Google Reader gives me hours of entertainment and information. So what I’ve decided is to share with you each Friday (try to anyway) some cool things that I’ve come across. So here we go!
The first 2 come courtesy of Read Write Web. Want to look back on 2010? Google and Twitter take a look back on what happened this year.
Zeitgeist 2010: Year in Review
Twitter 2010: Year in Review There is still some content to come but either way, I’ll be interested in seeing how they fill in the circles! CLICK HERE to go to the site!
Finally, if you are a Twitter user, wouldn’t it be interesting to see where your followers are? Church Crunch posted a link to this site yesterday. Check it out here, plug in your Twitter ID and it will do the rest!
There you have it! What do you think? If you have any interesting things you came across, I’d love to hear about them too! Have a great weekend!
If you haven’t seen this yet, below is Kid Rock‘s performance on the American Music Awards from last night. Detroit pride was on display at the NOKIA theatre. I especially like the Made In Detroit backdrop when he finished!
I do not consider myself artistic at all so when my friend Mark Biebuyck invited a group of us to dinner last week, I was surprised to find out we would be making artwork with pastels as part of the evening. Those of us that were there had no idea how this was going to turn out. Some of the comments ranged from, “no way!” to “I can’t do this!” However, we all were willing to give it a shot to see what we could come up with.
After dinner, we started by finding a picture that would provide the inspiration for our “masterpiece”. Our teacher, Loren Siffring (lorensiffring@gmail.com), guided us through the process so we could begin. He has been doing this for almost 20 years and you could tell he had a talent and an ability to teach. Within the first hour, we each had the beginnings of something we all were going to proud of.
This continued for another 2 hours and as you can see from the picture above, my picture (on the right) was beginning to take shape. I actually couldn’t believe that I was creating this! After about another hour, my finished “masterpiece” was put in a frame and looked like this…
I walked you through all of this to share with you a couple of things. The first is a lesson we all were taught at an early age. Don’t be afraid to try new things. It can only provide you with a great learning opportunity and personal growth.
The second thing was a great reminder. Many of us are so busy and we try to do too many things at once. I know that is something I’m guilty of. When was the last time you sat down and focused in on a single task? Even as I write this blog post, I have Facebook open and the TV on. What I discovered when I was drawing, was that I only focused on that for 4 hours. No iPhone. No Facebook. No Twitter. Nothing except the easel that was in front of me.
My encouragement for all of you is to always look for learning opportunities that will challenge you. I also encourage you to be diligent in removing distractions that can prevent you from focusing on what really needs to get done. You’ll be surprised at how much you can actually accomplish!
Today’s post is all about Detroit. Actually, my last post was about Detroit too. Go figure. I guess Detroit has been on my mind a lot lately. Over the last few days, I’ve seen Eric Proulx‘s trailer float around the interwebs on Facebook and on Twitter. It’s an AMAZING piece that I hope becomes a reality. If you go to Lemonade Detroit, you’ll get an idea for the inspiration for the movie. What I’m looking forward to the most, is Eric bringing to life what is good in the city instead of what has traditionally been shown when people do stories about our city.
“Lemonade: Detroit” is a film about the disarming resilience of a city that can no longer rely on a single industry for its livelihood, and the entrepreneurial strengths of those who are reinventing themselves and their communities.
Instead of sensationalizing blight, “Lemonade, Detroit” will sensationalize hope, told through the intensely personal stories of those who are turning the city into what it will become.
Lemonade: Detroit Trailer on Vimeo
This message is very similar to what a group of people hope to accomplish with Future Midwest. You’ve read my thoughts on this local conference previously but they are worth a reminder. One person in particular who I believe exemplifies the fighting spirit of Detroit and Michigan is Dave Murray. I feature him today because (1) it’s Follow Friday and (2) today is his birthday! Two really good reasons if you ask me. I’ve gotten to know Dave over the summer and have really been inspired by his heart and his passion for this area. He does what he can to promote the city and looks for ways to recognize others for their efforts. I can’t imagine a better person to recommend to you today other than him. He sees that this region needs to redefine itself and ask the question, then what?
Happy Friday everyone! It’s hard to believe we are half way through 2010! Good thing for me, this time of the year usually signals a vacation and I’m so ready!
Anyway, in today’s post, I wanted to give you a quick update on something I talked about a couple of months ago, Detroit Reverse. If you recall, from August 2 – 6, 500 students and leaders from the City and Suburbs will converge on the campus of Wayne State University. They will stay in the dorms “with the goal of identifying destructive systems in our culture and building relationships that will fight against them.”
The vision for year one of Detroit Reverse is to build and grow relationships between 2 areas of southeast Michigan that have traditionally been at odds and made assumptions about one another. The long term vision hopes this can grow into multiple locations over the next 5 years and truly having an impact on the community and the region.
Imagine just how impactful this will be. 500 people united and passionate about something and driving change in a region desperate for it. Who knows, maybe this might have an impact on my Detroit Lions too!
Now how do you turn vision into action? Well you can certainly help. Sponsors are needed to help support our students financially. It costs $149 per student to experience Reverse. You can participate by donating online at the Detroit Reverse website. Please consider helping out this group students by investing in their future.
I can’t believe World Cup 2010 will soon be here. I came across this video from a friend of mine and thought I’d share it with you. If you love soccer, you’ll love this video. Have a great Friday!
Hey everyone! If you recall, last week Bryan Willmert (@bryanwillmert) and I kicked off our recaps of Future Midwest 2010. Well today, we’re here again to give you an opportunity to put into action the energy and emotion that you felt during that 2 day conference! Watch the video and please be thinking about how you can give back. We need volunteers, sponsors and help communicating this locally.
Thanks for taking the time and please let us know if you have any questions!
On April 16 and 17, I attended Future Midwest 2010 in Royal Oak, Michigan. This conference brought together some of the brightest minds in the digital and technology world for 2 days in Metro Detroit.
At a high level, the words “inspiring” and “motivating” capture the spirit of what this conference was all about. Below is the opening video that represents Future Midwest. It’s great to see the reaction of everyone as we watched this on Friday and again on Saturday. It still brings a chill…
Over the next few days, my good friend Bryan Willmert (@BryanWillmert) and myself will be recapping for you our experiences and thoughts of Future Midwest. We hope ours and the other blogs and stories that are written about it will give you hope that Detroit and the Midwest can be known as a hub of digital technology and innovation for years to come.
