ALR on Tour: Gel 2010 Recap

For the second year in a row I've had the extreme pleasure of participating in Mark Hurst's Gel Conference in NYC. Last year I was kindly invited to be a speaker on the second day of the two-day event (a video of which you can see HERE). This year I led a workshop as part of day one, in which participants get their choice of over a dozen hands on experiences across the city. Since I'm not based in NYC I needed to find a space to hold my event and my friends at the Etsy kindly let us have access to their Lab space and materials! My workshop, called "Generating Creative Energy", gives participants a taste of what the experience of making a yearlong daily project is like and the benefits that are derived from it. And happily the folks that participated dove headfirst into the task given them and made a wonderfully creative mess, as evidenced in the images shown (and in my Flickr set HERE).

One of the best parts about doing the workshop on day one was that I could could completely relax and enjoy all of the speakers on day two, knowing my part was done. Once again we were treated to a roster of amazingly interesting and wildly diverse folks that over and over again told wonderful stories about creative endeavors and fascinating experiences that were completely inspiring. Mark will add videos of the speeches to the Gel videos page over time, but in the interim you should definitely check out these cool folks...

David Bornstein (who actually attended my workshop and made the lovely musical notes shown above) talked about social entrepreneurship and breaking down problems to the smallest possible units so people can solve them. His latest project is the story sharing site Dowser.

Rachel Sussman shared her project to document the oldest living things in the world which has brought her to almost every continent, face to face with bacteria that is 400,000-800,000 years old, and a much better perspective on the passage of time.

Kevin Roose challenged his own liberal biases by spending a semester "abroad" at the ultra-conservative Liberty University, a school for evangelical Christians. And he wants to bring enemies together using his new book "The Unlikely Disciple" as a catalyst.

Ysaye Barnwell led us as a chorus with gorgeous music from other cultures.

Matt Haughey introduced us to the world of Metafilter.com and talked about the value of saying "no",  not trying to be all things to all people, and listening to the troublemakers.

David Harris shared insights from his time as an instructor at the TOPGUN school where wouldn't ask what was wrong with a student that failed, but how they failed the student and they made investing in people (students & teachers) a top priority. 

Louise Sacco told us how artwork makes it onto the walls of The Museum of Bad Art and why some artists actually like the designation "bad"! 

The Gregory Brothers (two of which also attended my workshop, one of which made this awesome lab coat crab) gave us a behind the scenes view of how they make Auto-Tune the News and also showed us they can actually sing quite well without Auto-Tuning!

James Carse told us about the "higher ignorance" of having a sense of how much you don't know.

Salman Khan introduced us to his Khan Academy, which he started as a way of tutoring his cousins and now offers 1,200+ free videos in a variety of subjects so that everyone can have a quality education regardless of means. 

The Ebony Hillbillies got the audience clapping and smiling and also taught us a bit about musical history as well.

Randy Garutti explained how The Shake Shack is going to make "flipping burgers" into a real career choice and that they bigger they get the smaller they're going to act.

Rob Kapilow helped us listen for the "Hmmm" and understand that performers need to be in the "great audience business". 

Connie Brown showed us how maps can be much more than a way to get from place to place.

And finally Larry Smith showed us that: six words can say a lot!

Needless to say my brain was completely full by the time the day was over! And I'm already looking forward to attending Gel 2011...