Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "creativity"

Seventh annual Suits and Slippers raises money for children's center

2011-09-15T04:58:31Z

Nearly 300 people arrived at Arden Mall’s Market Square at 7:30 a.m. dressed in their business suits and slippers. They had come to enjoy a plethora of breakfast cereals for the seventh annual Suits and Slippers event hosted by the Roberts Family Development Center. Guests were provided with bowls of cereal along with Starbucks coffee, muffins, bananas, yogurt and orange juice.

People marvelled over creative cereal sculptures and enjoyed their breakfasts as Derrell Roberts, co-founder and CEO of the RFDC, mingled with the crowd.

“It’s made people think of the center as a place for kids to grow,” Roberts said, referring to how the event has impacted the RFDC.

Roberts said that the RFDC provides family-oriented services to more than 200 students in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, including ones in North Sacramento, downtown and the River District. They provide everything from after-school tutoring for schoolkids to parenting workshops for adults.

Three school districts, Twin Rivers, Robla and Sacramento City Unified, also work with the RFDC. “We work with (these) three districts very closely,” Roberts said.

People walked around talking with each other and participating in the silent auction, which sold everything from collector comic books to signed sports jerseys. The floor was an array of brightly colored shoes and shapes, with everything from bright pink cats to large racecars appearing on people’s slippers.

Few people were aware that judges were secretly walking among them, looking to find three pairs of slippers to award as the most worn, most creative and the best-looking animal slippers.

The RFDC Youth Choir performed “Uma Familia” as people settled into their seats with their breakfasts.

“Since 2005, this event has netted the RFDC over $350,000,” said Debbie Hammond, who along with Hayes Bernard won last year’s cereal-eating contest and served as MCs at this year’s event.

Roberts said that even more money has been raised indirectly because of the event.

“(Suits and Slippers) has raised another half million dollars in terms of relationships that have developed with the people who have attended,” he said.

But Roberts also said that he believes Suits and Slippers has done much more for the center than just raise money. It has brought visibility, which he said is what the center needs most right now.

Roberts credited the creation of Suits and Slippers to Sharon Gerber, president and founder of Six Degreez, Inc., an event planning firm.

Gerber said she got the idea seven years ago from a restaurant in Los Angeles called “Cereality” that served cereal for every meal of the day. She adapted the idea to fit a fundraising event and pitched it to Roberts, who thought it was great.

Through her many connections, Gerber was able to secure use of the Arden Mall’s Market Square and was able to get General Mills to donate all of the cereal. The milk was donated by Crystal Cream, and Raley’s provided the rest of the food. These donors have been consistent over the years.

The cereal-eating contest has been a staple for several years. The contest involves prominent Sacramentans racing to be the first one to finish a bowl of cereal – milk and all. The winners get their pictures placed on boxes of Wheaties.

“It’s really fun because you’ve got pretty important people in town with milk dribbling down their chins,” Gerber said.

After the Youth Choir performed a rendition of Alicia Keys’ “No One”, the cereal eating contest was ready to begin.

This year’s contest had many of the Sacramento area’s most visible people vying for their place at the top. For the girls, Annale Penny of Fox 40 won the contest with Kix as her choice of cereal, while Leroy Tripette from Intel took first place for the boys, eating Cookie Crisp.

After the cereal-eating contest, the winners of the best slippers awards were announced. Michael Smith was recognized for having the best animal slippers. His slippers were rabbits that could bite down on things. Paula Swayne won most creative with her purple and mop-like slippers, while Patty Cota’s long-loved slip-on slippers earned her the award for most worn. These three winners will also be put on a box of Wheaties.

The cereal sculpture contest was the event everyone had been waiting for. Introduced last year, the contest required contestants to build sculptures made mostly out of cereal. The theme this year was the 10th anniversary of the RFDC.

In third place, “The Loving Garden” by Joy Gee.

In second place, “Mended Hearts” by Arabella Grayson.

In the end, Daphne Burgess won First place with “Stay Faithful and Stay Focused.” Burgess also won last year’s contest.

The RFDC also awarded companies and individuals who have had a significant impact on the center. Recipients included the Friedman Family, General Mills, Jack and Jill of America, City Councilman Rob Fong, and Kathy Henry, a devoted volunteer at the center.

The future of Suits and Slippers is uncertain.

“Sometimes I think events run their course,” Gerber said.

“Every year since the fifth year, we’ve said, ‘We’re not gonna do it. This is the last (one),’ ” Roberts added.

