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Triad Events

The Anonymous People - A Movie That Is Changing Our World

For too long now stigmas, misunderstandings and overall social environment have kept one fact secret. Over 23 million Americans are living in long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.. Why do we hide?

“...over 23 million Americans living in long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.”
— The Anonymous People

I ask you to take about 2 hours of your life and watch the movie, The Anonymous People. It's available on Netflix, Amazon Prime and iTunes. If you're in the Triad of North Carolina, you can join a group of us as we watch and chat together. Attendees will be supporters of recovery as well as people in recovery. 

Details in this photo.


5 Thoughts on Crowd Funding @WSChamber

I attended an insightful panel discussion this week. Brought to us by the Winston-Salem Chamber's The Technology Council and several local sponsors, the event delved into the world of crowd funding and crowd sourcing. You can read more here about the series panelists and the days events.

Here are my notes/raw thoughts on the CROWD!


Crowd Sourcing and Crowd Funding

1.    Builds on the human desire to connect and contribute to things they believe have value. A new venue for charitable activity with the added ‘bonus’ of letting the participants access a wide variety of options and levels of contribution.
2.    Has been made viable by the advent of technologies that connect people easily and allow them to share and promote to their network. Social sharing has become common place, even mandatory perhaps, for users of social and forum platforms. Sharing things of value and individual support/advocacy of those has become accepted.
3.    It is, like all social media, a crowd activity. It leverages the familiar and popular experience of the ‘ground swell’ momentum of more recent digital platforms (with all apologies to Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li).
4.    Capitalizes on the ambient intimacy (thank you Leisa Reichet @Leisa) of social media to connect people with a momentary, albeit transient, intimate connection.
5.    Success depends, in part on: A. clearly defining your project or cause in a manner that is personal and emotive. B. selection of a platform that reaches your target audience. C. offering options, levels of contribution. D. clearly defining what success looks like.

As several local businesses have successfully used the process, it warrants some investigation if your business ideas or projects are likely to be seen as beneficial to the well-being of the local community.

For more about Crowd Funding, check out this table of platform options!


Mindfulness In Leadership - An Evening With Bill Karelis

Come join the conversation as Bill Karelis leads in thinking together about Mindfulness in Leadership. Bill Karelis teaches meditation and conducts intensive programs and retreats in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Bill is the founder of the Shambhala Prison Community which propagates education in the criminal justice system. 

Join us on the Wake Forest University campus 2/4/14 at 7 pm in room 401C of the Benson University Center.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1401092036805462/

Yes, The Times Are A Changing... more later

Making some changes...planning for something different... being intentional...and then I was reminded of this wonderful song.

Have You Met Camel City DIspatch aka @CamelCityDispatc

If you are interested in current events in the Triad of NC, specifically the Winston-Salem area, then by all means turn to the wonderfully edgy and profoundly timely online world of The Camel City Dispatch!

Over the last year, I've found that when my thoughts start asking questions about up-town events, new businesses, political, educational and seasonal news - I can quickly get the skinny by clicking over to the Camel City Dispatch website or checking the Camel City Dispatch Twitter feed for breaking news - and a little attitude.

 

You can thank me later!

 

 

Compassion In Winston Salem via @CompassionateWS

While you are thinking Christmas, consider the charity of your city. Do you know about Compassionate Winston-Salem? These quiet and often unsung heroes of our community are busy about the work of encouragement and caring – right here, right now. 

Some of their activities for the month of December include:

Handing out blankets to the homeless
Stand outside the downtown library (or bus station) handing out bottles of water and protein bars.  
Handing out small bags of food to that person with the sign at the stop light.
Being mentors for Youth mentoring programs.

Drop over to the Compassionate Winston-Salem website to learn more. This city is made up of wonderful people!

#ConvergeSouth 2013! My Goals

Technology and Marketing conferences are always intense. Both worlds rely heavily on innovation and creativity in the development of technology and thinking.  Conferences, like our local Converge South -this week in Greensboro, NC, offer an abundance of information and ideas, which can, at times be overwhelming. It is part of the Conference experience - to be immersed in a flood of information. Over the years, I've tried to manage this flood by attending conferences with a specific set of goals.  Tomorrow, I will go to Converge South with some simple and manageable goals

 

  1. Have fun.
  2. Meet 4 new people and connect with them under the agenda of following up after the conference. 
  3. Have fun. 
  4. Learn 1 new idea related to how Social Media empowers business to business sales - not just marketing, but how can sales people benefit?
  5. Have fun.
  6. Learn about a new technology or platform to be researched post conference,
  7. Have major fun. 

That's my list... and so it goes.  Do you approach conferences with clearly defined goals? 

