Please come in costume! We’ll have a costume contest in addition to a quiz this month. Bonus points for nerdiness. We will be releasing our speaker info during the month, but tickets are available right now.
When: Thursday October 26th, 2023, at 7:30 pm
(Doors & bar open at 7:00 pm with drinks available all night!)
Where: The Backstage Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures
Fringe Theatre Arts Barn, 10330 84 Ave NW, Edmonton
How much: $25
Zita Dube-Lockhart: Let’s Talk About Stress, Baby!
A crash course on how to get your body out of crisis and practice safe stress! Learn why “work/life balance” doesn’t really work, why yoga might cause you anxiety, and how a little play every day keeps the doctor away!
If there’s one thing Zita knows, it’s stress! As an award winning personal trainer, co-owner of Action Potential Fitness, one of Edmonton top fitness studios, Executive Director of the Centre For Trauma Informed Fitness, and a full time Master’s in Counselling Psychology student specializing in the science of motivation, she definitely has her hands full… and that is when she isn’t busy with her actual job of helping with homework, wiping off runny noses, and engaging in the very serious work of Sunday Morning Snuggles. She spends every free minute she has preaching about the power of social belonging, self-acceptance, and radical embodiment in healing the body, the mind, and society as a whole.
Action Potential Fitness – Facebook
@zita.dubelockhart – Instagram
@actionpotentialfitness – Instagram
Iain Gillis: Decoding Encoding: an introduction to the Text Encoding Initiative
You probably already encounter Google Maps, Microsoft Office documents, and Scalable Vector Graphics several times a day. Besides ubiquity, they have another thing in common: XML, or eXtensible Markup Language. You’re less likely to have worked with TEI, another XML “flavour” that’s used in mostly humanities projects and has been around for nearly 40 years! Get a quick history lesson and a crash course in tags, schemas; learn what it means to be well-formed and valid; and be introduced to some snazzy resources on the web that are powered by TEI markup, from Shakespeare to Banksy!
Iain Gillis is a Senior Open Data Analyst based in Edmonton whose expertise spans from data systems to humanities and musicology. Iain has been recognized by NorQuest College as an Inclusive Leader for his work as a mentor in the Autism CanTech! program and nominated for a Cultural Commitments Award in the Helpful category by his peers at the City of Edmonton. He has presented over the years on many topics, including reproducible pseudorandom sampling and complexity management for advanced text search in Tableau dashboards at the Edmonton Tableau Users Group, and presenting his musicological research in Canada and abroad, reflecting his past life as humanities scholar.
@opendataedm – The site formerly known as Twitter
Ilan Domnich: Amazing Ant Abilities
For such small creatures, ants are capable of some incredible things. We will dive into why ants are so diverse and some of their amazing behaviours and adaptations.
Ilan Domnich is an entomologist finishing his Master’s at the University of Alberta. When not outside looking at bugs, Ilan can be found at home working on his art and caring for his many plants and animals.
@crude_organism – Instagram
Welcome back! We’re kicking off the Fall Nerd Nite lineup with talks about sex-linked inheritance, photography, and Robert’s Rules.
When: Thursday September 28th, 2023, at 7:30 pm
(Doors & bar open at 7:00 pm with drinks and snacks available all night!)
Where: The Lobby at Fringe Theatre Adventures
Fringe Theatre Arts Barn, 10330 84 Ave NW, Edmonton
How much: $25
Adrien Veczan: Visual Arts: Painting & Photography
Adrien will explore how the invention of photography disrupted the art world; how photography tried but failed to render painting obsolete, and what each medium can learn from the other.
Adrien Veczan is a photographer best known for his large-scale productions and expert use of complex lighting.
His career started with an internship at the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, after which he joined the Toronto Star and later the Canadian Press. Adrien has worked for Reuters, the Globe and Mail, USA Today. His photos have been published in the Guardian, the Washington Post and the New York Times. His job has given him access to countless icons including Robert De Niro, LeBron James and Queen Elizabeth II.
Adrien’s elegant, thoughtful advertising photography has reached millions of eyes on billboards and magazines ranging from Wired to Playboy and from People to The Economist. Advertising agencies turn to Adrien knowing even their most challenging projects will be executed smoothly.