But Gerber did not rule out continuing the tradition for at least another year, saying that it is something that has yet to be decided.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM TEDX SACRAMENTO April 16 2010 at Hinde Auditorium, 6000 J Street Sacramento, CA 95819.

2010-04-22T06:06:17Z

April 16 marked the arrival of TEDx in Sacramento, bringing a “TED-like experience” to our area.

What is TED? TED stands for “Technology, Education, Design.” It is a small nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Started in 1984, its purpose has spread to include an annual U.S. conference in Long Beach as well as a TEDGlobal conference in the United Kingdom, a TEDTalks online video site, an annual TED Prize, a nationwide local program called TEDx and more.

Per TEDx Sacramento, “The TEDx Conference provided a license and general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.”

Brandon Weber, TEDx Sacramento curator, said the local team wanted to create a special event to “lay the foundation for a strong TEDx presence in Sacramento…to contribute to the dialogue of ideas and encourage creativity, innovation and action in our beloved city.”

The event was held at the Hinde Auditorium at California State University, Sacramento, to a packed house of several hundred registrants, and the program was recorded for subsequent online viewing.

Weber started the program by saying TEDsters are in a class of their own, that TED conferences are a mix of things and that we would be watching live video from other TEDx conferences in addition to live multimedia presentations.

The first presentation was a video called “Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?” The focus of the video was that sometimes we have to go to the other side of the world to realize assumptions that we didn’t realize we had. Whatever brilliant ideas you have – the opposite may also be true. An example was shown of how addresses are determined in the United States versus in Japan. U.S. blocks don’t have names, streets have names. In Japan, blocks have names and the streets are the unnamed places between the blocks. Street numbers are based on when the homes were built.

Next was a live presentation titled “David Mogavero: An American Frontier.” Mogavero is senior principal at Mogavero Notestine Associates, with special expertise in the areas of ecological building, environmental planning, infill development, urban design and energy-efficient design.

Mogavero said the suburbs are a unique American institution, generating vast amounts of appreciation and scorn. Suburbs are the most inefficient form of human habitation ever done on earth, and an important place for focusing on environmental change in America, he said.
He started his practice by doing passively heated homes for people moving back to the land, mostly hippies. He realized that if he was going to be an ecoarchitect he had to work in the fabric of the community. He has done infill work in Sacramento and throughout Northern California.

The quantity of issues relative to urban sprawl are immense. People are moving back to urban America in large quantities, mostly in central cities. This has both limitations and opportunities for capturing infill growth.

In Sacramento, we build on average about 10,000 homes per year. Sacramento can only handle 19,000 new units – about two years of growth. The opportunity is tens of thousand of acres of underutilized areas such as parking lots, vacant housing and shopping center spaces, which can be eliminated for hundreds of thousands of houses and apartments.

When you have to design in these kinds of situations, you take the perspective of “do no harm.” You’re trying to instill more density but have an industrial complex that causes you to be creative. As an example, there is a commercial district in Yuba City – an opportunity to put people in a place with a services available now.

For Mogavero this is like jazz, which emerged from a convergence of cultures. Architectural development design is fascinating and fun for him for reasons like this: With a 10- or 15-acre site in the suburbs, you can integrate food into the project through agriculture. A community can be involved in the growing of food. There is also an opportunity for technology, which is more challenging in the city. Holistic integrated systems flowing back and forth continuously are possible in such areas. This is one of the most exciting venues in American building culture.

Next shown was a video titled “David Gallo: Underwater Astonishments.” Diving into the deep sea is a dark black world. We’ve only explored about 3 percent of the oceans. We don’t know much about this planet at all.

We are learning lots from the shallow water, which is full of predators that can change color & texture to match surroundings, but the deeper water still leaves much to be explored.

The Gallo Video proved a good precursor to Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond, who received the Best Area Jazz Musician award for 2008 and 2009 from “Sacramento News and Review.” Hammond gave a spirited performance that integrated sound system issues that would affect the evening’s musical interludes.

The music was followed by another video, this one titled “Kirk Citron: And Now, the Real News.” The top story of this year was the economy. What kind of stories might make a difference for the future?

Some include the invasion of the nanobees, China’s rising, food shortage, the age of discovery, an ant mega-colony taking over the world or self-directed robots making discoveries. With or without us, life will go on.

For Citron, the top story was that water was found on the moon. In the long run, some stories will be more important than others.

