Just got back from my first Pop!Tech Conference in Camden, Maine. And still feel overwhelmed by what I encountered. The reason for the event is to explore how new ideas and new technologies can make a better future for all the citizens of Planet Earth. And while I’m not going to try to review all of the speakers, I might blog occasionally about those I thought were particularly powerful. Also, you can go here to check out what other bloggers are saying about the conference.
In a section of the conference called “Big Fixes” Cameron Sinclair, a Scottish architect spoke about Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit organization he founded that promotes architecture and design solutions to humanitarian crises around the world. Powerful speaker, and unlike a number of the speakers before him, he had really good slides. But we don’t have access to them. One thing I’m going to suggest is that speakers’ slides be made available to the audience. (Hey! That’s what we do here at tp.com, right?) The current project he spoke about is the Siyathemba Soccer Club project.
The challenge is to create the “perfect pitch,” a soccer field/outreach center for the youth of Somkhele, South Africa, who are three times more likely to become HIV positive than youth in other parts of the world. The field will be home to the area’s first girls’ football league.
Talk about passion. The way this guy talks about the projects they’re doing around the world makes you want to drop everything you’re doing to volunteer to work on one of these life-saving projects.