Pecha Kucha.

Here I am waiting at an intersection on my way to Pecha Kucha with Don. In a nutshell, people put on different presentations featuring 20 slides for 20 seconds. The goal is to educate, share, stimulate, and inspire. It's organized and pulled of by our city's Next Gen group.





What an interesting room of people! I've never gone to the previous ones because they were on nights I was working so it was great to finally attend. Generally speaking, all the presenters seem to have the common goal of wanting to help make Edmonton a better city. There was one guy who talked about buying and eating local, two guys from an architecture firm talking about how the city's building rules are not conducive to green building, and another girl talking about in vitro meat production (beef, not babies). I had no idea that eating meat was nearly as environmentally wasteful as it is... feeling very guilty right now.

Other presenters included my friend, Dave Cournoyer, speaking on a new movement of civic engagement on a grassroots level.






And another friend, Michael Janz, talked about community leagues and how to engage in one's community as an active member. So cute! Speaking of which, Don and I are proud members of our super action oriented community league! I'm not on the exec yet, but maybe once I get my thesis done.






All in all it was a great evening if only to go to something where there are a bunch of people who aren't necessarily in undergrad and who aren't super middled-aged either. The demographic was very much to my liking because it was people who are living and working in Edmonton, with the belief that we can do better. Better communities. Better social programs. Better buildings and planning. It's heartwarming to know there is at least a small segment of young professionals who feel as though it's worthwhile to take the time to discuss these things. Don and I are very much interested in our city fulfilling some of its potential. It's why he ran for council. It's why I blog about my bike riding. It's why we stayed and had a Dexter!

Here's Leanne and I discussing seating with friends. I wore my MJ dress. You can't see any of the details in the shot, but it's very cool. Drop waist and sort of deconstructed on the neckline. I'll wear it again soon and take better pictures of it.






And now paying more attention to the camera.






The team, waiting for the show to start.






Don bringing greets from the city.