Next was a live presentation titled “Ron Vrilakas: The Great Green City.” Vrilakas is an architect who likes buildings. He is working on what he loves, which is trying to build a great green city. He comes from West Sacramento, a place that has failed to solve how housing and commercial roads should come together. He spent eight or nine years avoiding going to Sacramento. He learned some things along the way about what makes cities exciting and green. We have been out of sync building cities over the past number of years, he said.

Once there was a way – we knew how to build the Great Green City. We used to build communities commonly, but technology got us away from earlier ambition and we turned in another direction. Things were cut off from each other by highways. Simple basic community-oriented buildings were changed. Places to gather and take pride in your city became places like retail with parking lots.

In 50 or 60 years, we’ve lost the ability to build things like McClatchy High School. We couldn’t do now what was done then on six sheets. He showed a picture of a bicyclist who will hopefully survive the Freeport Bakery parking lot.

An urban memory – he tries to find ways to reintroduce these things into our environment. Streets need to be for people. Emptyness in a block is a bad thing. Menacing facades are an embarrassment.

Preserving the past is something Vrialas said he believes strongly in. We need to cherish historic landmarks, adapt for activity, create the unexpected (alleys in Sacramento can become a network of interest within our grid) and resist demolition. Underutilized places need to be identified. Single-use is not good – everything must be a mixed-use environment. Empty spaces need to be change to active places.

History forward – Vrialas said he believes we find the identity of our city in the past. Getting to know oneself is how you make something. San Francisco has its identity, as do Seattle, Berkeley, Boston, Portland and Paris – all of the best of an urban life put together. In Sacramento we have a real history to build upon.

He looks to buildings for stories. We’ve been building cities for thousands of years, but we’ve only been building in a suburban manner for past 60 years, and we’ve been getting it wrong. We don’t have to look for a technological fix. We can have the fix in the way we organize ourselves – an urban design ethic that is important for human civilization.

Next came a video titled “Dean Ornish: Your Genes Are Not Your Fate.” The video offered encouragement for a healthy lifestyle. When you eat better, exercise and love more, the benefits can be measured. Topics covered things to do to grow your blood cells and things to make it worse. You age less quickly when you change your lifestyle. Arteries become notably less clogged, you can stop breast cancer, change prostate growth and even change sexual potency.

You can change genes, turn on the good genes and turn off the disease-promoting genes. We all have genetic profiles, but our genes are not our fate. We can also change how our genes are expressed.

It was now time for another musical performance, this one from Autumn Sky, who said, “My name is Autumn Sky. Really.” She and her guitar ,which she has named Samuel Taylor, performed and sang whimsically.

Next, it was back to the green theme, with a video titled “Catherine Mohr: Building Green.” Mohr explores energy usage depending upon what she uses to wipe up a spill. Sometimes the things you least expect have the greatest effect.

Mohr wanted to know how to achieve a green lifestyle. The average house has 300 megawatts of embodied energy. Some ideas she explored were deconstruction of the house, putting in a rainwater catchment, alternative roofing and framing, if putting aluminum windows will double the energy use and others.

Following that, it was time for another live presentation, “Chris Schuring Recycles Carbon.” Schuring's company, Ternion Bio Industries Inc., grows algae in a controlled environment to reduce carbon.

Schuring asked, “Why do you do what you do? Why do we want to build better cities, to go green?” He said he believes it’s because we inherently want to do better in our lives, be smart and leave a better legacy. There is a sense of camaraderie, of community. It’s me and you in the solutions we come up with. He did it because he thought reducing greenhouse gases and carbon footprints would be great.
Lots of people don’t want to do these things. People won’t care about what you do until you care about why. If we come together as humans, we can bring communities together to effect change.

Schuring has a personal goal to help 100 entrepreneurs start businesses to effect change in the next 18 months.

Next came a very cute video titled “Rives: Mixed Emoticons.” Rives – star of the Bravo special, "Ironic Iconic America," told a typographical fairy tale that was short and bittersweet.

After this short bit of comic relief came another live presentation titled “Robyn Waxman: F.A.R.M.” Waxman is an award-winning designer, activist, farmer, educator and founding member of graphic communication program at Sacramento City College.

Waxman looked at design’s role in the last 10 years. Moving more into letting other people design for themselves as the role of the designer seems to be the direction the industry is headed. She produced a 56-page tabloid on how to make your own farm. Millenial farmers have built Farm Davis on eighth and K streets. They have donated more than 100 pounds of food, or half of their production. The other half they ate. The farm runs on a gift economy without a budget. The space is on a privately owned front yard.

