Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Neighbourhood Campuses update

We had the first of our pre-launch parties for the Neighbourhood Campuses on October 18. 

It was a special salon with socializing, food, fun, sharing of ideas and news of gestating the trillion-dollar holistic framework I developed for neighbourhoods over the years - starting at Yonge-Wellesley in downtown Toronto.  I presented a comparison of old-style business based on project management, and business that includes flow - Ecstatic Business Practices - or EBP.

Fellow originators of the Yonge-Wellesley campus, Miss Suzette and Ava Goodman gave us a taste of what a more creative and fulfilling neighbourhoods will be like. 
There were very soulful live musical numbers by the incomparable Ethelrida Zabala-Laxa of WISER International.

An enthusiastic, Norman Waite of the local neighbourhood association (Bay Cloverhill Community Association, or BCCA) welcomed everyone and shared some local news of breakthroughs regarding a local park on publicly-held land.  He promised to be our biggest fan and to promote awareness of the Neighbourhood Campus Norman also offered us a table at the neighbourhood's annual general meeting on November 14, 2012.  This event, held at the YMCA, will attract over 100 of our local movers-and-shakers.

A huge thank you to our gracious volunteers, Adam, Alfredo, Diane, Marie, and Paul for video, greeting, registration, dishes, food service, photography, clean-up.  You name it, and they were able to deliver.

Thank you to 6 St. Joseph House for providing the venue and refreshments.  Our other local business partners, Biryani House and Freshslice Pizza, received a rousing applause when we thanked them for the food. 

Outcomes:
We now have proposals for courses for children and adults, in computer assembly kits (Arduino,) and robotics, stop-motion animation for cinema, plus offers for sessions in creative writing, drawing and sculpture.

We announced offers by participants that evening who wanted to supply venues for upcoming courses free of charge.  In this way we can present the salon in new neighbourhoods - Yorkville-St Jamestown, and Lawrence-Dufferin

We have been referred to someone at the University of Toronto who may book us into additional venues for upcoming courses. 

And representatives from other neighbourhoods who attended are excited and will be getting back to us with opportunities in their areas.

We don't know how things could have gone any better, but we will try at our upcoming salons in November and December.