Category: Uncategorized

Remember Save or Shave Carl? Well, it’s almost time for the final decision to be made!

Tomorrow, Friday, April 23rd, the mustache will either stay or go, and it all depends on the donations. Using my “MOspace” page on Movember.com, people can donate and leave a message. At the party, if the people who say “Shave Carl!” have raised more money than those who say “Save Carl!” then Carl will go — AT the party.

Where does the money go? Donations and votes are cast directly to the Movember Foundation. From there, the Movember Foundation splits the money between its two beneficiaries: Livestrong & the Prostate Cancer Foundation. More details on where the money is going.

So how about that party? I’ll be providing some pizza and drinks, and there will be a live taping of Evil Genius Radio. It’ll be great fun, whether or not Carl meets his end! If you want to make sure I get enough food and drinks, RSVP on Facebook so I know how many mouths I need to feed!

Friday, April 23, 2010 7:00pm
Gangplank
325 E Elliot Rd
Chandler, AZ

I dropped by Leo Laporte’s cottage to show him Carl and he ended up donating to help Save Carl. Here’s the video:

Sure, we all know juicy gossip spreads faster than praise. News of a scandal spreads faster than news of an accomplishment.

But what about the exciting news of a sold-out event getting a larger venue and re-opening ticket sales? Well, as I’ve observed in various situations, it can be hard to get the word out that space is once again available after the word to the contrary has spread.

This leaves event planners in a precarious situation. You don’t want people to miss out. You want everyone who wants to attend to be able to attend. But changing to a bigger venue and re-opening ticket sales can be risky. If the word doesn’t get out fast enough, you could end up with empty seats. When it comes to making an event pack a punch, you want the event to feel like it’s bursting at the seems. You don’t want empty seats. Filling 500 out of 1,000 seats will feel like a failure, while getting in trouble with the fire marshal for exceeding a 240-person limit will feel like a raging success.

Back to the news spreading. If you want to go to an event, but tickets are sold out, there’s an emotional reaction. It’s a tragedy. What you want is there and you cannot have it. Tragedy is news. People talk about their personal tragedies. If you then find out you can attend, the feeling is relief. Relief isn’t news. People don’t talk about things that feel “nice.”

Today, I heard Pecha Kucha Night Phoenix had re-opened ticket sales with the announcement of a new venue, after all the tickets for the previous venue were snapped up in a gold rush. It’s risky, but hopefully the word will spread to the people who missed out that they have a second chance!

Twestival Phoenix is coming up this week! Unfortunately, I’m going to be out of town. I’m donating anyway.

I don’t think I need to describe it because the description below is pretty thorough.

Martini Ranch (map)
7295 East Stetson Drive
Scottsdale, AZ

Phoenix tweeps, come have a blast and help support those in need on 3/25 at Martini Ranch in Scottsdale.

We will have food, drinks (drink tickets), a raffle, silent auction and good company.

Twestival is a 100% volunteer run, globally held event brought together by the twitter community to raise money for charity.

In February 2009, 202 cities around the world participated in Twestival raising over $250,000 for charity: water, enabling the drilling of 55 wells with more than 17,000 people served in Uganda, Ethiopia and India. Phoenix raised $4,700+ and came in 7th out of 202 cities!

In September 2009, Phoenix chose St. Mary’s Food Bank as their charity and raised $9,332 to help feed the hungry in our community. Those funds allowed St. Mary’s Food Bank to distribute enough food into the community to provide over 65,000 meals.

Twestival’s 2010 goal is to help Concern WorldWide (@concern) in their efforts to reduce suffering and end extreme poverty. For 42 years, Concern has been tackling the root causes of extreme poverty through focus on education, health (HIV and AIDS), livelihoods and emergency response. Concern has more than 3,600 employees working in 28 of the world’s poorest countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Concern is also actively focused on the emergency in Haiti.

If you have any questions please email us at twestivalphx@gmail.com. Follow @twestivalphx on Twitter or reach out to @chrislee directly.

NOTES: For the raffle, must be present to win. Event is 21 and over because of the venue.

Via Eventification, the Phoenix tech event site

Another Ignite Phoenix is coming up, Tuesday, November 3, 2009 6pm-9pm. I had the pleasure of speaking at Ignite Phoenix #2, where I took 5 minutes to show how data visualization can give us new ways to see things.

If you haven’t been to an Ignite, you should. Even if you’re not in Phoenix, there are Ignites held all over the world. Find one near you and check it out!

Videos from past Ignite Phoenix presentations.

Tempe Center for the Arts (map)
700 W Rio Salado Parkway
Tempe, AZ

Ignite Phoenix is an information exchange for fostering and inspiring Phoenix’s creative community. In one evening, you hear 18 passionate speakers from our creative, technical, and business communities talking about their current projects or favorite ideas for just five minutes. Presentations will educate and inspire you, and maybe make you laugh in the process.

Up to 20 slides and 5 minutes is all you get. Not a second more. The presenters need to get to the point quickly, and make it exciting and engaging.

We welcome topics about anything that other people will find interesting. That’s a wide criteria and that’s just fine. If the most interesting submissions end up being technical, then Ignite will have a technical feel. There is a wide mix of topics. If you’re not interested in the current topic, all you have to do is wait for 5 minutes and a new one starts.

Via Eventification, the Phoenix tech event site

Are you interested at all in mobile technologies? iPhone? Android? BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, etc?

Then you need to go to this event.

MobiFestival.com
May 16th, 2009
9:00am – 7:00pm

Location:
Gangplank HQ
325 E. Elliot Rd.
Chandler, AZ 85225

Mobi Festival is where platform allegiance is checked at the door. The goal is to bring together mobile enthusiasts, explorers, developers and professionals to share the current state and their visions for the future direction of mobility.

Mobi Festival hopes to support the many voices helping to unlock the potential of a truly digital life in a mobile world. The format will be part conference and part un-conference. There will be some scheduled speakers at set times and bar camp style presentations in between. Additionally, there will be time set a side for break out groups to actually do some mobile hacking. This conference is for mobile developers by mobile developers.

Joe Stump of Crash Course Keynoting

INFO: http://mobifestival.com/
REGISTER NOW: http://mobifestival.eventbrite.com (FREE!!!)

Intel will be providing mobile devices for hack session.
Go Daddy will be raffling iPhone and G1 throughout the day!
Lunch and Free T-Shirt provided for those that register online!