Filed under: arts and creativity, Charlotte, community services, design research, information design, innovation, social media, Uncategorized | Tags: barcamp charlotte, charlotte design week, idsa southern district conference, richard saul wurman, ritz carlton charlotte, tedxcharlotte
photo via sirconferences
I wanted to quickly highlight a handful of design+innovation events in the Queen City before they sneak up on us! Who knew we were such a hotbed?!
- Perhaps as a preview to TEDxCharlotte, TED conference founder Richard Saul Wurman is visiting Charlotte to host a double feature on 4/7 and 4/8. The first is “Charlotte as a Learning Playground,” which is geared to be “an interactive conversation on Charlotte’s present and future identity.” At $199, it’s a little pricey, but one perk is that it’s at the new Ritz Carlton Uptown, where attendees can enjoy a fancy spread of hors d’oeuvres and try out the locally filtered water through its first-of-its-kind LEED setup.
- Charlotte’s own AIGA chapter is coordinating the city’s first annual Design Week, and they’re kicking it off at Imaginon on 4/13 with a Design Unplugged panel discussion of local creative directors and businessfolks.
- The next two conflict with an innovation event I’m attending in Chapel Hill, but I figured I’d share it here for those staying local that weekend: Barcamp Charlotte is hosting version 3.0 at Area15 on 4/10 and the Southern District Conference for the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is in Charlotte on 4/9-11, themed The Economy of Design.
Filed under: arts and creativity, Charlotte, innovation, social media, Uncategorized | Tags: Charlotte, dan pink, ideas worth spreading, NC music factory, ted, ted talks, tedxcharlotte
How excited was I when I learned about this?! Looks like details are still being formed, but a local version of the knowledge phenomenon that is TED will take place at the NC Music Factory in September. You need to apply to attend, but admission is free if you are one of the chosen. The RTP version is in just a few days.
Until then, here’s one of my favorites from Dan Pink talking about the topic of his most recent book, Drive, which is all about human motivation. A wonderful lesson for service designers everywhere.
Filed under: arts and creativity, community services, innovation trends, social media, Uncategorized | Tags: brainstorming, crowdsourcing, NY Times, the point
photo via NY Times
I’m a few weeks slow on the draw this time around, but one of my favorite end-of-the-year things to do is pour through the The New York Times Magazine’s Year in Ideas issue. In the past, I’ve used it for a brainstorming exercise (sort of like a word-association activity, but as stimulus to inspire new applications for their product using one of the featured ideas.)
One of these is called Subscription Artists, is another take on crowdsourcing, where a recording artist finances her work by soliciting pledges from fans. The article mentions Kickstarter as the tool to collect the funds, but The Point also does the same thing (I think Kickstarter is focused on artists.) The beauty of these sites is that participants actually commit money to ideas that they like, where as some other crowdsourcing mechanisms often turn out to be popularity contests.
How might a company use a Kickstarter-like tool to figure out what features their customers value?
Filed under: Charlotte, science and technology, social media, Uncategorized | Tags: Charlotte, climate change, copenhagen, lisa renstrom, tracy russ
flickr photo cred: andjohan
I was lucky to catch up with Tracy Russ, a Charlotte-based marketing consultant, just before he took off for the global climate change negotiations this week in Copenhagen. He talked about his most current project, The Copenhagen Story, which is a storytelling initiative in collaboration with former Sierra Club president, Lisa Renstrom.
Russ sees a big hole in the issue: positive inspiration for change. His innovative solution: get away from “scare tactics and gloom-and-doom scenarios” and give people a platform to see and hear about the future that carbon reduction efforts will ultimately provide. And not merely from an environmental standpoint, but he hopes to collect stories about the economic and societal benefits as well.
After the conference, I believe the team is rebranding the project under the name “Convergence.” Follow his progress here.
Filed under: Charlotte, community services, information design, social media, Uncategorized | Tags: Charlotte Observer, charlotte.com, creative search, hyperlocal, j-lab, newsmap, social bookmarking, social media, timespeople
Since I wrote an article about hyperlocalism over the summer, I’ve been passively tracking the trend, and I thought I’d share these findings.
logo via charlotte.com
1. Wait, what happened to charlotte.com?
Last week, I stumbled on the beta news site that the Charlotte Observer just planted in the old charlotte.com site. In an attempt to retain its local readership, the site features social bookmark-like capabilities (similar to TimesPeople,) allowing users to sign on with existing Twitter, Facebook, et al. accounts. It pulls in stories from other local sources, including Yelp reviews and blogs. Time will tell how successful it will be as the data builds; I do hope it eventually introduces more visual design (a la Creative Search or even Newsmap.)
screen capture via creative search
2. You, too, can consume and create.
Looks like the creative team at the Observer is looking for hyperlocal contributors. Not sure if it’s related to the charlotte.com site, but it’s related to a grant with an organization called the J-Lab.
3. So are people moving here or what?
Remember the buzz from earlier this year about all the people trying to move to Charlotte to find jobs in this recession? Newsweek offers an interesting viewpoint on hyperlocalism that might suggest otherwise.
