Jason just did the recap on the Pop Up Weekend on the Hub blog so won’t say too much more except  - wow, after all of that hard work – now the real work begins! Haha.

And that’s the difference between planning the one-off events and building a company.  One of the many reasons we’ve heard the Hub is much needed in this city is that there are way too many ‘one-off’ events – where they ‘pop up’ and then disappear for another few months.  Our “pop-up” is leading us to our ‘launch’ in February.

Within the Founding Team we’ve been talking a lot about moving from Founding to Operating – and that’s one giant step. What’s my job moving forward? Well, happy to say that I’ll be managing a lot of the programming (along with the awesome Hub team and Hub volunteers).  My job this week is to take that awesome post-it note wall “A Day/Week/Month/Year in the Hub” and turn it into something tangible. What events will we be hosting for members? For  the public? What kind of events are our members wanting to host in the Hub? How does that work with hours etc.? My brain is buzzing with ideas – will be focusing on that this week. Stay tuned:)

The Hub Programming Wall

So much going on in this city I simply can’t keep up. With Hub Ottawa on a roll (very cool TEDxOttawa Creative Actions Mixer we  put on last week), Fashion On Display, Oktoberfest etc…. It’s a crazy place to be!

Yesterday I, along with 700 other daring Ottawans attended  Harvest Noir, our city’s first ever flash mob black-tie picnic at the Museum of Civilisation. It started at 4pm and to be honest,  I only found out the time and location at 3pm!

Harvest Noir - flash mob picnic on Saturday at Museum of Civilisation

But what a sight! Ladies and gentlemen dressed to the nines with elegant nineteenth century black gowns, top hats, black parsols  sitting at beautiful fall decorated tables with mouthwatering locally harvested meals (and I’m talking gourmet meals… one table had roasted legs of lamb). As one party-goer told the Citizen

“It’s absolutely unique in that everybody embraced it 100-per-cent without knowing details in advance, and that’s very not-Ottawa.”

Agreed. More proof that Ottawa is changing for the better.

Harvest Noir & Hub Ottawa

First up, the Hub can’t take any credit for this awesome event…but the organizer, Greg Searle will be one of our Hub 60 Members when we open our doors:)  Greg and I met at the Manx about a month ago and had a fantastic chat about the Hub, Art of Hosting, sustainability consulting, Harvest Noir etc.  As it turns out, we run in the same global circle and share a lot of contacts doing fabulously interesting things around the world.

So what’s the connection with the Hub? The idea for this event was sparked when Greg and his partner happened upon a similar type of event in Montreal, which was originally started in Paris 23 years ago. A very creative, socially innovative idea happens in one part of the world and spreads across to other cities. And that’s the magic of the Hub. Our mission is:

To catalyze and support socially driven ideas, initiatives, and ventures for a better city, better world.

We’re connected with over 30 other Hubs around the world, with 5000+ changemakers like Greg Searle  - and poof! good ideas are transported:)

The spark of social innovation! (Okay, sorry that's uber corny....)

Can’t wait for next year’s Harvest Noir. I’m already thinking of hats:)

My friend Amy Husser and I at the party inside the museum - spectacular!

Just spent the day at Beau’s Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill raising over $3000 for Rethink Breast Cancer with my good friends Malorie Bertrand and Maureen Dickson, my Unshaven Mavens.

Unshaven Mavens is the brain child of Malorie Bertrand and Amie Beausoleil. Inspired by Movember and Mustaches for Kids, Unshaven Mavens’ light-hearted approach to breast cancer awareness hopes to create a lasting and memorable legacy that its participants and sponsors can be proud of.

Unshaven Mavens will grow their underarm hair for the entire month of October, all the while raising funds for Rethink Breast Cancer, a Canadian breast cancer charity that brings bold, relevant awareness to the under-40 crowd. Unshaven Mavens will zero in on the armpit because early breast cancer symptoms can be detected in the underarm area, not just the breast.

Over twenty ladies signed up to be fundraiser (today was the Clean Shave Day) but our real fundraising started when we brought the electric razors out. Beau’s Brewery (my fave beer – organic & local) even gave us a $500 prize for anyone who donated more than $40.  The kicker was also that if you donated $40 or more, you could get your head shaved on stage:)

I LOVE OKTOBERFEST AND BEAU’S BREWERY!

At $500, Phil, one of the Beau’s brothers agreed to shave his head. At $1000 raised, Steve, his brother agreed to shave his head (and both mind you had some pretty lovely locks!)

Well, that turned into more guys getting on the stage to shave their heads, beards, mustaches, and even chests….Shout out to Mark Kelly – the Irish who gave $500 to shave his head & chest and get the emcee to get on the chair and have his head shaved too.

Watch the fun on the video below. This is Steve Beauchesne, co-founder of Beau’s.

My friend who passed the video on is a doctor. I’m sure she was captivated by Mr. Verghese’s approach to medicine as she’s passionate about healing and listening to patients (something often missing in the hectic and busy world of doctors).

