Nerd Jam TO.4 – Grand Slam Nerd Jam
October 20th; ARRIVE 6:00-6:30pm, JAMMING STARTS AT 7:00.
At the Centre for Social Innovation – Annex, 720 Bathurst, Ground floor
Bring food/drink to share – this is a potluck!

RSVP at http://grandslamnerdjam.eventbrite.com

Toronto Design Nerds are back!  Join us for our Grand Slam Nerd Jam, where we’ll jam on ideas for the first Toronto Design Nerds project!  Modeled after our big cousin in Vancouver, the Toronto Design Nerds is a network of all who are interested in design, community and collaboration who desire to engage in design thinking and collaborative projects with a spirit of exploration and creative play, and to re-imagine the typical day-to-day environment of their city.

To this Jam, bring ideas for *awesome* projects that will contribute to an awesomer Toronto (yes, we made up that word).  By the end of the night we’ll collaboratively select one idea to submit to the Toronto Awesome Foundation for their monthly $1,000 grant!  If we get it, we’ll use that money to make the project happen.

Here’s how you can participate:
a) Come jam, eat and drink with us! (required!)
b) Share an awesome project idea at the Jam (optional, but will earn you much nerd love)
c) Help finalize the Awesome application (optional, and yes, more nerd love)
d) Collaborate on the actual project when it rolls out (optional, do we have to mention the nerd love?)

All are welcome – come armed with a playful spirit, potluck food, and ideas if you have some kicking around…  Here are some guidelines for our project jam ideas:
1. must be awesome and fun!
2. must respect the environment (in execution at least, if not in spirit too!)
3. ideally be achievable with nerdy volunteers and a $1,000 budget

For inspiration, check out past projects supported and shortlisted by the Toronto Awesome Foundation:

Cardboard Fort Night Attack of the 50-foot Rob Ford

Random Swings of Joy (by the TO Awesome Foundation itself)

And lots of other awesome shortlisted ideas!

And take a look at some Vancouver Design Nerd projects.

Remember, the Toronto Awesome Foundation’s motto is: “$1,000. In cash. In a paper bag. To do something awesome. … That’s it.”

Please RSVP at http://grandslamnerdjam.eventbrite.com

Facebook event page

toronto.designnerds.org
facebook.com/TOdesignnerds

Nerd Jam TO.3

Friday, Nov. 12th, 7pm @ the Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina – 4th floor, Toronto. Bring potluck food, beverage, ideas, (design) nerds

Can we design a way to get plastics out of our oceans?

Come jam with the Toronto Design Nerds and Duane Elverum of Emily Carr University to try to do what virtually every expert on earth has said is impossible. Duane will talk about his research on the Pacific Ocean Gyre and the myths vs. realities of ocean plastic, and then together we’ll jam!

Have a crazy idea? A practical idea? A whole new viewpoint? Bring it with you! Duane’s blog has more info on his research if you want to start thinking about it now… http://tiny.cc/7sozo

Please RSVP at http://nerdjamto3.eventbrite.com

event facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toronto-Design-Nerds/108979602471287?v=photos&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=156600914379622

The Nerds are back!

Come to the second Toronto Design Nerd Jam and play, muse, sketch and flex your design muscles with designers and non-designers to generate downright awesome ideas for the Centre for Social Innovation‘s new building. Here’s the very complicated agenda: Arrive. Meet. Eat. Drink. Jam.

The format of the evening will depend on how many people come (please RSVP!). If there’s a good-size crowd, we’re thinking rotating breakout groups in three areas: technical, community and far-out crazy awesome/fun. But no matter how it’s organized, there will always be great people, food/drink, and ideas ranging from the practical to the crazy. All are welcome – you don’t have to be a “designer” to nerdjam!

Friday, April 9th, 2010
7:00 – 10:30 pm @ Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave, Toronto – 4th floor
Bring: your own drinks, some potluck food or nibbles, and a collaborative spirit

Please RSVP at nerdjamto2.eventbrite.com

The format of the evening will be somewhat dependent on how many people come. But no matter how it’s organized, there will always be: cool people, potluck food, byo drinks, and ideas and projects to talk about. Think

Here’s what we’re thinking of for the evening…

People arrive and meet, eat and drink. We introduce Dummy, by the artist Ulysses Castellanos. Uber Nerd Eesmyal tells us about the Vancouver Design Nerds. Then we get into the Jam, where people with ideas and projects get a chance to pitch them to the group in two minutes or less, and collectively we’ll select a couple to jam on. We’ll organize the Jam portion of the evening depending on the number of people – we may jam as one group, we may break out into smaller groups, or if there’s really a lot of people then we may focus more on the pitching stage to help develop future, more focused Jams.

If you have an idea or project that you’d like to Jam on, please add it to the Proposals page on the wiki site beforehand – there’s no pressure, all you have to do is pitch it at the beginning of the Jam and then sit back and participate! Ideas and projects can be almost anything – we just ask that there’s no marketing pitches. For inspiration, take a look at the idea Eesmyal added called Tweenbot Mods! There will be a laptop and projector if you’d like to add some visuals to your pitch.

Friday, April 9th, 2010
7:00 – 10:30 pm @ Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave, Toronto – 4th floor
Bring: your own drinks, some potluck food or nibbles, and a collaborative spirit

– PLEASE RSVP: via our Facebook event page, or email toronto [at] designnerds.ca to RSVP directly —