It has been just over a week since IDEAS Festival started (the first event/program that I attended was Pitch Club followed by Pecha Kucha) and I must say that Brisbane needs more festivals like this.  Engagement with the community in a creative and intellectual way.

I attended the following:

Masterclass: Creative Opportunities for Social Enterprise - Introducing social entrepreneurship and successful examples of it in action (such as Movember) - Director of The Space Kenmore discussing about her story including her work as a music therapist and how The Space was started as a community endeavour for the disabled community in Brisbane

Tech Fixes for Climate Change - Nuclear power discussed and initiated by Ziggy (former Telstra chief) - Tech alternatives in the future (for QLD in particular) - One panellist stating that there is no tech alternative that will be the 'be all, end all' solution but rather looking at a combination of varying options and encouraging better usage patterns - Queensland energy consumption to  multiply (as is the case, yes) so how will we tackle this?

Creative Entrepreneurship - The Artists in Commerce (I snuck in after 'Tech Fixes' and only arrived during Q&A's) - Someone overcoming her business coach telling her that she will 'never be a businesswoman'...and she is now! - A passionate photographer doing as much as she can in order to make her passion work - Discussion of the life-work balance (as is the case for entrepreneurs...I once asked Chris from Vein about this at a launch night and he said 'It's a lifestyle..!'). - Do you start your entrepreneurship ventures when you have nothing or everything to lose? I think that was a question from the audience

We Are What We Share - Creative Commons Australia folks introducing CC entries that were a part of the social media project by ABC Radio National, ABC Pool. - A disappointed respondent left in the middle of the program when he expressed concerns that digital art (ie CC digital art) is going to be a threat to traditional art such as oils.  Which is an entirely different discussion - There was a piece which I liked (conceptually rather than on a visual/technical level) where an entrant used CC recordings to create a video interpretation of that - There was an audience member who was inspired by one of the photographs to create a story

John Hartley on Digital Literacy for Fun & Profit - I am very impressed with the presenter's knowledge and expertise, John Hartley, who's name is fairly established around the QUT Creative Industries circles and beyond - Digital storytelling is a form of co-creative media.  One of the speakers run workshops on digital storytelling (ie how to create one). - Hartley creating a good point about Generation Y use of social media to form networks, establish/create/explore/form identities (don't you remember being 16..), generate ideas and products, etc - One of the speakers focused on YouTube for the project.  Interesting about how YouTube has organically created a brand that is entirely community driven.

Creative Collaborations - Ideas That Matter We were split up into groups according to what issues that we are interested in (ie 'Design and Development', 'Ethics and Advocacy', 'Invention and Innovation', 'Self and Society', 'Green') and for 45 minutes, discuss within our groups as to what these issues mean to us, identify a problem and then present a solution.  I was part of the 'Design and Development' group and we ended up doing a presentation as to how the constant cycles of collaboration, creativity and construction leads to different products and outcomes.   Being the most creative group we ...erm...ended up writing/table on our table and on the floors of SLQ and got sidetracked with a discussion about Twitter. For a bit of media follow-up, check out this page

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