![]() ![]() Gordon's take on Raleigh: "It's missing its front porch." That's the place where, literally and figuratively, "people can have a conversation about life's experiences, and no one has an agenda." Raleigh's gotten to be too much about money and not enough about the things that really matter-talk, art, values. He has learned one thing in his 32 years in business: "Don't fall in love with the merchandise." In other words, "be creative, but it has to fall to the bottom line." The owner of Irregardless Café, he was once considered "alt-counterculture," but now jokes that he's the Establishment. The biggest problem? Its failure to recognize that when there's a war on, especially a shitty one, that's when you need art the most.ĪRTHUR GORDON. ![]() Thelen's got a lot of problems with Raleigh's leadership, so don't expect any bouquets. He'll talk about his favorite subject-"non-commerciality"-and his "business schematic" for Lump, which takes advantage of the city's affordability, but also faces up to the fact that Raleigh "is a tough town to make a living at art." He's co-founder and co-owner of Lump, the iconoclastic art gallery in downtown Raleigh. I thought: There is something here that does not meet the eye."Īmong the workshop speakers on Friday and Saturday, Sept. ![]() What surprised me in my research is that the university students, out-of-state or in-state, all want to stay here if they can find suitable jobs. "When I first arrived," she told the Spark Con gang, "I thought that this place was boring. "Creative thinking is about seeing what is there," Ping says, "not what is not there." (Shades of Shankle's opportunities.) She plans to talk about how creative thinking helped her navigate a lot of tough turns in her personal and business lives, and also about how she missed the Triangle's subtle creativity at first. magazine's "Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2004, and now she's opening a sales office in China, in addition to the offices Geomagic has in the UK and Japan. The company's so hot, Ping was named Inc. She grew up in China, was exiled to the United States, and started Geomagic in Research Triangle Park, where they're masters of the programming language DSSP. PING FU is the keynote speaker on opening night, Thursday, Sept. These conversations will happen amid a weekend-long program of music events, art shows, fashion shows, films and myriad other fun and creative chances to get the thinking gears meshing. Instead, there's a set of open-ended questions, some exercises to start folks thinking, and a facilitated process that calls on everybody to use their imagination, work together, and come up with the unexpected-and the exceptional. There's no preordained outcome, or even any imagined ones. So, in a nutshell, that's what Spark Con's meant to do. But they can "put the flexible framework in place that allows it to happen." They can't just summon creative thinking. That idea applies to companies, to regions and to conferences, she says. On the other hand, though, it's more likely to be switched on in an environment where it's invited, and is welcomed and engaged once it arrives. ![]() It doesn't follow a script, and you can't turn it on and off like a switch. It all does sound a bit abstract, Shankle agrees. "We do know that we want to have the courage to be adventurous."įour workshops are planned-on the arts, technology, inclusivity and independent business-with four different pairs of speakers, but in each case the subject is the same: What would make the region a better place for creative people? And what can I do that would add some "spark"? "The thing that's hard for people to understand about Spark Con is that we don't know exactly where we're going," says Shankle, a creativity consultant and member of DesignBox in Raleigh. It's about recognizing opportunities-opportunities to boost our region's creative flow, and presenting each conference-goer with opportunities to help uncover what those new creative chances might be. The answer, says Becky Shankle, one of the principle organizers, is that Spark Con is not about solving a problem. With Spark Con just a week away, here's a question: What problem is this inaugural conference (about "igniting the creative hub of the South") trying to solve? From left: Chris Eselgroth, Larry Cooper, Isaac Panzarella, Melissa Andron, Becky Shankle, Diane Reeves, Aly Khalifa, Beth Khalifa and Cheryl Gottschall Members of DesignBox, the organizers of Spark Con, a conference to be held next week in downtown Raleigh. ![]()
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