A similar Sacramento farm is coming May 2010 at 13th and C streets in Alkali Flats.

Up next was another video, titled, “Julian Treasure: 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.” Treasure said he wants to transform our relationship with sound, which has become largely unconscious. There are four ways sound affects us:

Physiological – an affect on breathing, heart rate and brainwaves.

Psychological – musical has the greatest effect. Music and bird sounds are reassuring.

Cognitive – you have to choose what to listen to. We have limited bandwith to decide which sound to listen to. People are one third as productive in open rooms as private rooms.

Behaviorally – move away from unpleasant sounds and toward pleasant sounds.

Most retail sound is unpleasant, with retailers losing 30 percent of their business because the sound is so dreadful. Treasure's company has developed a SoundFlow to design soundscapes. Music is powerful. Every brand is making sounds right now. Several well-known brand jingles were used as examples. There are four golden rules for commercial sound:

Make it congruent

Make it appropriate

Make it valuable

Test it, and test it again

We can achieve sound living through good use of sound

Another video followed, titled, “Alan Siegl: Simplifying Legal Jargon.” It takes a blizzard of paperwork to get benefits or a business loan. Siegl has been simplifying things for 35 years. He didn’t see why we couldn’t have a simple one-page consumer credit agreement, so he created one.

He seeks to define terms in plain English. Plain English is about changing the content. An agreement for IBM was received very favorably by businesses. IRS letters are pretty unintelligible, and he proposed changes to the IRS.

We must make clarity, transparency and empathy national priorities. We should not do business with those using unintelligible provisions.

It was then time for another musical interlude, this time from Sacramento musician Julie Ann Bee, titled “Sea of Bees.” Bee’s first full-length album is about to be released by Davis-based Crossbill Records. She performed two songs.

The next live presentation was titled “Scott and Julie Brusaw: Solar Roadways”, and was presented by Scott, an electrical engineer with more than 20 years of experience who hails from northern Idaho. They have spent years working on the concept of a solar-powered roadway system.

The Brusaws spent a lot of time together 30 years ago. His favorite toy then was a slotcar. He thought, “What if we made real roads electric?”

They discussed how there is no easy solution to global warning and other issues, including that 65,000 children die each day because they can’t get clean drinking water.

Couldn’t you make electric roads out of solar panels? Could they make solar panels you can drive on?

They said they believe so. There are some problems, but they aren’t insurmountable. We can’t let snow build on it, so he put heating element on the surface. He put LEDs on there to light it up, a microprocessor so all panels can talk to each other even with cars traveling overhead. The system can even warn drivers of animals on the road.

Storm water spills right into a nearby body of water. What if we could route that to a filtration system and send it for reuse? We can put power cables on the shoulder instead of in the air. We can grind up recyclables to use.

Brusaw started a website, and Treehugger.com picked it up. He received an e-mail from Booz Allen Hamilton – one of the biggest consulting firms in the nation. They now have four sample panels in their lab.

Brusaw has received a research grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and has built a 12-foot-by-12-foot prototype. He said panels could be used in playgrounds and parking lots. See more at solarroadways.com.

Up next was another live presentation, “David Garibaldi: Paints with Passion and Purpose.” Garabaldi throws paint around and sweats profusely. He started about six and a half years ago. It was graffiti, and it was illegal. During his junior year of high school, he was introduced to animation. By senior year he wasn’t able to graduate on time. He was creating art out of the environments he was in.
Garabaldi called his show “Rhythm and Hue.” He created pop icon paintings on blank black canvas. Santana popped up behind him at halftime at a Golden State Warriors game.

In March 2005, he asked if his art could do more than entertain. Can it benefit and inspire others? He has been able to help raise $500,000 for charities and organizations through spending $200 and painting on stage. He changed why he was doing it.

Each of us has passion and purpose. We can be creative, charitable, profitable and grow algae. He said we all need to keep going to put bigger purpose behind our passion.

Finally, a video titled “Derek Sivers: How to start a movement,” was shown. The video made its point showing a group of young adults in action. A leader needs the guts to stand out and show everyone else how to follow. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. Then comes a second follower. New followers emulate the other followers, not the leader. As more people join in, it’s less risky to join in. Eventually, all who don’t join in would be subject to ridicule.

