Thanks to our friends at D Magazine, our special Thursday evening just got even better. We’ve gotten our hands on VIP wristbands to FrontRow Live and will raffle off to anyone who wants to keep the sparks flying after SparkEd!

There will be DJs, dancing, drinking, live theater, screen-printing, coffee provided by The Pearl Cup, and food trucks. You can check out the full menu of shenanigans here. It promises to be going strong till midnight at the Dallas Contemporary – only a few turns away from the Museum of Nature & Science.

Should be a great way to keep the energy going, so don’t forget to RSVP at sparked.eventbrite.com.

The perfect venue to kick off a Spark Club event: the Electric Theater at Dallas Museum of Nature & Science.

We’re excited about the diversity of presenters and range of challenges they’ll be bringing. Here they are:

Dallas Kids First: A non-partisan group of concerned citizens and parents that believes every kid in Dallas deserves access to quality public schools, Dallas Kids First is dedicated to finding, supporting, and electing great school board leaders.

Group Excellence: A for-profit entity that describes itself as “a mentoring company that tutors,” Group Excellence strives to motivate and inspires students to achieve excellence.

educateTX: This non-profit start-up is developing a web platform that breaks down local education policy into digestible chunks and enables citizens to surface, discuss, and organize around the issues they feel are most important.

Just one of three spaces where we'll dig for great ideas during our breakout brainstorm sessions.

After these organizations briefly present their unique challenges, audience members will then disperse throughout the Museum exhibits for rapid ideation sessions in search of solutions to these challenges. We are excited to be working with Nathan Huntoon and the SMU Innovation Gym, which has led similar exercises with the likes of Lockheed Martin and National Instruments. Check out Nathan’s TEDxSMU talk here to get an idea of what they do.

Why? Because we know that true solutions come from the ground. True solutions come from un-like-minded individuals.  True solutions begin with brainstorming and ideation.

Join us! We think you’ll impact our community.  And, we think you’ll have fun! If you haven’t done so yet, register now at http://sparked.eventbrite.com/.

Several forces, including Spark Club, have helped push education into the forefront of local conversation. Today, we’re launching a new gathering centered on this cause. We call it SparkEd. We’ll keep the same vibe as any other Spark Club event, only a bit more participatory.

For our inaugural event on November 3, you can choose to participate in one of two ways: as a presenter or as an ideator. Presenters will be given five minutes to share a challenge facing their organization (read below for more on how to apply to be a presenter). After the presentations, attendees will be invited to rapidly ideate possible solutions together with the guidance of a moderator. We’ll have some help in this department from Nathan Huntoon, Director of the Innovation Gymnasium at SMU’s School of Engineering. The hope is that this format engages the crowd in generating breakthrough ideas for the presenting organizations (and ultimately for kids).

If you’d like to participate as an ideator, just RSVP at SparkEd.eventbrite.com. Of course, if you’d like to attend as a curious observer, you’re welcome too! While tickets are free, we ask that you please consider making a donation to help cover the costs associated with producing the event.

If you are courageous enough to candidly share a challenge and interested in getting some of Dallas’ most creative minds on the case, the next step is to read below and email contactsparked@gmail.com with the information requested by October 13. After receiving your response, we’ll contact you with any clarifying questions and inform selected presenters by October 24.

FOR PRESENTERS:

1.       PRESENTER NAME:

2.       ORGANIZATION:

3.       CONTEXT: Please provide as much context as needed to adequately explain the challenge facing your organization. Why is it important for you to solve this problem? How have you previously tried to solve it? What obstacles or constraints appear to remain?

4.       THE CHALLENGE: Please phrase your question using this format: How do we _______, given (CONSTRAINT #1) and (CONSTRAINT #2)? Try to avoid using money as a primary constraint.

Here’s a common (but fictional) example that might help:

1. Presenter Name: Bob Smith
2. Organization: Kids Rock!
3. Context: Like most nonprofits, we’re constantly seeking the support of volunteers and donors. When someone does express interest, we typically add that person to a contact list. This person is then alerted to volunteer and/or donor opportunities. We know there is tremendous human capital to be cultivated within this pool of supporters, yet we don’t have a method for truly unleashing their potential beyond this current way of operating. We often feel we don’t have the capacity to build deeper relationship with supporters. Perhaps we also fear some loss of control that would come from a greater level of supporter involvement.
4. The Challenge: How do we more fully engage existing supporters in creating value for our organization, given limited volunteer management capacity and experience?

