When vancouverisawesome.com founder Bob Kronbauer told me he'd be telling a personal story about creativity at an upcoming CreativeMornings event, I said I'd like to attend.
Too bad, he said, the first 50 tickets became available at 11 a.m., and they were taken in 30 seconds. Two subsequent ticket releases, at 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. the same day, were also snapped up.
OK, it was free – including a breakfast provided by Arc'teryx, but the story was familiar.
An earlier similar event I attended in January was also sold out, with 400 people, mostly under 40, gathering to hear eight storytellers talk about "What Feeds Us," at the jaw-dropping Salt Building in Olympic Village.
It was hosted by Rain City Chronicles, whose non-profit series of storytelling nights have been selling out consistently.
"Our mission is to provide a community space for sharing great personal stories … with music and beverages," said co-organizer Karen Pinchin.
Graphic designers Jane and Steven Cox have a similar goal with their revenue-producing Pecha Kucha Night in Vancouver events, which they describe as "thinking and drinking." That's hardly a new combination, but the Pecha Kucha format only started in Tokyo in 2003. It's now used for presentation nights in cities around the world, allowing each speaker 20 slides for 20 seconds each – a glimpse into someone's world in less than seven minutes. The Coxes have now hosted 20 Pecha Kucha nights in Vancouver in venues as big as the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. They have all sold out (at around $12 a seat).
Then there are former mayor Sam Sullivan's Public Salons, now in their third year, packing them in at the Playhouse. His format is reminiscent of Pecha Kucha and Rain City Chronicles: seven or so speakers at the peak of their game, telling stories.
The wildly popular TED Talks on "ideas worth spreading" are another variation on this theme: scintillating speakers in a tightly scripted format with a live audience. It's probably no coincidence that the only Canadian city holding auditions for the 2013 TED talks is Vancouver, where twin sisters Katherine and Janet McCartney of North Vancouver-based Procreative Design Worksare directors of operations and events respectively for the international organization. Last November, a TED local event in West Vancouver featured, again, a series of amazing people sharing their stories and passions.
And these are just the headliners. The SFU City Program and Centre for Dialogue is launching an ongoing lunchtime series of "city conversations" on April 19. Gen Why Media is working on smaller-scale "intergenerational dialogues," including a series where young people are invited to "Bring Your Boomers."
People are flocking to these opportunities.
What's going on here?
Business people have long been keen on in-person networking events, but these are different. The younger people who drive most of these events have a wider agenda. Partly it's a craving to get out of their screens – and tiny living quarters – and into the real world of physical contact, but they're also driven by a dissatisfaction with traditional political and media discourse, according to Mark Winston, director of SFU's Centre for Dialogue.
"There's a great interest in thinking more deeply and reflectively, also networking and community building. We feel less isolated when we're physically in touch."
Ironically, the same isolating/bonding social media that reduce electronic exchanges to acronym-laden banalities make these events incredibly simple to market. At no cost, in a matter of hours, an event organizer can get the viral word out to thousands of electronically connected people.
Expect this trend to grow, and our community to be richer for it. •