Nurture your first few followers, he advised. Leadership is over-glorified. It was really the first follower who transformed the first nut into a leader. Have the courage to follow, and show others how to follow. TED is the perfect place to do that.

All in all, this was an extremely varied, educational and entertaining multimedia extravaganza. It was also announced that there are plans for another event in November, so stay tuned.

More information about TED can be found at ted.com, and more about TEDx Sacramento can be found at tedxsacramento.com.

Capital Creative Collective: the new creative catalyst of Sacramento

2009-06-17T04:36:48Z

"It's Tuesday night inside de Vere's Irish Pub, and a majority of its patrons are scribbling on napkins with Sharpies.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that these scribblers are architects, interior designers, graphic artists, photographers and other creative individuals who meet as a part of Capital Creative Collective.

Capital Creative Collective is a creative group that has been around for almost a year. They meet on Tuesday nights once a month for what is known as Designer Pint Nights at de Vere's in Downtown Sacramento to socialize, make friends and have a drink. CCC is also a blog.

"Capital Creative Collective's Designer Pint Nights was created to help the hippest, hottest and most innovative people connect face-to-face, and it is the single best place to meet some of Sacramento's most talented individuals and teams," said Jake Favour, founder of the CCC.

"The monthly Pint Night is a great way to meet other Sacramento creative's in a casual environment. There is no formal structure, just a group of folks learning about what we do, sharing ideas, stories and developing friendships, said Mike Whisten, who attends Designer Pint Nights and is a member of CCC.

"We will do a "Napkin Battle" where Jake throws out a design situation and everyone has 5 minutes to create a solution. That is a lot of fun with some hilarious solutions and some really creative solutions as well.”

Sometimes the benefits of attending Designer Pint Nights are surprising. "We had a guy who was there for the first time, and by the end of the night, he started his career."

CCC hopes to put on design battles and to become a venue for designers to voice ideas.

"Let's say the city gives a problem," Favour said. "We would hold a competition for the designers to fix that problem. Whether it's the Light Rail needing some addition help, or something to do with the bike trails. It's all about the designers voicing their creativity towards a stronger voice. They need to open more source solutions and become more proactive in Sacramento."

In the future, Favour hopes that CCC becomes a full-fledged website for the creative community. It will be a tool that will work alongside the city of Sacramento to help new stores, new buildings, etc.

"Capital Creative Collective just had a Design Battle at MARRS on the last Second Saturday (in May)," he said. " I can see CCC being a part of the Second Saturday Art Walk."

The Designer Pint Nights are on the second Tuesday of every month at de Vere's Irish Pub at 1521 L Street. For more information on CCC, check out the blog at capitalcreativecollective.wordpress.com.

Why Sacramento Needs Coworking

2009-05-21T23:14:56Z

These days, coworkers don’t have to work for the same company. As a noun, the word “coworker” typically conjures up the default image of people sitting inside little cubes.

But no more.

We are on the cusp of a new economy where workers reclaim and repurpose stale philosophies. Enter coworking, and a movement driven by creative professionals who refuse to be bound by the stodgy cubicle and the 9 to 5 schedule.

These are the people redefining “coworker.” They do all kinds of creative things; they think differently about working, business, food, economics, and even church. They are learning how to cowork in every aspect of life.

They are members of the creative class, which, as Richard Florida writes, is quickly becoming the dominating working class and will have huge economic impacts if creatives in key metropolitan areas can collaborate as a cohesive group.

The spirit behind coworking is inherent in the word, a verb: working together, collaborating. It’s more than a single location; rather it’s a way to harness this city’s Creative Class. To cowork is to collaborate – something that Sacramento desperately needs.

Artists of all trades come together at Pecha Kucha Night

2008-11-21T01:15:00Z

Level Up Lounge felt like more of a housewarming party than a bar on a Thursday night. The crowd had settled into the chairs and couches as if their body imprint had stayed waiting for them to nestle back into the nook from the last PK Night.

Excited chatter filled every corner, wine swirled in glasses as Gloria Taylor from Todd Taylor Wines gave tastings, Suleka Sun-Lindley made her way around the lounge greeting and entertaining her guests before the show started. The anticipation reached a crescendo as the clock neared 20:20 and the lights went off.

The first presentation had some technical difficulties, but the rest of the night went smoothly.

Aaron Young, R&B and hip hop artist, put together a medley of a few of his songs to showcase the variety of his music. The center room of Level Up Lounge became the stage and a very short, but intimate concert captured everyone's attention.