Spark Club, along with several other noteworthy Dallas gatherings, was featured in this Sept./Oct. edition of Origin Magazine.

In its current issue, Origin Magazine features Spark Club as the truly unique gathering that it’s become since its inception nearly two years ago. Authored by participant and conspirator Christian Yazdanpanah, the piece captures the people, spaces, and style of Spark Club. It also hints at some new directions and formats that we hope to spark in the coming months. If you’d like to read the piece and explore the online publication for yourself, click here and scroll to page 47. Origin Magazine is also available for free at several art galleries, art museums, performance venues, and other select  locations around town. Otherwise, look out for an exciting post in the coming week or so about our next gathering!

Image by steevithak via Flickr

We are proud to present this, the first of 9 videos from Pecha Kucha night last Thursday at Sons of Hermann Hall. Please forgive the poor audio. I think you’ll be pleased with the content if you fight through the sound.

This first video is of Harvey Lacey. Lacey is an entrepreneur who once served two tours in Viet Nam and installed telephone cables.  It was during that time that he learned the pleasure found in making something without having the proper tools or materials and do the impossible with nothing under the worst of circumstances. This is a story of innovation and inspiration.

Volunteers get FREE admission and a super cool Free Lisa T-shirt.  Plus our undying love and affection.  Forever. 

2.  June 3-14, varying days from 8am-noon. Want to get dirty?  Come on out to help harvest produce for bigBANG! 2011 at Paul Quinn College.  Email SarahJaneSemrad@gmail.com with your interest.  Details are in the works.  PQC is the school who plowed up their football field and turned it into an organic farm.  In Texas.  Please let us know if you’re interested.  Thanks!

DALLAS, Texas (April 4) – Spark Club, a network of social entrepreneurs and artists collaborates with Pecha Kucha Dallas, an international phenomenon brought to Dallas for the sixth time on May 12, 2010 at 7pm at Sons of Hermann Hall.  The event is $5 and tickets can be bought online in advance at http://pkndallas6.eventbrite.com. Sons of Hermann Hall is located at 3414 Elm Street in Dallas.  RSVP on a dedicated site: pkndallas6.eventbrite.com.  Visit the official PKN Dallas site: http://pkndallas.org

Confirmed presenters include Andrew Sturm with bcWorkshop and 5750 Dallas; Ben Hutchison and Michael Siegel with Green House Truck; Harvey Lacey with Recycled Plastic Block Houses; Sean Garman with Perkins + Will; Dr. Monica Evans with UTD’s Gaming Program; Dawn Rizos and Michael Precker with The Lodge; Kael Alford a war photojournalist and Dustin Hasiler, former CIO for Manor, Texas.  Other presenters are still in the works.

ABOUT PECHA KUCHA DALLAS
PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.  For more information, please visit www.pecha-kucha.org or www.pkndallas.org or twitter.com/pkndallas

ABOUT SPARK CLUB
Spark Club is an emerging network with the goal of sparking and nurturing good ideas for a deeper investment in our community. Spark Club is not your ordinary foundation, institute or not-for-profit. It is a completely voluntary network of brilliant people interested in affecting change where they live.   We recognize that social impact is achieved by working well with others and for a good cause.  Our gatherings, both virtual and actual are designed to identify and create new ways of looking at community challenges and social issues. We hope to inspire a robust network representing all sectors and issues areas to connect and leverage social entrepreneurship throughout the North Texas community.  Working in inclusive and interactive ways, we organize virtually and through a variety of actual gatherings that will take a variety of formats to meet, tease out, define, discover and develop innovative solutions to issues in our communities.  For more information, please visit SparkforGood.Wordpress.com

ABOUT THE CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Andrew Sturm

Andrew is a part of the buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, a Dallas based design center that seeks to improve the livability and viability of communities through the practice of thoughtful design and building. His passion for design has always been closely linked to communities in need; whether they be an informal neighborhood in Nicaragua, or an aging, former industrial town in upstate New York. Andrew has taught and lectured on design and social equity, and in 2008, he had the honor of co-curating the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, where he highlighted the work of artists, architects and creative instigators in the U.S. at the forefront of redefining practice.