Between campaigns, Adrien enjoys working on fine art projects that allow him to experiment and develop new techniques. His series Telephone took him to four continents and revealed the evolution of the device in a groundbreaking way. In 2017, his first solo exhibition in Alberta, Whyte Avenue, showcased the historic and eclectic Edmonton neighbourhood. In 2021 Intermission, an exhibition based on Edward Hopper composition, premiered at the Saddlery Gallery.
www.veczan.com – Web
@veczan – Instagram
Amanda Henry: Better Meetings: Or I How Learned How to Stop Worrying about Robert’s Rules of Order
We spend a lot of time in meetings, and almost as much time grumbling about what a painful experience it is. You’ve probably been in a meeting that used Robert’s Rules of Order, but…it probably wasn’t being used correctly. We’ll explore what Robert’s Rules of Order are, how to use them better, and an argument in favour of a better way to run modern meetings.
Amanda is a versatile strategic planner, researcher, writer, and facilitator, though she has a tough time in rooms that don’t get Star Trek references. She has facilitated dozens of workshops and meetings around Edmonton on topics in governance, strategic planning, and other tools and tactics that help non-profit boards get where they want to go. She was a governance nerd before it was cool.
@amjhenry – Instagram
@amjhenry – Threads
Dr. Kate St. Onge: Sex-Linked Inheritance
Dr. Kate St.Onge is currently a lecturer in the department of biology sciences at the University of Alberta. She teaches in the areas of genetics, evolution and botany. She completed her PhD at Uppsala University in Sweden but Edmonton is her home town. Outside of work, she is a big fan of true crime podcasts!
Do you like or dislike the outdoors? Nerd Nite #73 is for you. Do you vote or not vote (holy crap please go vote)? Nerd Nite #73 is for you!
When: Wednesday May 24th, 2023, at 7:30 pm (not Thursday!)
(Doors & bar open at 7:00 pm and the Fringe Grounds Cafe is open until 8:00!)
Where: Studio Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures
Fringe Theatre Arts Barn, 10330 84 Ave NW, Edmonton
How much: $25
Featuring
Our DJ for NN#73 is Kena Léon, co-founder of Sapphic Speakeasy, which promotes safe dance spaces for female-identifying people on the spectrum.
Trent Wilkie: The Wilderness Lie
To some, the outdoors is a challenge; something to be conquered. The writing trope of ‘man vs. nature’ comes to mind. It is inherently a toxic relationship. The reality though is that any personification of outdoor pursuits can be dangerous. To paraphrase Madmen’s Don Draper, “The natural world is indifferent”.
Trent Wilkie is a writer/performer in Edmonton. Trent has written for CBC Radio, Fangoria Magazine, Exclaim Magazine, his blog/podcast The UnDad, and was the editor of several publications that are now defunct (a coincidence, he thinks). As well, he has written close to 100 sketches for collectives such as Mostly Water Theatre and The Regretzky Entertainment Group. Trent has also been a professional canoe guide for over 15 years and has paddled all over Canada.
@thetrentwilkie – Bird App
@thetrentwilkie – Instagram
Michael Ross: Whose Vote is it Anyway? Where the election system’s made up and your votes may not matter
Voting is fun and (usually) safe. But the way ballots are analyzed can directly change the results, allow for dishonest strategic voting, or even punish you for voting honestly in the first place. For one night and one night only, let’s take a deep dive into ways to vote, ways to count votes, and discover the single best voting system ever developed.
Michael Ross is allegedly a professional engineer, gets too excited by overanalyzing things with excel, and likes board games more than most people.
@mikerobe007 – Bird App
@mikerobe007 – Instagram
Scott Hebert: How Video Games Will Save Education
What is gamification? Why will it save education? How is life an RPG? All of these questions, and more, will be answered in this talk!
Scott Hebert is an educator of 12 years who has made it his goal to eliminate the stereotype that school is boring. In an effort to do this he has been recognized both provincially (Alberta Excellent in Teaching Award in 2013) and Internationally (Best Gamification in Education Project Globally in 2015 and Global Teacher Prize Top 50 Teachers in the World 2020) for his efforts towards promoting Gamification in the classroom. He lives by the message, “Would you want to be in your classroom?” and strives to achieve this goal daily. He is a single dad to two kids, lives in Fort Saskatchewan and teaches in Sherwood Park out of Elk Island Catholic School.
@MrHebertPE – Instagram
