to as a framework to explain more rounded personality types. Donna identifies holistic personality types that brings together the four preferences and packages them together.  This makes it easy to highlight your personal brand.

According to Donna’s research, I am a Logical Explorer.

Explorers are constantly scanning the environment looking for associations and patterns. They naturally link ideas together and see connections. They like to focus on what could be rather than what is. They see many possibilities in everything they can sense, experience and imagine. Explorers are enthusiastically and outwardly focused on the future and like to initiate change. They see every situation as an opportunity to try something different.

[The Logical side] balance this approach of innovation and initiation with an internal focus on logic and analysis. They like to create a complex system of patterns and models by evaluating and critiquing new information.

Logical Explorers make up between 3-5% of the population.

The Possibilities are Endless

Coming across this description was a revelation to me. It joined two seemingly opposite personality traits: my desire to explore and find new information, and my ability to logically analyze and look for patterns in data.

The extroverted part of me enjoys spending a lot of time interacting with others and gathering new insights and ideas. However, the more introverted part needs downtime to reflect on and analyse the insights I have gathered. This also explains why I am night owl. The world seems to move a bit slower after midnight, allowing me the opportunity to think and ponder.

My intuitive side loves the spontaneity of new ideas and new people. Of not planning but ‘going wit the flow.’ While deadlines motivate me, I am a firm believer that the perfect is the enemy of the great. Most assignments are better viewed as iterations rather that completed projects. In other words—for the explorer in me—everything is a work in progress. Products can be improved upon in the future based on experience and feedback.

As a result, my ideal career would let me respond to ideas and people constantly. it would offer the freedom I need to explore and analyze to get great results. I enjoy dealing with internal and external clients in fast paced environments. I pursue solutions through analyzing, evaluating and recommending options. I like to work with diverse people and see new possibilities and new ways of doing things that help me not only with the challenge at hand but others as well

In Summary

Some of the traits of a Logical Explorer that I most identify with are:

  • I like to work with and create new ideas.
  • I make connections and see relationships between things and ideas.
  • I would rather initiate and conceptualize projects than complete them.
  • I anticipate, seek, and create change, and like to help others do the same.
  • I balance innovation and initiation with an internal focus on logic and analysis.
  • I like to create systems of patterns and models by evaluating and critiquing new information.
  • I am as comfortable in a suit and tie as in sandals and t-shirts

So that’s me—or at least how I like to work—in 700 words or less. I hope you now have a better idea of how I operate; especially while working and writing.

I’d be interested to here from my readers what your Myers-Briggs personality typology is, and if you feel it is accurate.

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Unemployment: The Best Job I Never Had

5572456220 3db8d78bd8 m Unemployment: The Best Job I Never Had

yvonne kroese on Flickr

Earlier this year, there were reports in the  media that companies are not hiring unemployed people. Apparently it has reached the point where the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the US  is investigating. They are trying to figure out whether this trend is widespread and could violate American job discrimination laws.

Personally, I think that this not hiring somebody because they have lost their previous job is short-sighted. As I am unemployed, you may think this is self-serving. Perhaps it is. But I think that being unemployed for an extended time has actually improved my employability in several ways.

My Unemployment Experience

Like most people, I was distraught when I first lost my job. Not only was it during the worst recession of my lifetime, my situation was even more dour; my Canadian citizenship presented other challenges to finding employment in Phoenix. However, I never gave up hope.

Part of this was that I received a decent severance and my wife and I had some savings to fall back on. In addition, my wife’s employment helped keep us financially afloat.  I also knew if worse came to worse, I could pack up and return to Canada, which I recently did.

A Silver Lining

A bigger part was the face that I looked at my unemployment as an opportunity, not a threat. I knew the economic crisis and my immigration status poses immediate obstacles to finding employment in the short and medium term. But instead of panicking, I used the time my unemployment offered me to reevaluate—and ultimately re-brand—myself according to my abilities and my passions.

Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life. —Eckhart Tolle

As a result, far from being a weakness to cover up, my unemployment is a strength to promote. Here’s why:

It Provided New Opportunities

More than anything else, unemployment gave me the opportunity for self-reflection and, ultimately, self-realization. During my unemployment I have really got in tune with myself to understand what makes me tick. It  has forced me to think about what I want to do and where I want to be.

In addition to freeing my time, unemployment liberated me to look at my world from completely different perspective. I had the opportunity to take risks and try things that I wouldn’t have done before. If I had remained employed in my job, I would have remained a skilled policy analyst, who always wondered why he never felt fulfilled.

Being unemployed and without much hope of finding a job gave me the opportunity to start looking at things a different way. More importantly, it has helped me find my true calling. Unemployment was the perfect chance to start investigating my passions and fine tuning my interests.

As a result, I am a different person than I was before, or imagined that I ever could be. And while I am financially poorer for the time being, I am happier and more self-assured that I would have ever imagine.

It Improved My Skills

When employed, I was paid to do certain things. Some I enjoyed and am good at (i.e. what I was originally hired to do). Other things that became part of the job, but which I wasn’t passionate about. Being unemployed allows to tho limit the second type of activities and focus and on the first type. In effect, it helped fine-tune my strengths.

Unemployment also gave me the opportunity to learn new skills that complemented my interests and passions. As a research and policy wonk, I had well-developed research and analytical skills. This is what I was hired for, and this is what I did 90% of the time. While it was comfortable being an expert, I felt that something was missing.

Loosing my job allowed me to address this void. and developed and deepen skills that I didn’t already have. I had dabbled with blogs before, but I really didn’t know much. Today, thanks to developing all these skills, I’ve run several blogs and have helped others build theirs. I have also become adept at hosting and promoting events. Finally I have learned how to engage people and build communities. These are all increasing important skills in the workforce. All were skills that my earlier jobs did not give me the opportunity to develop.

It Strengthened My Network

Being unemployed is an isolating experience. I lost contact with most of my work colleagues and even a few ‘fair weather’ friends. I could no longer rely on my job title or employers name to meet other people or attend networking events and conferences.

Unemployment gave me a deeper appreciation of the friends and connections that stuck around. It also made me more discriminating in deciding who to connect with. This made the connections deeper and more meaningful. More importantly, unemployment gave me the opportunity to meet people who I would never had met I had I stayed in my job. Rather than relying on my job title or employer, I had to do meet people based on my skills and personality. These people have become invaluable members of my tribe.

Unemployed also gave me the opportunity to connect with people online and realize the true power of social networking. Through my blog and sites like Twitter and Facebook, I have connected, and become friends with several people not only in Phoenix and Vancouver, but from around the world.

These connections have provided me with opportunities I would never have otherwise had. They have inspired me to do things I would never have considered.  They have also deepened my knowledge and understand of subjects I am passionate about. Unlike my previous employment based networks, many of these social connections will follow me wherever I go.

Far from being a set-back, unemployment was a great learning experience.  It encouraged me to re-discover myself. It helped me reorient my career path to align with my skills and passions. I won’t lie and say it was a bed of roses. Indeed it has several downsides. These include financial stress, family tensions and general uncertainty. I will be ECSTATIC when I find my next job.

But in the end, the experiences I gained from unemployment truly were the best that money couldn’t buy. I am now a more self-assured, highly skilled and better connected prospective employee than ever before. Far from being a black mark, my unemployment was a blessing in disguise.  Hopefully prospective employers will agree!

Unemployment: The Best Job I Never Had
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My Visual Résumé

As many of you know, my wife and I recently moved to Vancouver.  I have been without a steady income for over a year now, and given the economic (and political) climate in Arizona, work prospects did not look good for me there.  So we have made the tough decision to pack things in and get a fresh start back in our homeland of Canada.

