MY URBAN KVETCH

Appetite for Disruption: Drinks and Ideas to "Ignite" at LimmudLA

A few years ago, the ROI Community and LimmudLA teamed up to present "Friends of Innovation," a casual get-together for people to meet and network over drinks, and also to schmooze about Jewish life, culture, tradition and innovation (2010 video here).

Then in 2011, Jumpstart and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles joined ROI and LimmudLA as sponsors of the event, which by then was named "Cocktails for Innovators" (2011 video here).

But 2012 demanded something that was evocative of the warmth and feel of the original, but with a little bit of disruption to challenge the way we think about living and being Jewish in this richly innovative and creative time.

This year's event, "Appetite for Disruption: Cocktails for Innovators" (yes, it's an homage to a Guns and Roses album), features four "Ignite-style" presentations - timed slideshows by creative folks, designed to get LimmudLA's participants thinking and laughing about things they may never have thought of before.

Presentations by:

• Laura Silver - "Profiles in Knishitude"
• Tera DJ Nova Jade Greene - "Black + Jewish: Isn't Everything (An ode to beats, blessings and birthrights)..."
• Will Deutsch -"WHY ARTISTS MAKE ART, OR, WILL-DEUTSCH'S-STUNNINGLY-ACCURATE-THOUGH-IN-NO-WAY-PROVABLE-THEORY-THAT-IS-BASED-SOLELY-ON-HIS-OWN-EXPERIENCES-AS-A-CREATIVE-PERSON-AND-OBSERVATIONS-OF-OTHER-CREATIVE-PEOPLE-AS-TO-WHY-IT-IS-THAT-CREATIVE-PEOPLE-CREATE-THINGS"
• Avram Mandell - "The Measure of a Man - A History of Manliness in Judaism"

If you're going to the conference, please join us for disruption and drinks, done like only ROI Community, Jumpstart and LimmudLA can. Got questions? Email: esther@roicommunity.com

Event info:

Saturday 9:00 PM–11:45 PM Fountain Terrace

Joshua Avedon, Will Deutsch, Tera "Nova Jade* Greene, Esther Kustanowitz, Avram Mandell, Elai Shine, Laura Silver

Delightful. Diverse. Disruptive. This tribute to Jewish creativity, tradition and innovation features free-form schmoozing and fast-paced, entertaining multimedia presentations where connectors, innovators, educators, tech experts, creative thinkers, funders, media moguls, and enthusiastic consumers of Jewish content can all mingle. First 50 attendees get a free drink -- cash bar thereafter, snacks available throughout, courtesy of Jumpstart and the ROI community. Let the drinks, conversations and ideas flow! DJ beats provided by Bad/Wolf.

 

Chapter 213: In Which I Am Named a Jewish Influencer

Dear readers...the rumors are true. I was one of ten Jewish social media influencers named to the inaugural list sponsored by Jewish Tweets, a program of the National Jewish Outreach Project.

I'm told the competition was fierce and deliberation among the judges continued for so long that we were unfortunately forced to cut the swimsuit competition. (It's a shame, too: we had all been involved in extensive pre-awards training: limiting ourselves to only 1200 rugelach calories a day, and being cautious not to eat or drink for at least an hour before putting on our swimsuits.) 

I'm honored to share company with the other members of the top ten, all of whom are prominent in the Jewish social media world, and who will also experience the benefits of being named to such a list, which include but are not limited to:

• A $2 million pay bump per motion picture
• A company car courtesy of the Jewish people, Better Place and the Jewish people's new BFF Oprah
• The Spice & Spirit Cookbook
• A tree planted in Israel in their honor
• A Bibi Netanyahu bobblehead doll
• A photograph with - and retweeted by - @daroff (donated by @daroff)
• A day pass to Yeshivat Hadar
• Roles as extras in the next Maccabeats video
• Performance slots at the upcoming Jewlicious Festival
• A date with George Clooney (single L.A.-based females only)
• And other prizes including a copy of "Startup Nation" and collector's set of Birthright t-shirts

My acceptance speech video will be forthcoming (spoiler alert: I don't thank Jesus).

Thanks to everyone at NJOP and Jewish Tweets who had a hand in this decision - I will aspire to influence you all for good this year. I'll start now:

"Those aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along." 

Here's to us all - top ten and beyond - using our powers of influence for good: to bring comfort, intellectual stimulation, laughter, joy and unity to people everywhere. May it always be our privilege.

"Get Rid of the Audience Illusion": Clay Shirky on NetWORKS Webinar

(I know my blogging pace has been erratic, but that doesn't mean that my brain is empty - on the contrary, there's lots going on, being processed and hopefully eventually churned into a product. But I will try to post here more often. Thanks for staying tuned. :))

Last week, I joined a webinar with the amazing Clay Shirky. If you haven’t heard of him, you should, because he’s one of those intelligent, comprehensible voices who is able to explain and contextualize internet trends better than most people I’ve heard speak. He's the author of  Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008) and Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (2010). More recently, he authored an interesting piece about women’s and men’s different self-promotional styles, and also gave a talk at TED HQ about the PIPA and SOPA amendments. (I also understand he knows my Blogmama, Deb Schultz, one of the three hosts of the famous Tummelvision podcast. Yes, I will play Jewish geography even in my blog posts.)

The webinar (now available online with an intro from Seth Cohen and embedded below) was sponsored by a conference I attended after the GA in November, called NetWORKS – convened by the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation to bring together people who represent major networks, Jewish innovation projects and who are able to mobilize social capital. (More of my notes about this webinar - including a note about an interesting crowdsourcing project involving the Knesset - are available after the jump, which is after the video. If the video embed does not appear below, click this link.)