Wednesday, October 15, 2008

How to Start a Revolution


What is a Nappening? Come to the Wind Up Space in Baltimore tomorrow night to find out.


Tomorrow night I will join 16 other speakers for the first ever Ignite Baltimore. The event is based on the pecha kucha concept: Each speaker gets five minutes and 20 slides that advance every 15 seconds. The line up of speakers is diverse—from radio hosts to reverends and tech entrepreneurs—so it promises to be an interesting evening. It's free, but you do need to RSVP (use Ignite link above).

My topic is: How to Start a Revolution: Urban Interactions in the New American City. Here's how I describe it:

Baltimore is a shrinking, post-industrial town. The urban planning challenges we face today are different than anytime in our history and require a new approach to architecture, design, and community building. My five minutes will provide a whirlwind tour of designers and citizens transforming cities across the country through individual and collective actions, most outside the official system of the city (think: yoga in a bank lobby, breakfast on a median strip, turning a parking spot into an actual park).

My hope is that this five minute talk will spark some people in the audience to take to the streets and create their own urban interactions.

For those of you not in Baltimore, I plan on posting the talk with images and links on the blog Friday morning. I also think the whole thing might get recorded. If so, I'll provide a link to audio/video.

UPDATE: The show will be broadcast live via Web radio. Click Here.