greenSPARK planning notes: 4/8/10 & 4/19/10

• Bike valet (coordinate with Raleigh Bicycle Advisory Committee)
• Water bottles and stations
  • Coolers from Jaycees
  • Need a way to get ice and water easier
  • About 200 bottles left from last year
• spokeSPARK rides each day (coordinate with Raleigh Bicycle Advisory Committee)
  • Need a coordinator/organizer
• Recycling/composting stations  (City of Raleigh)
• Recycle brochures

• Transit tie-ins
  • CAT, Wolfline, TTA
  • musicSPARK/poetrySPARK/storySPARK on the go?
  • artSPARK as part of Art on the Move
• Work with each firestarter/SPARK to identify green initiatives to put in place
  • tastySPARK:  Local growers and organic farmers market
  • bazaarSPARK:  green/recycled products
  • SPARKcon overall:  recycled products, minimize paper, more online, carbon offsets
• Power-generating bikes
  • WE WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN THIS YEAR!!! 
  • relay for SPARK
  • coordinate with ASME local and NCSU chapter
• Recycling center for odd items
• gardenSPARK
  • Parking space parks
• Raffle to raise money for carbon credits??

General Meeting Notes April 19

Monday, April 19th was our Second General Meeting at Designbox.

Aly Khalifa went over some basic information about how to run a SPARK—and let everyone know about all the new resources available on the SPARKcon.com Organizer’s Corner. Also, he went over how each SPARK will have access to its own page and calendar on the Web-site. Full instructions are posted on the Organizers Corner (of course, that is where all the good stuff is found) Britt Hayes will be the main contact for web access: britt@sparkcon.com

Sarah Powers announced SPARKcon and VAE are finalists for the What Matters Award, a $5,000 award given by the Triangle Community Foundation. All SPARKers should vote so we can win! http://www.trianglecf.org/news_events/vote_choose_the_what_matters_award_winner/

There will be training in May for those who missed the other training.

Meeting information with benchmarks

April 19 – Leadership
May 17 – Call for Talent
June 21 – Plans and budgets
July 19 – Final Talent – Calls due
August 16 – Programs complete
September 13 – Final Touches

Each SPARK reported on their recent activities and plans.

fashionSPARK: Planning another great fashion show, and adding a pre-party at the Mahler. Lots of collaboration with other SPARKS

poetrySPARK: Adding middle school and high school students to their busy poetry reading schedule, also a poetry slam.

stageSPARK: creating an online application to use the stage. Meeting the third Thursday of every month.

musicSPARK: 90 bands have already applied, the committee is meeting every other Wednesday at Humble Pie to coordinate venues. Looking for a larger range of music (lots of rock entries) so spread the word. May 1 deadline for submissions

ideaSPARK: Planning a pecha kucha session and researching venues. Asked for celebrities to talk. Kings has agreed to host the after party!

interactiveSPARK: Still in a brainstorming phase….games, interactive kiosk, web, twitter fountain, game jam.

filmSPARK: Planning a big screening of short films, film jam and a panel discussion. The call for talent will be released at the next social of the Triangle Film Society. Looking forward to a collaboration with fashionSPARK.

graffitiSPARK: Planners are working on a mix up. Keep posted for details.

greenSPARK: Looking into ways to work with the food vendors to eliminate food waste, bike rides, power generating bikes, CAT bus partnership, gardens. Meeting everyone other Tuesday at Player’s Retreat. Also thinking about a giggleSPARK?

designSPARK: Planning a showcase, just getting started, stay tuned.

artSPARK: Planning street painting, paint-out, kidSPARK art activities, PODS installations, photoSPARK.

bazaarSPARK: Working on creating another awesome bazaar for Saturday and possible Sunday.

circusSPARK: Planning workshops, circus JAM, parade, late night after dark showcase, and is worrying about insurance. They are looking for volunteers and a crane.

danceSPARK: No representative, but they are always up to good stuff.

tastySPARK: Expand beyond sip, more street vendors and a tailgate competition. Sip at Marriott? Chef challenge on Saturday? Sunday brunch and farmers market.

We are working on getting everyone’s SPARK committees on a list so we can get more collaborations going and encourage new folks to help.

