You won’t want to miss our post-Thanksgiving Nerd Nite! We can’t guarantee they’ll be serving turkey and ham leftovers, but you never know (we do, actually, and they won’t). What we can almost certainly guarantee you is three outstanding speakers and a broad range of off-the-beaten-path topics.

Be there AND be square!

When: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 (show @ 8pm)
Where: The Needle Vinyl Tavern (10524 Jasper Avenue)
Tickets:
$20 in advance (SOLD OUT)
$10 peanut gallery tickets >> Get Tickets <<
[Must be 18 years or older]

Our line-up of talks includes:

Post-It processes: Map everyday workflow for fresh insight & adaptive change
Janet Karasz

We are living in interesting times, with disruptive technology forcing change to the way we do business every day. Communicating through workflow diagrams is a handy way to translate ideas into action. It’s visual, it’s interactive, and there’s no denying the efficiencies when they are found. A well-drawn process tells a story. In this lively demonstration, Janet offers to build an improv process of the audience’s choosing using post-it notes and string. We’ll then mess with the diagram to uncover the new from the familiar.

A career records manager who has likely racked up more than 10,000 hours in process mapping, Janet has enthusiastically diagrammed out much what we do from shoe shopping to government procurement. In between she has developed as a fine artist, showing off her work at the Whyte Avenue Art Walk on occasion. Janet has presented workshops on process mapping, spreading process literacy across the records community and beyond.

From 20 kids to 10,000 — how a vision for free soccer grew
Tim Adams

When Tim launched Free Footie eight years ago, his vision was to eliminate every barrier to playing sports. That if a kid wanted to be on the field, they would be. The goal was to get the program into 50 of the city’s highest needs schools & use the game of soccer as carrot to bring up grades, attendance and give voice to a group of kids who otherwise are never heard from. You probably don’t care at all about soccer, but the Free Footie story is a lesson for anyone on how to implement a vision, how to motivate the masses around you, how to attack problems rather wait for solutions, how to advocate not irritate and of course on the politics and artful dance of asking for money from your neighbour, your grandma, a CEO or a politician. Finally, it is a lesson on going for it when everyone else tells you that you’re crazy.

Tim Adams is the founder of Free Footie, a totally free after school soccer league for 2,000 of the highest needs kids in Edmonton. When he’s not volunteering his life away on a soccer pitch you can hear him on the radio at CBC Edmonton where he directs and reports on the morning show Edmonton AM. The rest of the time you’ll find him on adventures around the city with his two kids, lovely wife Dana and crazy dog Numa.

I Got 99 Problems But Fake Gold Ain’t One
Dana DiTomaso

Most massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have an economy of some kind. And usually that economy requires you to slay a million boars, save that stupid prince again and again, or something else equally ridiculous — like pay them real money — until you’ve managed to scrape enough gold together to buy a mediocre horse. Why grind when you can profit? Time is money, friend, and I’m here to enlighten you on the ways you can game most in-game economies to your benefit. So put on your capitalist hat and prepare to take advantage of people who don’t know any better to score some coin.

Dana is President & Partner at Kick Point, where she applies marketing into strategies to grow clients’ businesses, in particular to ensure that digital and traditional play well together. With her deep experience in digital, Dana can separate real solutions from wastes of time (and budget). Dana was born in a steel mill but overcame these humble beginnings to move to Edmonton in 2010. In her spare time, Dana is the past-president of the Advertising Club of Edmonton, co-leads Ladies Learning Code Edmonton and is the weekly technology columnist on CBC Edmonton AM. She also enjoys drinking beer and yelling at the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.