Filed under: Charlotte, community services, consumer behavior, social media | Tags: center city partners, Charlotte, charlotte 2020, charlotte convention center, cltblog, social media
click for larger
Though I’m still new to Charlotte, I’ve been energized by some civic events lately, most recently with Center City Partners’ visioning workshop at the Convention Center. It was the first of 3 community workshops, inviting citizens to give input to city leaders on how to transform Charlotte by 2020.
Beyond the topic itself, I really enjoyed with the structure of the workshop. The consulting group (MIG) and project leaders provided multiple ways to take part: via Post-It notes and comment cards, through verbal feedback, and even through streaming video and social media, thanks to the CLTblog folks. They visualized comments and ideas on a large mural, which I know from facilitating ideation sessions, keeps folks engaged and contributing. The meeting ended with a survey called an “Idea Lab” where we voted on 20+ concepts using green, yellow, and red sheets of paper, a method I’ve seen to evaluate product designs and even election debates, but it was neat to see it used as a temperature gauge for urban planning. It all made for an optimistic night, where we felt free to think about positive change for a few hours.
I wish that more citizens came out to participate, particularly those with more diverse viewpoints outside of Uptown. Though I’m a big fan of green spaces and walkable cities, I’m sure that there are others who could make the case for investing in other kinds of projects.
Follow all the action on Charlotte 2020 here. I understand the survey and all the presentation materials will be available on the site soon.
Filed under: Charlotte, community services, information design, innovation, social media | Tags: apps, big apps, Charlotte, crowdsourcing, mashup, netflix prize, new york city, uservoice, washington dc
311 app logo via Apps for Democracy
I’ve been intrigued by a crowdsourcing challenge New York City is sponsoring that invites developers to submit solutions for new city apps in exchange for fame and a cash prize. They are not the first to host such a contest – Washington DC did one last year. For a mere $50K, these “non-profits” were able to solicit 230 resident insights and 47 applications in 30 days!
These challenges is that they blend two good innovation ingredients together:
- An attempt to understand what kinds of apps would be useful to consumers by collecting insights and needs. The last thing my iPhone wants is an App that doesn’t solve a problem that people care about. Both the DC and NYC contests leverage UserVoice to do this.
- A data mine for developers. Big cities have lots of data that probably doesn’t get used, but if applied in a good context, you could end up with interesting results. Making the data available promotes transparency and probably helps developers test their apps. This reminds me of the super-successful Netflix Prize, where the company provided real data to help contestant programmers improve its recommendation algorithm.
I know that there are lots of clever developers in Charlotte. I wonder what unique apps would help our own residents? I know I could have used one today that tells me where the closest Wi-Fi signal is both free and strong based on where I am.
Filed under: Charlotte, science and technology, social media | Tags: area 15, assumptions, barcamp charlotte, social media
What fun! Not knowing what to expect, I attended the first half of BarCamp Charlotte today over at Area 15. Reflecting on my newbie experience, I realized I arrived with a few assumptions, all of which were handily proven wrong.
1. I thought the informal nature of the setup would be frustrating. I’ve been working in a corporate setting where meetings and agendas are arranged months in advance. But in this format, participants pitch whatever topics they want to talk about, either as an expert presenter or as a discussion leader. Then the rest of us vote on which ones we want to see. Despite a few logistic glitches, I found this free-wheeling format to be invigorating and liberating. And wonderfully innovative.
2. I assumed the topics would only be about SEO and/or social media. Not so. Though there were plenty of extremely relevant sessions about those things, the floor is open to many others. Like the kid who taught folks how to make balloon animals. Or setting up photo-voltaics in your home.
3. I figured the average age of the participants would skew young. Boy, was I wrong on that one. Of the 200(?) or so folks at the event, there was a wide range represented. The mix in the room was impressive: small business owners, enthusiasts, and random interested friends (like me) of all levels of expertise and backgrounds.
Filed under: branding, Charlotte, social media | Tags: airdye, BOLT Group, designers accord, monty montague, sustainability, time magazine
About a month ago, Charlotte-based Bolt Group played host to the latest gathering of the Designers Accord, which Time magazine recently described as a “Kyoto Protocol of design” and is a coalition of design firms and companies who are looking to advance sustainability in their work by sharing best practices and successful case studies.
I met up with Monty Montague, Bolt’s principal, and he highlighted his firm’s efforts in helping their eco-friendly client Airdye build up their branding presence (and ultimately, customer base) using viral marketing techniques. He talked about the unique challenges of addressing multiple audiences: contractors and designers in both the fashion and interior design industries.
Find a wrapup of the local event here and find Bolt’s own blog here.
Filed under: arts and creativity, Charlotte, community services, social media, Uncategorized | Tags: amelie's bakery, Charlotte Magazine, Charlotte Observer, crystal dempsey, story slam
Proof that people can be brands, Crystal Dempsey doesn’t need more press. She just might be one of those future local leaders emerging out of the nonprofit sector. This is her world and she’s blending social media with civic innovation in Charlotte.
Over coffee, she described a groundswell of something really interesting happening in this town, and though she didn’t know what it was yet, she was bursting with excitement. It was pretty inspiring.
