On February 25th in Vancouver, DigiBC presented a full day of conversations featuring an international group of thought leaders and innovators, part of the VX Conversations series.

In all there were five sessions presented at the BC Showcase Centre at Robson Square, and I recorded them for DigiBC’s VXperience.com website

This session is titled Wireless Meets Digital, and featured:

• Robert Scoble, author & blogger, Scobleizer
• Chris Langdon, VP, Network Services, Telus
• Saul Orbach, Founder, COO at Aguru Images, Inc.
• Doug Whatley, CEO of Breakaway
• Gregg Sauter, Director, Global Head of Media Partnerships and Content Publishing at Nokia

The conversation was moderated by DigiBC’s Michael Bidu, who posed the first question to Robert Scoble…

runs 26:21

Other sessions in the series included:

Collaboration Meets Innnovation
Medicine Meets Mobile
Entertainment Meets VFX/3D
Vancouver Meets the World

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“We start to accept that ridiculous language in which citizens are referred to by politicians and administrators as clients.

We’re not clients of government.

We own the government, it’s our government.

There isn’t a single thing of government which we don’t own, how could we be clients ?

And we aren’t buying shoes, we’re talking about the rights of citizens within their own society.

We’re not stakeholders, we’re citizens.”

- John Ralston Saul, speaking at the PLAN 20th Anniversary evening at Christ’s Church Cathedral in Vancouver, November 20, 2009.

John Ralston Saul is an award winning novelist and essayist, and one of Canada’s most outspoken champions of freedom of expression.

His most recent book is called The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World. It’s just the latest in a series of best selling works that have been translated into 22 languages and sold in over 30 countries. Earlier this year he become the first Canadian to elected president of International PEN, the association of writers devoted to defending freedom of expression.

John is also the patron of PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network), and he was the featured guest speaker at PLAN’s recent 20th Anniversary celebration in Vancouver.

I was asked to record the evening, and you now can hear the John’s keynote on the Tyze.com website, or listen to it here.

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I recently had the opportunity to interview John McKnight and Peter Block – the first time these two men have been interviewed together.

The interview was done for Tyze.com and PLAN Institute for Caring Citizenship, and was released this week as part of the newly revamped Tyze website, which also features video content I created for Tzye.com

These two men are known around the world for their work in community development and citizenship empowerment. Having the opportunity to meet with them was extra exciting for me. When I was first started out as a consultant, Peter Block’s book Flawless Consulting was in invaluable resource – and I return to it when I’m finding challenges in my work.

Here’s the podcast created for Tyze.

John McKnight’s landmark books on community development include Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets, and his series of articles collected in The Careless Society. He’s a professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Chicago, and co-chair of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern.

Peter Block is best known for his book Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, and is the author of number of other best selling books including Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest and The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work.

Peter’s most recent book Belonging: The Structure of Community, has been called “the most important intergenerational book of our time”.

Runs 19:05

For more on John McKnight’s work, visit the Asset-Based Community Development Institute website. You can also read more about his work on the Northwestern University website.

You can find out more about Peter Block’s work on his website.

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The idea is simple:  interviews with people who’s brains are worth picking, sparked by something they’ve Tweeted or posted on Facebook or other social networking site.   It isn’t brain surgery, just a quick chat with someone who’s fun and interesting.

Hear episode #1 now – featuring Vancouver actor and director Jay Brazeau.

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It’s here, on VanGoGreen.

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Just wrapping up its 4th year, the the project encourages residents to share their bounty with people in need, as well as putting together a variety of urban agriculture and community garden projects.

This week, Heather and team opened the Queen Mary Community Garden, located in the City of North Vancouver. Those of you who aren’t from the North Shore may not be aware that there is both City of North Vancouver, and a District of North Vancouver. Heather’s project involves both municipalities.

I spoke to Heather about the project and where things are going with urban agriculture on the North Shore. We met up at the Lower Lonsdale Community Garden…

Runs: 11:01

Podcast ISBN: 978-1-926758-03-9
photos and podcast © Robert Ouimet & Bigsnit Media 2009

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The series is called Good to Grow: Raising Food in BC’s Cities.

I recently sat down with David to find out more about the series…

Runs: 11:08

podcast ISBN: 978-1-926758-02-2
podcast and photo © Bigsnit Media Consulting Inc.

• David Tracey’s website: DavidTracey.ca
• David is the author of Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto
• Good to Grow, a 6-part series in TheTyee.ca

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A bit of serendipity was involved with this one.

While on their way to interview Cam MacDonald in Mt. Pleasant, they passed a small corner store. Taking a peak inside they discovered a very unusual city corner store – packed with local products and oozing country charm.

It’s called the Home Grow-in Grocer, and it’s a place where trust trumps the credit card…

Runs 10:28

Podcast ISBN: 978-1-926758-01-5

photos and podcast © Robert Ouimet & Bigsnit Media 2009

The Home Grow-In Grocer is at 196 West 18th in Vancouver.
The owner Colleen refers to in the interview is Deb Reynolds.

cross posted to VanGoGreen

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