While I am diligent about keeping my résumé up to date, I am using this transition as an opportunity to explore new ways of marketing my self and my skills.  One idea I have to use this site as a platform to share this information more widely.  While ultimately targeted as prospective employers and clients, I hope that it is also of interest to my regular readers, as it will allow you to get an idea of where I am coming from and how the ideas and opinions I share here were influenced and shaped.

As part of this effort, here is a my visual résumé. A typical résumé—or curriculum vitae—is often a long and boring document highlighting  education, work experience, and other achievements.This format has been around since the “snail mail” days and it still works but it’s format and ubiquity make it hard to stand out in a tough job market. This visual resume is an attempt to stand apart for the crowd a bit.  I hope you enjoy it.

 

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Finding my Northern Voice (2011)

If we’re Twitter friends you’re probably more than aware that I attended  the Northern Voice conference last Friday and Saturday.

Northern Voice in a Nutshell

logo Finding my Northern Voice (2011)From the start, I knew that Northern Voice would be a different breed of social media conference. The opening remarks paid tribute to Derek K. Miller of penmachine.  Derek recently lost his battle with cancer. But rather than the traditional moment of silence, we all boisterously called out, “Goodbye, Derek.”  I never me Derek, but from the tributes and the discussion I over heard, this was the goodbye he wanted.

The unique nature of the conference continued with the Day 1 Keynote. April Smith of AHA Media spoke about Storytelling from the Heart of the City. April does amazing work giving a much-needed voice to the people living on the Downtown East Side. Her talk was truly moving and intense. But it coursed with optimism and joy, even as she recounted some of the desperate situations she and her fellow downtown east-siders have endured.

Saturday’s keynote was more light-hearted, but just as informative. Chris Wilson, was co-author of NCSA Mosaic, the first mass market web browser and a pioneering developer for Internet Explorer.  His talk, From Dial-up Modems to Post-”Social Media”: A Journey, recapped his 15 year voyage.  It reminded the audience how far the internet—and social media—have come in a relatively short time period.

Scheduled around these keynotes were several other presentations and panels on a variety of subjects. These ranged from photo-blogging to open government to community management and everything in between (and a few things beyond!).  Running parallel to the conference on Friday was MooseCamp, a series of participatory sessions focused on hands-on exercises and vigorous dialogue.

It’s About the Community

IMG 0398 224x300 Finding my Northern Voice (2011)For me, however, the most important aspect of events like this are getting to meet the community.  It is awesome to meet the people you’ve followed on Twitter or the blogosphere and say hi, share a meal (or better yet… a beer) and learn more about people than is shared in a 140 character message.

This is the true power of social media.  it’s not the tech, it’s not the tools it is the authentic connections that are made—both online and off.  And boy, did I make a lot of great connections and budding friendships over the weekend!  I also love being surrounded by hundreds of people who ‘get’ social media. There is no explaining, justifying or correcting, just sharing. It creates a true sense of belonging.

This sense of belonging was amplified by Northern Voice’s focus on personal blogging. It wasn’t a business-centric or tool focused conference, rather it was a community-centered one.  In fact it was like what I envisioned for CenPhoCamp, but never quite pulled off.

All -in-all, it was an awesome event, and a great introduction to Vancouver’s social media community.  I can’t wait until next year!!

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A photo of me taken by my new friend Ariane Colenbrander (Flickr)

 

Finding my Northern Voice (2011)
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My TEDxScottsdale Talk: Cities are People (Video)

On April 22nd, I had the honor of speaking at the inaugural TEDxScottsdale.  My presentation was entitled ‘Cities ARE People‘ and  I talked about my journey through the urban desert that is Phoenix, AZ.

TEDxLogo5 My TEDxScottsdale Talk: Cities are People (Video)

The event was extra special for me as it was my last presentation in Phoenix before I moved to Vancouver and it was somewhat of a ‘live’ resume‘ of my community building work in the city.

Hope you enjoy it!

 

Thanks to Tyler Hurst for the video editing.  A transcript of the talk, along with a copy of the slides can be found here.

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