Thursday, March 24, 2011

Possibility Radar/What is Useless Garbage? Revisited

In 1997, I was teaching Microsoft Word to students in the first generation of RIT's ACMT.  This was post-war Dubrovnik, there was a bit of random garbage on the streets and in unkept yards.  I gave the assignment for students to bring in some "useless garbage" and write a short story of what this item was before.  This was simply to have something worthy of typing up in our word processors.  But this was so much more and the little ideas with big impacts have me recalling this exercise over a decade later.

In Zagreb, nowadays and I suppose in many other parts of the world it is spring cleaning time.  Many residents are identifying items hidden in closets, basements, attics and garages that do not serve their original purpose and are going unfulfilled in their destinies.  Many of these items are finding there way into the trashbins or with the overflow, more accurately near them.  The scavengers of all types have their possiblity radar (coin I think I termed to describe what I intended on spreading when it was my time to speak at TEDxZagreb 2010).  I count myself as one of these hunters.  Currently I am on the look out for chairs. 

My friend Kim Woods has this infectious idea to "pimp" (in the MTV sense of the word) the chairs and give them a second life as functional art.  We hope to create some artistic creations with a few of our friends in the near future.  I ran across this fab site call Green Muze which has lots of brilliant ideas of revisiting found objects and giving them a new purpose.  One chair artistic created this breath taking octopus chair which makes you just appreciate the humble octopus and the humble chair that much more.

Feel free to post about new uses for the generally overlooked items in your trash;)

Friday, March 11, 2011

Offline Action

Its amazing that I have not posted in months.  Shocking really as I am online multiple times a day.  This is due mostly to the fact that February and March have seen some major events transpire for me in the offline world. 

Firstly, I implemented some projects for the non profit where I preside as president this year, the International Womens Club Zagreb.  While it is presumptious to conclude that we are ladies who lunch, we are a pretty diverse group that span countries of origin and generations.  In February we held an event with UNICEF towards their efforts for safer schools with Medvescak Hockey team and also held our cultural event, our Brazilian Carnival Ball which raised awareness and funds for Vise od Stolice (More than a chair).  Then just this week, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day filling the Sheraton Zagreb's grand ballroom with over 150 people of which 90% were women.  The event centered around the theme of valuing women who work and how Croatia can address the issue of harnessing more the female talent in its pool of available resources that are underutilized.  I then launched ZENA100 blog to document women who inspire me and I dedicate it to my daughter, Josie so she envisions the impact she can have on the future, her own, her community and the world at large.

Then there is also the trip I took to participate in my dream conference, Ashoka U. Exchange at Duke University.  After following Ashoka and its efforts to develop social entrepreneurship around the globe since 2005, I certainly felt very validated to be invited to present at the conference with many of my esteemed colleagues from around the world.  It was a meaningful conference in the people I connected with and the creativity workshop I was able to share with highly engaging participants. Many of whom I hope to keep tabs on.

Future Entrepreneurs

Teaching in higher education in Croatia for almost 20 years, I have mostly been in the private sector.  But I am happy when learners re...