Social Tech Brewing Co.

If you work at the intersection of technology and community-building, we hope you'll join us for a May 4th gathering of Social Tech Brewing's Vancouver chapter. Social Tech Brewing brings together folks from nonprofit organizations, community service, social activism, social ventures and technology to share ideas -- and beer!

Our May 4th event will look forward to the June meeting of the UN's World Urban Forum (WUF) here in Vancouver. WUF will bring a remarkable range of government leaders, community development workers and urban activists to Vancouver to talk about the future of sustainable cities. And the lead-up to WUF has already featured one of the Net's most ambitious online dialogue efforts to date, the Habitat Jam.

The STB meeting on May 4th will feature a short panel and Q&A session to illuminate some of the innovative technology projects that are happneing around the WUF meeting. We'll hear from Gayle Moss, the Director of International Marketing for Habitat Jam, about what was learned from the Jam experiment. And we'll also hear from one of the folks at the Global Urban Sustainable Solutions Exchange, a Vancouver-based information and social networking resource that will launch at the WUF in June.

Social Tech Brewing Co.'s planning team is delighted to bring you this event on April 6th, 5:30PM, at the Centre for Social Innovation. Put the date in your calendar, RSVP (link at the end of this e-mail), and forward it on to a friend -- or, better yet, your local municipal candidate.

MUNICIPAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS 2.0
It's been over two years since the race that brought David Miller to Toronto's Office of the Mayor. A lot has changed since 2003 - new technologies have exploded into our consciousness - and this year's race is guaranteed to look very different.

A SOCIAL TECH MASHUP
For our April event, we're going to create our very own "mashup," by bringing together experienced online campaigners, socially progressive techies, and this year's candidates - from incumbents to new entrants - who are already hard at work preparing for the November 13, 2006 Toronto municipal election.

MAPPING TO BLOGGING AND BACK AGAIN
Election blogging, city bloggers, voter mapping, online event organizing, and location-specific content delivery - what do they mean for Toronto's next municipal election? That's what you'll find out. Candidates and their campaign teams will be introduced to new ideas, new technology, and potential supporters. If you're a techie that's been yearning to get involved in your community at the local level: this is your chance to find out how.

Dear friends of Social Tech Brewing,

After a few months off, I'm happy to share with you that we will be back to meeting regularly in 2006. We've been working hard behind the scenes to re-tool the Social Tech Brewing series to be more dynamic than ever before, and we've partnered with some great people to make that possible.

Gatherings will begin on February 2nd - the first Thursday in February - and continue every *other* month until the end of the year. So please join us for our 2006 launch event on February 2nd, 6:30PM, at the Centre for Social Innovation to find out more about what we have in store for 2006. February's theme is presented below and the location details, directions, map, and an RSVP form can be found here.

Both the recent event on "Drupal Dialogs and Drafts" (which has catalized a Toronto Drupal Users Group) and July's "Cool Tools" session brought out more technical folks. However, as always, we managed to keep it light and fun and easy-to-access.

In usual last-minute fashion, I’d like to announce the occurrence of a July 7th Social Tech Brewing gathering. After a brief hiatus in June to enjoy the first appearance of summer, we’re back and ready to resume pro-social activities of all sorts!

This month, as an Ode to the Interweb, the gathering will feature a distributed and spontaneous discussion of “cool tools” that deserve your attention – from free and open-source PBXs and voice-over-IP phones to Web services and Wacom tablets – you’re sure to learn about at least one new thing (or site, or something!).

I’ve asked a few folks to kick off the evening with short (bring the gong) monologues about their favourite new-new thing. And, as usual, the floor will be open for you to share your favourites too.

THEN … AT 7PM SHARP … WE’LL HEAD DOWN THE STREET TO THE ABOVE THE CLOUDS LAUNCH PARTY (http://abovetheclouds.tv)

Above the Clouds is an innovative, e-mail delivered, alternative travel show that explores concepts of transcendence through a series of Canadian interactive shorts. The producer, Mark Greenspan, is a friend of Social Tech Brewing and has invited us out for the launch.

More details are available (and please RSVP) at Upcoming.org.

On May 5th, the Social Tech Brewing Co. regulars got together for some libation and cheer at the Embassy in Kensigton Market. It was a chance to catch up on the "social," and go light on the "tech."

About 30 people came out, including new faces from Bryght and Enboard.com.

Maybe somebody took photos!?