[UPDATE: download it now, read it and share your thoughts on Facebook]

Last year, when Ton turned 40, we organized an unconference to celebrate (of course we also had a bbq party!), and we invited people from our various circles. The topic was ‘Working on Stuff that Matters‘, ‘WSTM’. Some 40 people participated in the unconference, some 20 workshops were held, and it was an event that is still giving us energy almost 18 months later.

We always wanted to create something tangible as an outcome of the event, to create an ‘Epic Sh*t Multiplier’ as we called it on the day. We created an e-book, explaining ‘how to unconference your birthday’. The text was written during the summer of 2010. A professional designer (BUROPONY in Rotterdam, hire them, they’re great!) created the book itself in May/June this year. In the past days we sent out cards to all participants of the unconference to allow them to download the book. We’ll publish the e-book itself online later. Right now it’s a gift for those who attended. A small token of our appreciation for the big gift they gave us by attending the unconference, and the energy and inspiration that is still generating for us. Thank you.

[UPDATE: download it now, read it and share your thoughts on Facebook]

Below are some pictures giving you a sneak preview.

During the design process

First edition

Sending out cards to participants

Answer:
State to an organizer of an event that you’re willing to record and produce movies during that 5-day event and get the job.

Last week my municipality held an Open Innovation Festival in Enschede. It was held previously in Amsterdam and one person in particular thought it was such a good idea that she wanted to organize such a festival herself, for her local colleagues. And she pulled it off!

All speakers, both from the area and the rest of NL, gave a talk or a workshop for free. The theme was Social Media and Work 2.0 and thus filming there was the perfect job for me (and no, offering a full week’s work for free was a bit too much, I got paid).

It was highly energizing to engage with people locally on themes I’ve been engaged in globally. Even though I know lots and lots about Social Media, it’s still inspiring hearing others say the things I could have said in a different way, using different examples.

It was highly exhausting at the same time, since last week I’ve been amazingly productive:
- I’ve been working for 5 days in a row from 9:00 am – 0:00 pm, with 3/4 hours of intense editing just before sleep;
- I spent 29 hours filming (appr. 8 hours on tape);
- I spent 28 hours editing;
- I produced a daily clip for five days in a row;
- I produced two summarizing clips yesterday;
- I produced two summarizing clips today;
- I have at least 4 light-edit clips still on the list to upload this week.

I loved doing it, even though there were moments during the week when I felt like doing nothing at all. Such a beginning to edit on Monday night, not sure whether I could create something nice. Or Wednesday afternoon, feeling knackered already and knowing that I would have at least another 3 late nights in a row. And what to think of everyone stating on Friday afternoon, after the closing-session and (alcoholic) drinks, glad to be done, and I still had a movie to produce.

Yet, I did it, I’m still alive and still energized

Below is the first of all the movies I created. Take a look at the rest of them in the Festival Channel (I warn you though, it’s all in Dutch ).

This is serious from Elmine Wijnia on Vimeo.

I taped many things during Ton’s Unconference Birthday Party, but this shot ruled them all.

It’s a theme that we both discussed for a longer time now. We feel the deep need to work on projects that have a positive impact on society at large. At the same time we realize that the two of us can’t change the world and that we need to focus on the small steps we can take on things that are important to us.

For me, it’s an ongoing quest to discover what I’m passionate about, matters to me and, more importantly, matters to others as well so they’re willing to pay me for doing the work. One of the outcomes of my own birthday workshop in 2008, is that I rediscovered my passion for video. This is the video that I created back then:

Elmine’s Birthday Unconference from Elmine Wijnia on Vimeo.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve been developing my interviewing and editing skills and I even created a documentary on a topic that fascinates me.

So far my video work is mostly about my passion and working on things that matter to me: uncovering and showing people’s stories and stitching stories into a bigger narrative.

Now it’s time to turn it upside down and see how I can align what matters to me with what matters to you.

A Shift: a documentary on FabLab in The Netherlands. from Elmine Wijnia on Vimeo.

Also available on the FabLab-channel.

Bruno added the logo at the end.

The conference was great. The documentary looked awesome on a huge screen and my presentation went very well, even without time to practice the story beforehand
I will share my presentation full-text after I had the time to edit it for publishing. For now, here are the slides. Read the notes accompanying the slides on Slideshare:

So I have the privilege to spend some time at Josien’s place, a farm an hours drive from Lisbon. Worse things could have happened

Tube in Tube out.

Let me explain what I’m talking about. Together with Ton I was invited to join the Somesso/Headshift/Dachis Social Business Summit in London last Thursday. The program looked promising: only two speakers to kick-off the day, including the always inspiring JP Rangaswami), followed by a discussion amongst the participants. Participants were selected, so it could only be a great and knowledgeable crowd

(…) to plot the future of Social Business Design. (source)

I followed part of the online discussion around Social Business as a term and was intrigued. I thought the event in London would be a good opportunity to find out more about it and see if there is any relevance for me in this ‘trending topic’.

I would have loved to give you a content summary of the day with some insights from my side about social business, but it turned out to be a very confusing day.

I had a really hard time grasping what everyone was talking about. The language used was so abstract and often meaningless that I felt clueless what we were discussing. At first I thought it was just me, since I’m hardly dealing with large corporations these days, but others who were in the same discussions with me turned out to be just as clueless.

Although people were sharing stories throughout the day, to me it felt that there was no real exchange of ideas and insights. I saw few animated discussions. You won’t believe how many people were checking their phones even during small group discussions. Signs of an uninspired and uninvolved crowd.

Despite the lovely time I had visiting the Tate modern, drinking beer with Johnnie, dining with Paolo and Monica, ‘after-partying’ with the Danish guys, shopping and finally lunching with a friend that now lives there, the balance of this trip to London tips over to the negative side. It will make me seriously reconsider spending money on flights and hotel for any such event in the future.

Johnnie, I get your point more and more.

SHiFT 2010: DIY from Elmine Wijnia on Vimeo.