ChangeCamp coming to Vancouver?

ChangeCampLast year I was one of the co-organizers of BarCampBankBC, an un-conference devoted to innovation in the financial services industry. BarCampBank has occurred several times around the world, and, as one of the attendees Morriss Partee recently blogged, each one takes on a local element. Morriss said that BarCampBankBC specifically “had a worthy-cause and social media flavor”.

After BarCampBankBC was over, Jeremy Osborn, a friend and sometimes commenter on this blog, mentioned to me that he would like to see the same un-conference, collaborative style applied to topics of sustainability and social change. Sounded like a very good and extremely worthwhile endevour.

I am lucky to work at a financial institution focused on these issues. Not many FIs aim at this space, but it exactly the intersection of where the money is and the changes we need to make in our society that makes Vancity such an amazing anomaly.

In a questionnaire, I recently (and somewhat inarticulately) told one of my favourite conferences, Net.Finance, in answer to their question “In a volatile economy like we have today, what does it really mean to be innovative?”:

As FIs in today’s economy the greatest innovations we can achieve are those that bring us closer to our customers. Anything that helps us better understand their needs and help them understand and manage their finances so as many people as possible can get through this period with their assets intact. Those are the innovations our customers will remember us for, how we treated them when everything was down. That’s how we build loyalty for the long term.

Recently, I found out that a BarCamp devoted to social change may, in fact, be happening.

In Toronto, people are planning something called ChangeCamp. This is how the organizers describe it:

ChangeCamp is a free participatory web-enabled face-to-face event that brings together citizens, technologists, designers, academics, policy wonks, political players, change-makers and government employees to answer one question:
How do we re-imagine government and citizenship in the age of participation?

Very intriguing. If you live in Toronto, check it out.

And now I learn that there is a spinoff group of ChangeCamp starting right here in Vancouver, calling their event VanChangeCamp. I’m paying close attention. Looks like it is currently being aimed to happen on March 28th, 2009.

I’ll post more as I learn more, but it should be an event worth watching…

Three years of Resolutions about change.

Viva la resolution!It started in 2006, the year we launched ChangeEverything.ca.

We began what would become an annual tradition: our Viva la resolution! contest where anyone could come to the site, name the change they want to make about themselves, the community or the world and blog about that change at least three times.

The winners would be selected partly by user selection and partly by the moderator, Kate. The three top choices would receive a Vancity Visa Gift Card worth either $1,000, $500 or $250.

It has generated some great content for the site over the years, including the truly amazing EnviroWoman and her pledge to live plastic-free.

So this year, we’re doing it again! If there’s a change you’re interested in making, come to this site by February 28th and dig in!

A month ’til BarCampBankBC.

BarCampBankBC registrationI’m starting to get really excited about BarCampBankBC, which is happening the weekend of September 20th here in beautiful Vancouver, BC. It should prove to be an amazing coming-together of some great minds in the world of banking, credit unions, social media, technology, innovation and social responsibility.

With just a month to go, we have 62 people who have signed up on the wiki, but only 30 who have registered and paid. Now 30 is still a pretty decent number, but…

…if you’re thinking of coming to BarCampBankBC, please take a minute to register now!

It’ll make the lives of the three organizers, me, Gene and Tim, a little easier.

Thanks, and see you there!

PS: I’m about to go to Alaska on a cruise with Amy and Ivan (my wife and son), so if I don’t publish comments quickly or at all, please forgive me!

PPS: It’s almost exactly a year since the first North American BarCampBank in Seattle, where so many great relationships and conversations started. A great milestone!