Goodbye 2016 Hello 2017

Near the end of the year, 2016 as partial response to the poetry prompt from Poets & Writers, 11/17/16 edited 1/1/17

Sports:  Cubs win, Olympics in Rio are a bust.

Politics:  Bernie’s tufts of white hair, Hillary’s white pantsuits, Trump’s “Make America White Again”.

Home:  New carpet is a mottled cloud, Gray (the cat) helps us play quiet, neighbors come and go, wave their hands, avoid making eye contact while dead palm tree fronds clutter the pool.

Work:  Like a kid struggling to ride a bicycle, I fall off TENWEST, pick myself up with TEDx, bump into BuildUp^; and coast through do happy today.

Writing: Mostly stuck in 2^nd gear and shifting slowly into third.  Poetry is my harbor; fiction is my reading compass; non-fiction is my bread and butter.  Blogs are bittersweet.

Travel:  Too brief a time in Maui where the water is warm, the sand pillows around my toes and wind blows flower petals across my eyes. I learn hula and let go of my hips, eat homemade granola for breakfast, and am delightfully dampened by mist at a luau.  My husband and son learn to play together again. We go to California to say goodbye to Auntie and play in Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.  In between we travel to Phoenix and watch Diamondbacks play ball.

TEDx Tucson: Imagine Annual Conference

What better way to start off the new year than by imagining a world full of positive and creative ideas. TEDx Tucson will be offering its annual conference on January 14th and here is the complete info on the event.

IMAGINE! 

IMAGINE! 

TEDxTucson’s day-long Conference on January 14, 2016

Program runs from 9am to 5pm (doors open at 9, after-party starts at 4)

Watching TED and TEDx talks on the web is great, but IMAGINE sitting in the audience! Now you can. Please join us for an educational and illuminating day.

TEDxTucson creates unique community events featuring diverse, multi-generational thought leaders from all walks of life.  We support contemporary themes and highly interactive learning. We facilitate community discussions so that, together, we can envision the impact of emerging ideas.  You can buy tickets now to attend our annual event. 

We aim to promote innovations and to inspire lifelong learning among our community members. Our priority is to build a community of ideas, with an engaged and thoughtful audience. We'd be thrilled to include you!  Join us!

Tickets

Get tickets at TEDxTucson.com or at bit.ly/imagineTEDxTucson

Tickets are going fast!

   

    $50 for General Admission

    $35 for Students or Retirees

    $65 for VIP tickets

The ticket price includes

    10 fantastic speakers

     2 delightful musical acts

     LUNCH!!

     Catered breaks

     Legendary After-party

Enjoy our interactive experiences while networking with Tucson’s best and brightest!

Venue – the beautiful Berger Theater, 1200 W. Speedway Blvd, Tucson, AZ  85745.  Free parking. bit.ly/TEDxTucsonparking

Doors open at 9:00 a.m.

Program runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

After-Party starts at 4 p.m.

Presenters

Sharing a Single Breath - Teré Fowler-Chapman.  An award winning, gender fluid writer, she is a wordsmith. Community organizer. Educator. Family Man.

How to Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals  - Stephen Dunerier.  As an accomplished business leader, institutional investor, author, coach, professor and artist, who in his spare time has learned to unicycle, slackline, fly aerobatically, play the drums, perform comedy and race cars, while building a global community of artists across 43 countries and all 50 US states, Stephen is what happens when the right brain and left brain learn to work together.  He calls himself “just some guy.”

Warrior Spirit: Bringing Sexual Abuse out of the Shadows - Danielle McFarland .  Taking us through her own journey of recovery from early childhood sexual abuse using her inner healer and warrior spirit as guides, author Danielle McFarlin shows us how we all can transform and heal in a rape culture society.

Healing with Better Health Literacy - Molly Hottle.  Molly strives to use her strategic communication expertise to help close the literacy gap between medical professionals and the patients they treat to improve the overall health of the country and beyond.

Diagnosing Dog Behavior Correctly Will Save Dogs' Lives -  Karyn Garvin.  The “Divine Dog” Trainer, Karyn is a professional dog trainer, devoted to saving dogs’ lives.

Planting the Rain to Grow Abundance - Brad Lancaster, social advocate, author and artist. Brad is the author of the award-winning books Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond.

Lost and Found - Jitesch Vaswani, a techie by profession, and a yogi by heart, speaks about how to remain present.