Branding/Promotion/Communication Minutes

Attendance: Sarah Powers, JT Moore, Kestrel Lemen, Britt Hayes, Mike Rosado, Jedidiah Gant, David Millsaps

Goal: To improve communication before and during SPARKcon, through an email newsletter, social media ventures, online calendar, and print materials.

Email Newsletter

• Start as a SPARK to SPARK communication tool
• Grow to a full on public promotional tool

The newsletter (The Word) can promote fundraising events, SPARK news, and much more

VIDEO – use screen shot to link to video. Video source include existing footage, interviews, meeting moments. We should create a youtube channel if we don’t already have one

Newsletter Needs:

• Contact with SPARKs
• Content portal/filter (email, online form for submission)
• FB, Twitter list
• List of SPARKS and organizers
• Set up confessional at general meeting to get video
• Boilerplate to put at the bottom of email
• Sponsor logos, sponsor feature
• Flickr pull-in
• File sharing

Social Media

We need to increase our presence in Twitter (SPARKconner) and the general SPARKcon Facebook page, with a goal of increasing followers and friends prior to the event weekend.

Online SPARK Calendars

Currently we are using separate Google calendars for each SPARK that are then aggregated in to one larger Google calendar, in the Organizer’s corner. We are in talks of changing the calendar system, to a more beautiful one that will be easier to view events both online in the site, and on devices such as iPhones.

Print Materials

We will be creating promotional materials as a tool for the different SPARKs to use in their fundraising events, advertising calls for talent, etc. These will all be available for download in the Organizer’s Corner.

General Meeting Notes March 22

Monday, March 22nd was our First General Meeting for getting our community together to think on what we want to do with SPARKcon this year.

Overview

SPARKcon is the Triangle’s conference and showcase for local talent.

We are dedicated to connecting the local creative community, to show our stuff, and have a say in our future.We use open minds and open-source methods to embrace all we can in a potluck-style event.

Organization

bobbleheads
Sarah Powers
Rachel Berry
Gab Smith
Mary Ellis
Aly Khalifa

fireSTARTERS
Beth Khalifa
Britt Hayes
Art Stone
Josh Frank
Matt Tendam

Structure

new for 2010

New blood – many new organizers and lots of new talent through open calls and open meetings

City Plaza – SPARKcon helped design Raleigh’s new City Plaza through the first ideaSPARK and a series of design charettes. We will move SPARKcon to its home in 2010!

VAE will now be the umbrella organization for SPARKcon.

VAE’s Mission is to o foster the advancement of and provide opportunities for all visual artists, particularly emerging, and to increase community awareness, appreciation, and support of North Carolina artists. This new role will help the event grow, create a year round presence and provide better support and resources for organizers.

Event Schedule

Thurs 16
7p kickoff / ideaSPARK

Fri 17
7a Fayetteville St closed
3p Streetpainting
8p fashionSPARK @ main stage

Sat 18
7a Davie St closed
10a bazaarSPARK
8p multi-SPARKS @ main stage

Sun 19
12p programming @ main stage

Planning Schedule

Apr 19 Leadership/Vision

May 17 Call for Talent out

Jun 21 Plans / Budgets

Jul 19 Final talent lineups announced

Aug 16 Programs complete

Sep 13 Final touches

Group discussion –  introductions and SPARKS for 2010?

Back for 2010

Fashion, music, art, graffiti, gaming/interactive, poetry, idea, dance, film, bazaar, tasty and sip

New for 2010 (with leadership, vision and a committee established)

Circus, giggle

Great ideas that need leadership, vision and a committee to move forward

Garden, design, grey, play/theatre, might be more out there!

How do we define success?

More definitions of creativity are established, Continue past successes, testimonials, grab feedback from twitter, cross pollination between SPARKS.

Best Practices – communication

Each SPARK will be able to update their own web-page and keep accurate meeting dates and minutes on the site

If you are going to make a new Facebook site – make it a fan page

Give access to twitter, facebook, etc accounts to bobbleheads for future continuity.

Organizer’s corner

On SPARKcon.com there is a link to a resource page at the bottom left corner. This page will have branding information, best practices, general meeting notes, information about how to update the site and more.

8pm: General meeting adjourned and Small Group meetings ensued.