Toronto Catastrophe Slam

This message was sent out via the Torcamp Google Group email list yesterday. If you work in a local public or academic library in particular, this may be of interest to you:

THE TORONTO CATASTROPHE SLAM
"a day of dialogue over Toronto disaster scenarios".
This event is part of Digifest 2008 ( http://www.dx.org/digifest/ )
ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE -Sunday, March 30, 2008

Be part of this unique day of dialogue and challenge for academics, students, professionals, not-for-profit and the public. The purpose of this event is to exchange knowledge and ideas with others on the topic of catastrophe, disaster and emergency. This is a rare multidisciplinary engagement that will include informative keynotes and participatory challenges that will be designed to examine scenarios including a Natural Disaster scenario, a Health Epidemic and
Security Crisis. For more info on the Catastrophe Slam check out http://digifest2008.wik.is/

WHAT IS A DESIGN SLAM
A Design Slam is where we have a fictitious group of stakeholders present a problem to groups of "consultants". We will form these groups randomly at the beginning of the event. These ingenious and innovative people will have a set block of time to design and pitch their idea to
the stakeholders.

We have 30 slots that we are opening up for free public registration to the Catastrophe Slam but I encourage you to check out the entire 3 day Digifest event for $25. You can register for digifest here: http://www.dx.org/digifest/register.html

BUT if you want to sign up for the Catastrophe Slam only head over to http://digifest2008.wik.is/

1. Create an Account on the Wiki.
2. Sign Up for the event on the signup page. No Charge

I hope that people who are interested in participating will let me know if they have any questions. It should be a really great day we have some great people coming out to this event and it is a unique space to play in.

Bryce Johnson
Director of User Experience Design, Navantis Inc.

This is being done in an "unconference" style where everyone who participates will help set the curriculum for the day. Sounds like an exciting way to tackle this topic, especially since disaster planning usually takes a backseat to our otherwise busy lives.

Are you planning on going? If so, let me know.