SOS - Shindig On Society (co-written with Derek Alton)

Shindig on Society (S.O.S)

This is how we play!

There is a growing movement of people re-imaging and re-building society in Canada and around the world.  This movement is embodied in places like CSI and MaRS and in communities like Studio Y, Ashoka and SiG.

These are people moving in the same direction and playing with similar ideas but without common ground to play on.

We aim to change that.

The Shindig on Society (SOS) will bring this emergent community together in a playscape that is the Internet made physical.  This space will be in the real world everything the Internet is online – a place to explore, try, hack, dismantle and recreate (possibly on the site of an abandoned town or facility).

SOS is not a conference, nor an un-conference; there is no agenda.  Instead, SOS is a festival of the possible, a playground for change-makers to explore, consider and build:

1. Relationships - building, renewing and deepening authentic relationships
2. Ideas - hearing, sharing, developing, challenging and reimagining each other ideas
3. Tomorrow - visioning/dreaming of possible futures

The following core values will provide form to the SOS experience:

• Collaboration and Co-creation
• Acceptance
• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Inclusivity

Let’s do this in 2017 to build off the energy and the zeitgeist of Canada’s 150th birthday, but also to envision our legacy - what we want our country to look like by our bicentennial and what will have to happen over the next 50 years to get us there.

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In 2067 Canada will be 200 years young; the 52 years that separate today from that bicentennial will be defined by our generation.  Let’s create a festival that brings together people from across Canada to celebrate the country we are creating, the societies we are becoming and the communities that are emerging.  

This festival is a chance for people to mix with other like minded individuals, to share ideas, cross-pollinate, discuss issues, dream and build together.  It gives permission for the growing movement to get to know itself, and for the individual members to start to feel part of something greater than the sum of its parts.  Let’s do this every year, creating an expanding space across geography and time that  allows ideas and people to reconnect, build and grow.