I have mixed feelings about the protests. Overall, I’m supportive of the movement and the principles that the occupiers stand for, at the same time, I really worry that right now, the message has gotten clouded by a fight about tents in the park, rather than the real issues at hand. As I write this, the #occupytoronto protesters await a court ruling about whether or not they can remain in the park after having been served eviction notices.

What confuses or upsets me a little was a statement I heard (I don’t know if this person speaks for the majority or for himself) that essentially indicated that they had made the legal appeal to stay in the park and were hopeful that the law would side in their favour. The person then followed up by saying that if they were ruled against, they would ignore the ruling and remain in the park. I don’t really find it fair to say that you are with the law, when it’s in your favour, but if it’s not, then just flat out ignoring it…

Anyway, I’m really not going to write too much. But I did have a chance to spend a bit of time in the park last weekend and actually spoke to a number of occupiers, as well as listening to a few ad hoc speeches.

Of course, a trip like this would not have been complete without my camera, so here are a few of my favourite images… I kept the processing pretty simple with these, but did feel that most of them “worked” better with a high contrast, black and white feel to them…

The overall spirit in the park seemed to be mostly positive. That being said, the smell of weed in the air was rampant, much to the dismay of the dozens of signs warning against drug and alcohol use in the park. I think the last thing that the organizers/leaders want is to give the police or authorities a reason to kick them out…

It was a beautiful day… Not sure how spirits and numbers fair on lousy weather days…

As much as many protesters had powerful stories to share and catchy slogans, I guess the reason I feel like I’m a little “on the fence” with the whole movement is that there is very little talk about solutions…

Lots of great signs!

It was also interesting to see how many families and individuals who did not seem associated with the occupation were taking walks through the park, almost oblivious to what was going around them. Not sure if they were just trying to keep their heads down to avoid attention or trying to make a statement that they felt that the park was still theirs and they weren’t going to pay attention to the occupiers.

Bikes! So many bikes…

Preparing these kinds of talks is always a challenge for me, but the preparation ends up actually forcing me to reflect on certain things in my life and in the end, is something I am always happy to have done. It was a chance to look at my last year in particular, leaving RIM, going to a non-profit, and now working on two different startups as well as doing some consulting work on the side (not to mention planning TEDxWaterloo for 2012). It’s been a great journey and I’m thankful for the opportunity to share a bit of it. 

Marcie Foster from the Cord (WLU’s student newspaper) covered the event here: http://www.thecord.ca/articles/49505 and I also have the full text from the article below.

As part of an ongoing workshop series put on by Wilfrid Laurier University campus club ACCESS U, Ramy Nassar, executive director and co-host of TEDxWaterloo, spoke at WLU Tuesday night in the Student Leadership Centre. Nassar entertained attendees with candid memories of TED events, inspirational entrepreneurial spirit and career advice.

With an introduction from Frances Humphreys, manager of career development from the Laurier Career Development Centre, Nassar explained how TED talks effectively inspire and lead through critical engagement and discussion. He recounted the history of TED and TEDxWaterloo, urging his audience to broaden their dreams instead of restricting oneself to a job description.

ACCESS U president Jon Pryce was not only impressed by the turnout, but motivated to bring the lessons from the workshop to the community and abroad. “The workshops are all about educating, so that you can help educate people in the developing world through donations and coming to these workshops,” he said.

“This is the major purpose of these workshops, the theme is to educate by helping others and helping you at the same time,” he added.

It was more than just about humble beginnings for TEDxWaterloo and Nassar’s other projects, it was about creating something and sharing it with others.

“Ideas worth spreading. It’s such a powerful sentence of three words, who knew in 2005 they were going to start something like this.” Nassar said, reminding his audience that while there’s value in planning, life lies in the actions we take.

“It’s that entrepreneurial spirit within [Nassar] that keeps this going. I want to show people who are interested in this, especially people in ACCESS U, that these are the things that help you become a world leader. That’s what ACCESS U is all about,” Pryce explained.

ACCESS U, while still relatively new as a club at Laurier, has sent students abroad to Haiti to help children gain access to education by funding a library and resource centre.

Nassar was also an outreach director for Shad Valley International, has worked as senior manager for RIM and also an embedded software engineer for LSI Logic located in Waterloo.

