Always Did Like Bil Better...
As you may have heard the TED Conference was all the rage last week in Long Beach, and I'll admit having a whole bunch of mucky mucks in town and hopefully spending a bunch of money in local businesses is cool, but... I always liked Bil better then TED.I'm actually not talking about the classic Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure, but the BIL conference and the TED conference. In the movie Bill and TED travel together through time in a journey of self exploration and discovery, well sort of. The Story of the BIL Conference and the TED conference is a similar story in the sense that they do travel together and are about discovery and exploration, and both feature some "Most Excellent Dudes" (sorry I had to sneak that in there)! Just like the fictional Bill and Ted though the two conferences do have some pretty stark differences. At TED you'll find strict security and a very private and locked down venue. TED is VERY exclusive, you can only go if you've been invited and tickets start at $1,500.00 each, and TED talkers include the likes of Bill Gates, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton. BIL is completely open, free to the public, and anyone can give a talk.
There was definitely a buzz in the air at BIl, even late in the day on Sunday, a free flowing and organically organized event, there is actually no one person "in charge". Volunteers man registration tables and "talkers" sign themselves up for presentation times with topics ranging from "The Art Of Conference Crashing" to "Measuring Consciousness of Simple Neural Systems", yeeeaaahhh, I sat in on a particularly interesting talk about Democratic Social Project Management.
These are definitely big thinkers, and innovators, but the really great thing about BIL is the amount of socially conscious work being discussed. The two projects shown below are first, an awesome project called EDAR, www.edar.org, and helps homeless people get temporary roofs over their heads. The second is called KnitWits for Social Change, they only ask that you knit a small square of a to be added to a blanket which will then be given to the homeless as well. With the temp dropping this week we should all be thinking about how we can help out those stuck out in the cold...
If you missed the conference this year it is planned to be back next year and the organizors promise to keep us at 562citylife.com informed, so stay tuned and plan to attend, it will truly raise your level of social consciousness!
Comment
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Comment by Ed Wode on February 17, 2009 at 10:44am -
I was at the after party longer than I was at the conference. Actually, I was at both about 3 hours and both were fun. I met the blow job speech lady at the party when I helped her out the door with a heavy box of leftover BIL T shirts she was giving away. I got a T shirt out of it and two hugs. She was buzzed, but I was too stupid to take advantage of it. She was a good looking redhead if you didn't see her demonstration speech. I was the one who suggested the Yankee Doodle party venue to Todd who was looking for a large place to go. We showed up with over a hundred people. Kari was the first there and when she told the barmaid we were coming with a hundred people, the b asked whether we had reservations, because they had almost no help. It turned out fine though; everybody was happy that I spoke to. Even the food came fast. The food was surprisingly good in spite of the greasy spoon and pool hall look of the place. Best french fries and pastrami sandwich I've had in S. Ca. Fries, freak out fine seasoned as I have never tasted before. Can't stop eating them. I was sitting next to the well known Aubrey De Grey of Methuselah Foundation fame and he couldn't have been happier. He, as well as may others ordered Pizza which looked excellent It probably took about two hundred years off his life. Very nice guy though.
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Comment by The Man on February 16, 2009 at 9:02pm -
Yo this is a tight event. When is the next one? What was the most interesting talk??
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Comment by JulsnMatt1028 on February 10, 2009 at 1:45pm -
:) Matt's to shy to post it! hahaha
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Comment by ThePrimeSpot.com on February 10, 2009 at 12:27pm -
Cool! I hope they have BIL at csulb next year. Those Edar rollable tents could be put to good use, saving crew hotel expense, ha!
ThePrimeSpot.com broadcasted LIVE from BilConference.com via www.stickam.com/theprimespotcom The show was cohosted by Mr. Joseph Jackson who talked about Life Extension, the mob, the porno industry. Quite interesting!
PS Where is the pic I took of Matt and Todd Huffman the founder, er, one of the crew of BIL who actually had a column in the Student Union nedwspaper called "Sex at the Beach" before its title wound up on a kbeach radio show... Learn more about Todd via his interview on www.youtube.com/ThePrimeSpotcom and also by reading the Union - there's a interview of Todd under "TED and BIL's Excellent Conventions!"
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Comment by Rosi on February 10, 2009 at 11:29am -
WOW, i have never heard of this, thank you for posting this info, i will be looking for it next year.
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