 

10 Minutes to Happiness via @TheSunQueen

I attended a impressive workshop last week that left me dripping with creativity and hope. Ja Nae' Duane, aka @TheSunQueen, stopped off in the Triad of North Carolina (thanks to the invitation of Jeff Sangeorge) as a part of her Agents of Change tour.

 

My first introduction to Ja Nae' was through her 10 Minutes to Happiness TEDx talk. SO, allow me to introduce you to her the same way I met her.

 

Enjoy the talk, then visit her website (above) and decide of you want more! I know I do.

As a result of this simple and brilliant concept, I've started beginning each day with 10 minutes of poetry writing.  I do believe she is onto something...happiness growing!

 

Ja-Nae Duane Revolution Institute One woman revolution Ja-Naé Duane is a social scientist, artist, and author. Her unwavering commitment to improving the quality of life for the global community garnered Ja-Naé a nomination as one of New England's Most Innovative Leaders of 2007.

2013 Tech Briefing via @WSChamber, September 12th!

If you interested in innovation, our local economy, and where our community is headed – the Tech Briefing is for you. I hope to see you there!

The 12th Annual Tech Briefing

Thursday, September 12, 2013 from 8:00 - 9:30 a.m. Reception follows.

Opening the Chamber’s Business & Innovation Expo!

Benton Convention Center, Lower Level

301 West Fifth Street

Winston-Salem, NC  27101 (Park in the Deck at 6th and Cherry Street)

Free!  Just register to attend here:

http://www.winstonsalem.com/view-all-events/#id=5459&cid=225&wid=801&type=Cal

The Tech Briefing is an entertaining, informative, and fast-moving event open to the public and appealing to a broad audience. It is not a dull science conference.  We feature ten presenters who each speak for just five minutes about their innovative technologies, designs and products.

We feature biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technologies. But we also feature new products for our home, new solutions to improve our health, and better ways to educate our children. These are innovations that are improving all our lives and they are being created here in our community. People always leave the Tech Briefing saying, “Wow! I had no idea things like that are happening right here in Winston-Salem!” 

The Tech Briefing is Presented by Cook Medical and Sponsored by DataChambers; Kilpatrick Townsend; and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

The 2013 Presenters Are:

Advanced Fraud Solutions; The BioBook  - from Wake Forest University; Global Future Solutions US; Green Cycle Design Group; HCEC, LLC; Laudiss Labs; Novant Health; SECCA; Wake Forest Innovations; West Third Street Media

The Tech Briefing opens the Chamber’s Business and Innovation Expo. This is our local community's annual trade-show and the Chamber’s biggest event of the year. Be sure to plan to stay to visit all the exhibitors and sample the free food at the BB&T Midday Mingle! 

Let The Magic Loose - @CompassionateWS

A couple of months ago my friend, Cyndi Briggs, introduced me to the concept of Social Capital. Tonight the magic of Social Capital changed me. (Tweet THIS!)

Social Capital has to do with the people, actions, attitudes, environments and processes that make up our community. In varied ways, the contributions of individuals aggregate to create this Social Capital.

Magically, when it all gets together the whole is more than the sum of the parts. It’s magic, really.  

Real. Everyday. Magic

.Just like fantasy magic there is good magic and bad magic with Social Capital – depending on the parts. Sometimes communities get capitalized (Socially) in a way that makes for nasty places to live. Fortunately, I’m living in a place where magic is good – not perfect but perfect might just be coming closer.

Enter Compassionate Winston-Salem. 

I was invited to a gathering tonight of @CompassionateWS where some individuals (a pretty diverse group of people) sat around a table and wrote love letters – to unknown, unidentified strangers. The letters will be used next month during a Compassionate Cities emphasis. Good idea. Yet, tonight was very personal. 

I spent about an hour hand writing love notes for random people. I wrote poetry, pithy sayings, reminders for self-care and self-acceptance – all targeted at imagined people. I wrote each note, casually imagining the manner of person that might find the note or the situation in which it would be read. Would a homeless person stumble upon it and find the energy to try one more day? Could a stressed-out business executive find it and in reading it receive a small reprieve? Would a worried mother or challenged dad get a leg-up from the pause and reflection the note offered them? As I imagined these possibilities a strange, magical thing happened. I felt better. I connected with a larger hope. The love letters, yet ungiven and unfound, became love letters for me. 

I laughed. I joked. I smiled big goofy smiles and made heart shapes with my fingers. I drew love hearts and overused exclamation marks!!!! 

One person there said, “I feel like I’ve bonded with you people and I don’t even know you.” 

I left with some new friendships, a renewed spring in my step and delightful anticipation of the times when these notes will be read…which I can’t tell you about. It’s a secret. All magic is.