Jeff Walker, architect and first-time presenter showed some humorous slides to break the ice and then segwayed to the bulk of his presentation- laser cutting as a process for fabrication. He showed images of the Strata Tower in Dubai that he worked on in its various stages and also a fruit bowl he made using the laser cutting process.

Richard Burnsed, program director for the Sacramento International Film Festival, presented two short films: "Uh-Oh: A brief Encounter" by Joe Henke and "Dealing With Women" by Julia Vickerman.

Evan Jones's work was scattered around the lounge and her presentation delved into her inspirations for her paintings and what she liked about them.

Thomas Harris and John Krempel also presented on some of their artwork. The PK Night drink was the final presentation of the evening - to see the drink and its ingredients click here.

Looking for something to shake up your normal Thursday routines? Check out a PK Night in Sacramento. Looking to share something with the community but want a creative way to do it? PK Night might just do the trick.

Please comment below.

What's it like to present at Pecha Kucha Night?

2008-11-01T00:37:51Z

Dennis Dong is a seasoned presenter at Pecha Kucha Night in Sacramento. Here he shares his experiences in an interview, as told by Colleen Belcher. This text is taken from an interview, it is in first person, however, it has been constructed in writing below by Colleen Belcher.

I first heard about Pecha Kucha Night by reading about it in various magazines architectural magazines and it sounded like a real neat thing.

I saw a little clip that they were starting an organization in Sacramento and I sent Claire Obenson, the Sacramento chapter's organizer, an e-mail asking her what's required and what's needed to be able to sign up for a presentation.

She e-mailed me back and said "Well, Pecha Kucha is basically for the young and the brave."

My response was "Well, I'm really not that young."

Claire wrote back: "Oh - well that's just young at heart you're more than welcome to present."

I attended the first Pecha Kucha Night. I was a little bit nervous because you don't know who's going to be there and you don't know if anyone is really interested in what you have to present.

I practiced a couple times just because I didn't want to overly embarrass myself. It was a lot of fun, I think there were five presenters that first night and all on various subjects.

I've presented three times all together.

The first couple times it was at Hina's Tea House and it was kind of strange because it stayed open for regular business while we were giving presentations so some of the regular customers were kind of a little bit taken by surprise. But I think they had a good time also.

What I like best about Pecha Kucha Night is the peer presentation — you just get up and you have a very definite timeframe. You are able to get across your subject in a short period of time. It puts pressure on you but it's just very refreshing and very challenging.

There are some instances where 20 seconds is certainly not enough time to talk about one particular slide and there are some times where in 20 seconds you run out of things to say and it seems like it's an eternity. There's just this dead silence and you're thinking, "C'mon. Next slide. C'mon."

My presentations have been on 'Anonymous Architecture' - that's what I call them.

The first one was on maintenance buildings. The second one was on fire stations and the third one was just everything in between.

And what I did for instance like on the maintenance buildings - I took a number of projects and tried to highlight the projects as to what some of the design elements of the projects were.

These are buildings that most people don't see or don't see beyond the front wall, they don't really have the opportunity to go into the building or through the building so I try to basically focus my presentations on giving the viewer a chance to look behind the doors and see what goes on in the building.

It's the same with the fire stations, - a lot of people will see the fire stations from the outside, but very few people will have the opportunity or need to go into a fire station.

Everyone who has presented has always gotten a lot of applause and appreciation for just getting up there and doing the presentation.

Sometimes if a presenter runs out of things to say someone in the audience will recognize that they're stuck and they'll come and ask a question - you know that's just good showmanship.

Dennis Dong is an architect with Calpo Hom & Dong Architects.

The photos above are slides from previous presentations by Dennis Dong at PK Night.

Did this interview answer all of your questions about Pecha Kucha Night? Do you plan on attending the event on November 6th? What kind of presenters do you think would be especially interesting to see at PK Night? Do you think Dennis Dong should write more about his experiences at PK Night or other areas of interest? Please comment below.

Marketing in communities

2008-10-30T19:18:10Z

In my efforts to market our product I took many things into account including sustainability, person to person contact, responsibility and creativity. Our vision as a company is to truly be part of a community while reporting the news. With that said we are doing a lot of our marketing at ground level, passing out grocery bags at farmers markets, meeting neighbors one by one and truly being part of a neighborhood.

We are also doing a few creative campaigns using less than traditional tools. I hope you look forward to seeing us in your community. If you see our work and love it or think we can improve please feel free to comment and join the conversation.