It’s Time for Dangerous Thinking

Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Barcelona

In a recent New York Times article, Stephanie Rosenbloom writes about how conferences like SXSW, TED and – yes – WebVisions are doubling as vacation venues…and sure, why not? In the not-so-distant past, conferences pretty much offered the same experience — industry experts offering tame presentations, nondescript pipe-and-drape clad trade show booths, and equally nondescript programs and design. Today, it’s okay to take risks, push the boundaries on presentations, redefine meeting spaces and make the experience fun and memorable…and add a great location into the mix.

Over the next 12 months, WebVisions will be held in Portland (May 22-24), Barcelona (June 27-29), Chicago (Sept. 25-27) and NYC (Feb. 2014)…some of our favorite cities to visit (or live). Each location is steeped in its own local flavor, from Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona to the four star food carts in Portlandia.

As the author notes, “Think about it: the locations (like Austin, Aspen and New York) are tourist destinations in their own right; there’s built-in entertainment (food crawls, walking tours, cocktail hours); and — most important — they draw people attracted to a common theme. Even if you’re shy, all those meet-ups and lectures (not to mention the time you spend waiting in line to get into them) make it a breeze to strike up a conversation.”

For the full text of Stephanie’s article on “Business or Pleasure? Try Both.”, visit the New York Times. And see you at one of the shows!

Mark Frauenfelder – our Thursday afternoon keynote speaker for WebVisions Portland – is the author of some awesome and collectible books: The Happy Mutant Handbook: Mischievous Fun for Higher Primates, Mad Professor: Concoct Extremely Weird Science Projects, The World’s Worst: A Guide To The Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, And Dangerous People, Places, And Things On Earth, The Computer: An Illustrated History and Made by Hand: My Adventures in the World of Do-It-Yourself.

In the World of Making, Mark is way out front…a co-founder of Maker Faire, Editor-in-Chief of MAKE magazine, and founder of the ultra popular blog, BoingBoing.net. He’s not only personally carrying the banner of the Maker Movement, he’s also working to build the ranks of Makers. In his keynote on “Making Makers: New Tools and Ideas that are Fueling a Movement”, Mark will start with a brief but colorful history of 19th and 20th century making, and present the new tools and technologies that are driving innovation and giving individuals and small groups the ability to create amazing things that would’ve been out of their reach a few years ago. And because we all want things cheap, fast and now, he’ll present new, inexpensive, and effective ways to conduct research and development, design prototypes, and set up manufacturing on the desktop or in the garage.

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Mark is the former editor-in-chief of Wired Online, and was an editor at Wired magazine and Wired Books. He was Playboy magazine’s technology columnist for three years, has appeared on The Colbert Report (twice) and the Martha Stewart Show, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, Business Week, The Hollywood Reporter, Wired, and other national publications.