The group of us and the panel moderator got together in the weeks before the event and discussed at length how social media has impact each of our events (Steel Rails, TEDxWaterloo, Ignite Waterloo & Social Media Breakfast) and that was one element of the conversation. What I really enjoyed was also looking at the sometimes ugly, dark or bitter side of social media and twitter in particular.

Twitter is a platform that lets individuals broadcast their every waking thought, opinion or ideal to an audience that can very quickly (with the right followers, hashtags and a bit of re-tweeting luck) spread around the world. I believe that that also puts a fair bit of responsibility on anyone using the platform and often people forget about this aspect.

When you call someone out about something, or say something out of context in any social media platform, there’s a risk of doing a whole lot more damage than you may have intended. But what is it about these tools that makes people so comfortable in saying these types of things? I guess the tools provide some level of anonymity. Whether you use your real name or not on twitter, there is still a bit of a feeling of anonymity associate with a tweet.

Would someone with 300 followers get up on stage in front of those 300 people and share aloud every tweet that they put online? Most likely not. I also don’t expect that they should, but giving that a bit of thought before hitting send could probably improve the impact of social media, while not taking away the ability to be controversial and stir things up once in a while (one of the very powerful sides of these platforms).

Anyway, the event was a lot of fun to attend and I had a blast on stage with the others in the group and asking some of these questions to the group led to great conversation, which carried on into the audience during the breaks and between sessions. Mission accomplished! Thanks to the organizing team for the conference for inviting me to participate!

I recently overheard a passionate conversation at a local coffee shop about the lack of public art in and around Waterloo Region. As these two people went on about why there should be more public art, and all the benefits our community is missing out on, I began to reflect on it.

Both Kitchener and Waterloo have formal public art initiatives, with 27 and 16 pieces in the respective programs. With a little more research I was pleased to discover that we have a larger and more diverse public art program than many other Canadian communities our size. So what’s the problem?

The challenge we face is that our public art is not well enough recognized nor celebrated. During a weekend in Chicago I saw the impact that well-thought-out public art can have on a city and a community. One of the cornerstones of Chicago’s public art program is a piece called Cloud Gate, better known as The Bean, a sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park. The piece was privately funded and the total budget surpassed $23 million. Standing over 10 metres tall and made of 168 reflective steel plates in the shape of a giant bean, it encourages viewers to explore and interact with its funhouse-like mirrors.

What I found exciting about Cloud Gate was just how many people it drew in. There was a crowd of at least 200 people at any time surrounding and exploring this majestic work of art. I took the opportunity to speak to a few individuals and was surprised to find that only about half of the people were tourists. Many Chicago residents regularly visited the park to see The Bean with friends and family.

Waterloo Region won’t be home to any $20 million sculptures anytime soon, however there is no reason we can’t have public art that challenges people and brings individuals and families into shared spaces to experience such art. What’s needed is more education and awareness of the public art currently on exhibit in the region.

Bringing artists and curators into public spaces — not just at the initial unveiling of a piece — to talk about the piece and how it fits in with the space would allow individuals to understand and hopefully appreciate it. The magic of art to me is that whether I personally like a certain work or not, if I learn about why or how it was created, it gives me a sense of appreciation. Placards placed nearby or availability of small brochures or flyers explaining the work would help individuals gain that same feeling.

The current exhibit at the Clay and Glass in Uptown Waterloo is a great example of art that is well-explained. Each piece of the exhibit is accompanied by a single paragraph description explaining the artist’s vision and inspiration. These short paragraphs make the art more accessible and help challenge the viewer to experience the piece as the artist intended.

Public art has the potential to bring communities together, challenge the viewer and stimulate local business. By celebrating the art we have now we open the doors to continued investment, both public and private, in public art. This commitment will build the foundation for a sustainable and vibrant art community.

The program was organized in an unconference format, with most of the session topics being decided by the attendees (roughly 100 in attendance). I got to facilitate several different discussion groups throughout the day as well as meet AGO visitors, members and donors. It was a great experience and I learned a lot in working with some other talented and experieneced facilitators as well. In my sessions I tried something a little different and I had the notetaker capture interesting words that came up and count the frequency of each one. I translated that histogram into a word cloud: Overall, it was a great day and I was very happy to have been asked to facilitate a session. I’m hopeful that much of what I learned and heard can be applied locally to our amazing KW Art Gallery one day as well. Interested in see some of the conversation? Follow the #agochat hashtag that was being used through the day…