SPARKcon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (download pdf of press release here)
Henry Copeland, Adblogs Founder, is IdeaSPARK Keynote Speaker for SPARKcon

RALEIGH (August, 24, 2009) The organizers of SPARKcon have announced that Henry Copeland will be the IdeaSPARK keynote speaker for SPARKcon 2009. IdeaSPARK will have a kickoff presentation at 7 pmon September 17 at the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. The event will also include a dozenIdeaSPARK 20/20 presentations. Various members of the community will have 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide to present their best ideas for what the Triangle needs to do next.

Copeland will lead the effort by talking about the new ways cultural and intellectual communities are organizing themselves. About how new hubs of creativity are self-generating beyond the borders of meccas like New York City, Paris and Amsterdam. And about how the principle that “outside is the new inside” is empowered by knowledge-communing tools like Twitter, Facebook and Digg. All this to create a new environment – free of geographical limitations – in what is rapidly becoming a global community knit together from minds, not places.

Henry has spent the better part of the millennium finding new and better ways to connect the blogosphere with advertisers. In 2002, he created Blogads, uniting America’s social media pioneers with advertising dollars spent by a “joyful stew” of entities running the gamut from large corporations to small-scale garage start-ups. Today Blogads represents blog giants like PerezHilton and DailyKos as well as thousands of smaller niche blogs.

A graduate of Yale University, Henry has worked on Wall Street and spent time as a journalist in Eastern Europe before creating Blogads. He sits on the advisory board for SXSW 2010 and on the advisory board of George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet. In addition to being one of Gawker’s New Dorks of All Media, he was also voted “most argumentative” in the Wooster High class of ‘80.

About SPARKcon:
SPARKcon celebrates creativity in the NC Triangle. For 4 days, Raleigh’s Fayetteville St, public spaces, clubs and stages will be filled with art, music, dance, film, fashion, design and more. Showcasing local cultural richness through an open-source approach to collaboration and cross pollination, SPARKcon is not a funded city program or an economic development stunt. It’s completely grass-roots and by the people for the people! Join us as we explore the creative spirit of the Triangle!

Contact information:
Aly Khalifa
919-834-3552 x201
aly at sparkcon dot com