Immersive History - Using Virtual Reality to Understand the Past - Tony Ford.  He  has over 25 years experience in media, marketing, and business development   He is the co-founder of ArtFire.com, PopCongGo.com, and is currently creating new storytelling methods for film and virtual reality As CEO of Darc Fusion.

When Did Poverty Become A Death Sentence? - Josiah Cantrall.  As a child of poverty himself, serial entrepreneur Josiah Cantrall proves what is possible when individuals refuse to allow their hopes and dreams to be limited by their circumstances or mindset.

Skating Downhill: The Art of Claiming Your Life - Adiba Nelson.  Adiba has yet to find a reason to sit down and shut up.

Tickets

Are through EventBrite, and include catered breaks.  You can go to TEDxTucson.com or at bit.ly/imagineTEDxTucson.

After Party

Our after-party is what distinguishes TEDxTucson as an experience, not just an event.  We host drinks and little nibbles back stage (everyone has backstage passes).  We encourage all of our attendees – the ones that appeared on stage, as well as the ones from the audience – to engage in conversation about Tucson and how we imagine our future. 

Learning about Pokemon Go and Holographic Tech at TENWEST Festival

photo by anita c. fonte

My first session at Tucson's TENWEST Festival last week was titled: Augmented Reality, and began with two enthusiastic speakers from the City of Tucson/Reid Park Zoo.  The executive director, Jason Jacobs and their event planner, Melissa McCargar, shared the "fast track" story about how the zoo incorporated Pokemon Go (an augmented reality game) into their summer schedule.  Expecting 500-1,000 paying patrons on 2 nights at the zoo, who would be looking for Pokemon characters, the event ballooned into 3-4,000 people and extended to 5 nights. Partnering with Tucson Comic-Con and the local business, Heroes & Villains, the expanded event netted $68,000 for the zoo and 200 new memberships.

The second speaker, Peter Nolan, from Tactile Company/Phoenix promoted Microsoft's HoloLens--a tech tool combining virtual and augmented reality=mixed reality.  As he demonstrated the tool, holographic 3D images were shown (using google maps) of Reid Park Zoo and (for 3D excitement) Niagara Falls.

Although much of this information (and the tools) are beyond my practice, learning about them helped me imagine how to embrace the new tech world with a little less anxiety and consider the possibilities for: a) using these resources to expand interest in and support of entertainment venues (such as the zoo), and b) using a HoloLens to train employees in "how to" do a virtual task without having to actually "do" it, thus avoiding unnecessary risks on the job.

So, right from the start, Tucson's 2nd TENWEST Festival www.tenwest.com had me at "hello."

UA Geo Spatial Planning Project, a collaboration with BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond

While the TENWEST Festival was wrapping up the UA Collaboration Leadership Summit on Poverty was taking place.  It's impossible to be in both places--which is why it's so important to connect through social media resources.  And that's what Iris Patten and Anita Fonte have been doing since the first BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond gathering in April.  Through the summer BuildUP^ gatherings face-to-face, the first UA GeoSpatial Project meeting in July, Facebook pages, and yes, the occasional phone calls, the trajectory of the UA's effort has been generating next steps.

Last week, through site visits to two neighborhoods (Barrio Anita and Barrio Blue Moon), 10/27-28 Summit sessions on how to measure project outcomes and how to impact local policies, how to frame the project with authentic community-based language, the effort is designing these actions:

• With the two, and possibly other engaged neighborhoods, conduct an "energy challenge" which measures concrete "energy" elements (water use, electricity, etc.) as well as the less concrete element of neighborhood activities/social capital. January 7-March, 20, 2017 
• Note:  The conclusion of the initial challenge will coincide with 3rd International Day of Happiness 
• Develop a partnership with Tucson Electric Power and other energy corporations.
• Apply for seed money 
• Create a University of Arizona "Planners in Residence" Program with graduate students embedded in the participating neighborhoods 2017 and into the future.

For more information on how to get involved in this effort, contact Iris Patten at ipatten@email.arizona.edu

One of several groups at UA GeoSpatial Summit, photo by Iris Patten

More highlights from the TENWEST Festival  www.tenwestfestival.com Field Notes by Anita, will be coming in the days ahead.

Photo by Anita C. Fonte

Updates for BuildUP^ and Intro to TENWEST "my notes from the field"

First of all--we are postponing our Innovate Our Neighborhoods/BuildUP^ event, originally scheduled for 11/12.  Look for a new date in early 2017--delayed for a few weeks since the holiday season "officially" begins with Halloween-New Year and folks are busy with other commitments.