Harvey Lacey

Lacey is a 62 years old entrepreneur who once served two tours in Viet Nam and installed telephone cables.  It was during that time when he learned the pleasure found in making something without having the proper tools or materials and do the impossible with nothing under the worst of circumstances. Lacey is a self employed welder/fabricator, inventor, artist and has three utility patents issued by the United States Patent office.  Lacey is married with four kids and six grandkids.  Lacey is without a high school diploma or college degree, but as he says “I’ve taken a lot of courses!”

Sean Garman

Sean is a licensed architect and the Sustainable Design Leader for the Dallas office of Perkins+Will.  For the past 12 years Sean has focused his career in the Higher Education market sector with a specialty in Science Planning and Laboratory Design.  Sean has furthered this laboratory expertise by completing the “Guidelines of Laboratory Design” certificate program at Harvard School of Public Health.  Sean’s passion for sustainability is rooted in his education at Montana State University where he received both his Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees. Sean has just recently served a two year term as Chair of the Events & Education Committee for the US Green Building Council – North Texas Chapter and is still active on the committee today. Sean currently sits on the Board of the Dallas Architecture Forum, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects – Committee on the Environment.

Kael Alford

Kael Alford is a documentary photographer, writer and journalist born in Middletown, NY, in 1971. She takes an immersive and long term approach to the subjects she reports including political conflict, underrepresented communities, cultural identity, and the human relationship to the natural environment. Kael began her career covering culture and conflict in the Balkans and the Middle East for European and American newspapers and magazines from 1996 – 2005. Her photography about the impact of the U.S. – led invasion of Iraq on Iraqi civilians is widely exhibited and included in the book: Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq (Chelsea Green 2005). She will return to Iraq this summer to follow up on that project. She is also documenting Native American communities on the coast of Louisiana facing dislocation due to massive coastal erosion and the environmental impacts of the oil and gas industries. That work will be exhibited at the High Museum in Atlanta in July, 2012. Alford takes photography assignments, lectures and writes about her work. She teaches at the annual Foundry Photo Workshop, and will be teaching photography at SMU in the fall. She holds a BA in Literature, an MA in Journalism from the University of Missouri and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2008-2009.  Alford is represented by Panos Pictures in London and lives in Dallas, Texas.  For links to Kael’s work see: www.kaelalford.com and www.unembedded.com

Michael Siegel and Ben Hutchison

Michael Siegel is founder and owner of Green House.  After graduating from law school, he acted upon his desire to create a new dining concept – healthy affordable.  Green House is a mobile restaurant that focuses on healthy, wholesome meals served from a converted mobile kitchen.  The menu focuses on lean proteins and local vegetables, as well as utilizing biodegradable utensils and containers.  Ben Hutchison is the Executive Chef and has over fifteen years of kitchen experience in Dallas, having been with Star Canyon, Routh Street, and most recently, Food Company.

Dustin Haisler

Dustin Haisler is currently the Director of Government Innovation for Spigit, Inc.  Dustin is the former Assistant City Manager and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Manor, Texas. While at the City of Manor, Dustin and his team innovated a number of solutions to increase efficiency and cut cost. Dustin’s innovative uses of technology have received international attention and won numerous awards. In 2009, Dustin was named by Government Technology as one of the 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers of Technology in the nation. One of Dustin’s most notable projects was the deployment of a Quick Response Codes (QR-code) throughout the City of Manor. QR-codes are two-dimensional barcodes that can be decoded with most newer model camera phones. Residents and tourist that visit Manor can scan the QR-codes placed throughout town with their camera phones to receive real-time information on city projects, historic buildings and much more. In addition, Dustin helped launch Manor’s open innovation platform, called Manor Labs, in conjunction with the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. Dustin graduated Magna Cum Laude from LeTourneau University with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration.

Other bios are in the works.  For the most current information, please visit www.pkndallas.org

See it to believe it.  Dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes and long pants.  See ya Friday in the field!  Pic by Can Turkyilmaz.