[Air-l] [AOIR 8.0] Vancouver Conference Update #3 (June 8, 2007) - Part 2

[Richard Smith]

{part 2 of the rejected IR8 update}

Items in this part:

   - program update
   - being carbon neutral
   - reusing badges

Program

This is NOT the detailed program with the crucial element that everyone is
waiting for: "when do I present MY paper?" You're going to have to wait a
bit for that. Mia is working as hard as she can and is trying line things up
into themes and so on. As you can imagine, this is a tricky business. Anyone
interested in helping her should pipe up. Everyone else could take a look at
the draft program<http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=oudk1o6evtrviddgmqanmjgfes%2540group.calendar.google.com&title=AoIR%25208.0%2520Vancouver%2520-%2520Let%27s%2520Play%21&epr=9&wkst=2&height=614&dates=20071001%252F20071101&mode=MONTH>.
That's a google calendar "embed" and you can subscribe to it in your own
calendar system, I think.


Carbon neutral

Yes, we have looked into it and it IS possible: you can arrive in Vancouver
with a clear conscience. Or a clear conscience about your environmental
impact, at least. There may be a link on the registration site where you can
donate money to a good cause (planting trees, typically) and arrive
relieved. And we all think better when our consciences are clear, right?

If you haven't heard about this before, here's a story about it from Canada:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2006/09/12/carbon-farming.html

And if you want to start early: check out this story on wikipedia about
personal carbon trading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_carbon_trading



Re-Use (of Badges)

Even better than reduce and recycle, we can re-use things. And what better
thing to re-use at a conference than the badge holders? Those little plastic
things on strings that accumulate in your closet and behind your office door
and in a drawer of your desk. You know - I bet you have about a dozen of
them somewhere, don't you? Well, the call is out - send them to me and I
will use them at our conference. And you can feel even better about yourself
(what with the carbon neutral donation and the reused badges, you're going
to be getting quite full of yourself now, aren't you?).

Here is what you do: grab as many as you can find, put them in an envelope,
post them to me. Here is the address:

    Richard Smith
    SFU/CPROST
    515 West Hastings Street
    Vancouver, BC  V6B 5K3
    CANADA

I already have about 50 of them (in just two envelopes, plus my own
collection), so we are about 20 per cent there. Come on people, get behind
it! At the very least, show up at registration with a badge hold already
around your neck. Everyone who does that gets a kiss from me. Well, maybe
not a kiss, but something nice.

-- 
Richard Smith, Associate Professor School of Communication
Simon Fraser University, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, CANADA V6B 5K3
Phone: 604 291 5116 Web: http://www.sfu.ca/~smith/
09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0
New book!: http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/smith/mawc