In April 2012, the Kindle Arts Society sponsored four of us to attend the Burning Man regional summit in San Francisco. It was a good event, with a lot learned, both on a personal level and on an events best practices level. I think it was definitely value for the money; certainly the breakouts and pods, but I would have sacrificed a lot of the large meeting talking and targeted messaging time for longer pods, as they were the most useful. It was also a good chance to meet and discuss with other regionals, their best practices are interesting, with many different ways to do things.
My personal pods and breakouts:
Friday Pod 1: Pod C Meeting skills for artists. How to run an effective meeting for those folks who are more interested in getting art done than developing people management skills.
Friday Pod 2: Pod A Special Events 101: Event production Workshop.
An introduction to $teven Ra$pa’s event production work book. Good tool, something the community can probably use.
Friday Pod 3: Pod A Word Press Lab: Build Your own Regional Website. Introduction to Word Press.
White Paper Presentation: Alchemy Board-Atlanta’s presentation on Art Fundraising and putting art Decisions into the hands of the community. Awesome presentation, something I’d like to try here.
Friday Pod 4: Pod B Cross -regional Art Collaboration.
Tons of ideas and things that people want to talk about, not long enough to get at any meat.
Regional Mixer: Some good contacts made, conversations about a Western Canada MetaBurn.
Saturday Talks and keynote addresses: Some good info, lots of targeted messaging.
Saturday Breakout Session: Group 3: Civ 201: Public Art Events.
Awesome look at Figment, the free art event that’s been growing across the eastern states. Doable.
White paper presentation: Utah Community leaders, Burning beyond the Zion Curtain. Presenting on the difficulty of building a burner community in the Mormon state.
Acculturation discussion. Key messaging about turning new burners into good burners who respect and embrace the culture.
Sunday World Cafe.
Sunday Breakout Session one: Group 3: Events 201: Advanced Event Production Lab
More talking event production with $teven Ra$pa.
Sunday Breakout Session Two: Group 5: Effective Social Networking
excellent talk with Will Chase. How to, and why to, and what not to.
Closing plus Delta