Second--it's been an exciting week at the 2nd Tucson TENWEST Festival.  I have pages of notes to share (just my highlights) and will be making several short posts to cover them.  Please go to www.tenwest.com and www.startuptucson.com for continuing info on TENWEST going forward into 2017.

Here's a few of my smartphone photos to tweak your interest and short comments.  More will be coming next week.

Planning for the many sessions and events began in late Spring at Startup Tucson/CoLab.  Here is one of the Festival leaders, Greg Teesdale, and another event planner eyeing the schedule as we began our detailed sessions.

Here's an example of just one of this week's sessions where there was standing room only!  Sessions were held at CoLab or (as in this photo) at the UA SBS building, both locations in downtown Tucson.

For only $35.00 for all sessions (and Friday's Rialto events/TEDxTucson), Festival participants received this laser-cut id. badge.  And these are the first pages of my notes.

Updates for BuildUP^ and Intro to TENWEST "my notes from the field"

First of all--we are postponing our Innovate Our Neighborhoods/BuildUP^ event, originally scheduled for 11/12.  Look for a new date in early 2017--delayed for a few weeks since the holiday season "officially" begins with Halloween-New Year and folks are busy with other commitments.

Second--it's been an exciting week at the 2nd Tucson TENWEST Festival.  I have pages of notes to share (just my highlights) and will be making several short posts to cover them.  Please go to www.tenwest.com and www.startuptucson.com for continuing info on TENWEST going forward into 2017.

Here's a few of my smartphone photos to tweak your interest and short comments.  More will be coming next week.

Planning for the many sessions and events began in late Spring at Startup Tucson/CoLab.  Here is one of the Festival leaders, Greg Teesdale, and another event planner eyeing the schedule as we began our detailed sessions.

Here's an example of just one of this week's sessions where there was standing room only!  Sessions were held at CoLab or (as in this photo) at the UA SBS building, both locations in downtown Tucson.

For only $35.00 for all sessions (and Friday's Rialto events/TEDxTucson), Festival participants received this laser-cut id. badge.  And these are the first pages of my notes.

Build Up^ Continues and Evolves

At the August BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond Meeting, info sharing focused on the outcomes of the UA's GeoSpatial Collaborative Planning Project and its October 2nd Session, the 20th and 21st.  Iris Patten has established a facebook page for continued participation and it can be found at www.facebook.com/geospatialcollaborativeinitiative .  Info was also shared about the continued outreach from the Mindfulness Education Exchange to offer classes to organizations as well as individuals www.mindfuledex.com and on the upcoming Rainbow Build event with Tucson Habitat for Humanity www.habitattucson.org. Updates on the TENWEST Festival was also shared and tickets for that event October 21-28 can be purchased at www.tenwest.com .

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT:  In continued support of the TENWEST Festival, Community Renaissancewill be purchasing four tickets to be raffled at the September BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond gathering in late September.  The date is still pending for the September gathering, but it will take place at the usual location, La Cocina, 201 N. Court Avenue, 5:30-7 p.m.

BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond is evolving into a next stage:  Innovate our Neighborhoods.  An initial intro and planning meeting for this collaborative effort is happening on November 12, 10-1p.m. at Tucson Habitat for Humanity.  This creative collaboration will combine resources from UA's GeoSpatial Project, ASU's Happiness Lab, Southwest Fair Housing Council's Opportunity Index, the Santa Monica Well-being Project's Toolkit and other local and national resources to produce new (i.e. innovative) methods of engaging and increasing neighborhood capacity for sustainability, economic opportunity, happiness and well-being.  More information on the content of this meeting will be posted here as well as via the BuildUP Tucson & Beyond googlegroup.  If you want to be part of the google group email me at anitafonte@gmail.com .

Community Renaissance and The Partnership for Engagement and Civic Equity (PECE) is also exploring both online and face-to-face opportunities to join with The Kettering Foundation's National Issues Forum Institutes dialogues on "Making Ends Meet: How Should we Spread Prosperity and Improve Opportunity?" www.nifi.org

Last item is we are at beginning stage of preparation for the 3rd International Day of Happiness, Tucson & Beyond which will be extended to two days in 2017: Sunday, March 19 the the official March 20th global celebration on Monday.  Let us know if your organization wants to be part of this event. www.facebook.com/dohappytoday

As you can see, we have a lot of positive energy flowing from the summer into early autumn, so join us as we work together to make communities Better for Us! www.communityrenaissance.biz