Although I understand his talk from a patient’s point of view, I was taken by his more holistic message, which in the medical sense or not, speaks volumes for how we live our lives and how we deal with others:

• To understand you must listen
• To heal you must touch
• To change a behaviour, you must connect

And life. Oh, life. Remember this post, written one year ago?

“Now at 25 (in between jobs,  no home, not even a phone! and heading back to Finland in less than a month, for a month) I have given myself exactly 5 years to “figure it out”.

So, here I am at 26. I’ve come a long way from being “SUNK” as I put it. In short:

• Got a job that I love (working at Stratos - one of Canada’s leading sustainability consultancy firms as a Consultant, focused on proposals & communications)
• Setting up Hub Ottawa with 5 other fabulous people (incorporated this summer & opening soon!) This deserves a whole post so won’t go on here.
• Got an apartment (in the heart of Ottawa)
• Bought a mac & and an iPhone (big step from being phone-less & computer-less one year ago)
• Fell in love… with Ottawa (I wasn’t so sure I wanted to stay here a year ago. But wow, this city has amazed me. There are so many wonderful things to do and see that I can’t keep up.  From Fashion on Display to Harvest Noir,  I love feeling the vibe of a place – and Ottawa has definitely captured my heart.  As for the other love, that’s happened too but I don’t disclose that kind of information on this blog;)

So, all in all life is busy but very good. I feel like I’m “figuring it out”.

On top of the Sleeping Giant, looking over T-Harbour on a trek this past summer in Thunder Bay.

But first, I don’t agree with the author’s stance. He’s one of the Ratcliffe activists in the UK who was on trial and convicted of planning to break into Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station to shut it down. The article is about:

If a jury that received extensive education on climate change could not vindicate the Ratcliffe activists, then who will?

Emotionally charged read that received a lot of fiery comments.

Activists that want to cause damage perhaps get the point across that they care about climate change, but it’s an old fashioned way of promoting it. Really, I thought we had already moved away from sort of divisive environmentalism, no?  The outcome of these disturbances just get more people on the other side of the fence shouting back. Great.

How about good old dialogue? Working with stakeholders and creating solutions? During today’s trip from TBay to Ottawa, I saw two interesting articles: one in the Harvard Business Review by the famous Michael Porter about Corporate Shared Value (CSV) vs. CSR. And another in the Pulp and Paper trade magazine about environmentalists and industry folks finally coming to an agreement over a simple beer instead of “throwing tomatoes at each other” for the last decade.

To get back to the climate movement though,  it’s completely lost its sexiness to me. Read, why i don’t care about global warming-  from 3 years ago (gasp! that long?!) but my thoughts rest the same. Climate change exists, I’m not doubting it. But talking about impending disasters that have a lot of political baggage either A) terrify people or B) make people mad. Two emotions that lead to inaction.

When we’re looking to “rebrand” (if I dare say) climate change, we should remember that climate change ≠ sustainability. It is ONE PART. Sustainable development is all-encompassing.  Even if we staved off our carbon emissions, we won’t necessarily be sustainable. And the idea that it’s all about carbon… ugh..

In any case, I agree with the title of the article: The climate movement is in desperate need of renewal. Indeed it is. But I don’t see it getting any sexier with those antics.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire. Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian

One thing I like about cooking vegetarian meals is it forces me try out new vegetables.  For example, on Friday I cooked a fennel and asparagus risotto with a side of sauteed rapini with white wine mushrooms for my sister and her husband. Delicious way to start the weekend.

I have to add, we ended the weekend with a wonderful lamb shoulder roast last night. My brother-in-law bought half a lamb from a local farm.  Amazing.

I’m a big fan of the bitter leafy greens.  Think I’ll try this swiss chard torta from NYT tonight.

Rereading this post, I’m impressed with myself. For someone who isn’t the greatest cook, I’m sure eating well:)

This is incredible. As he explains:

• Asphalt is going up in price (petroleum based)
• roads collect heat
• why not collect that energy?
• the energy will help payback for the costs
• we need energy closer to homes (micropower)
• innovations in glass making can make this possible

Watch the short video. Check out the company (difficult website though).

Interested to see where it goes. Sounds absolutely crazy and expensive but that’s exactly what we need right now: radical innovations to dramatically shift us from the unsustainable path that we’re on.

The [German] Economics Minister, boasted that his country had become something “out of a fairy tale,” so strong were the growth, employment and consumer-confidence figures. “We’re consuming again, people are doing well and people are spending again,” he said.

It makes me cringe. “Yeah! Our country is doing well! Our people are going to the mall!”

At the heart of our world economic system, going shopping is the healthiest thing we can do for the world.   How belittling. And how unsustainable in the long run. For those that have seen the Story of Stuff, this is the golden arrow.

Photo: Story of Stuff

None of this is new to me.  (I  have 7 years of university training, mostly in business).  First thing you learn in economics is that GDP is measured by  private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports). So as it goes, if you just went through an expensive divorce, crashed your car, and now have cancer – you’re doing well for our economy.

Granted,  even economists have long known that there are considerable issues with the GDP and there’s a movement to try and move away from this unhealthy system.  Going  “Beyond GDP” is a movement in Europe and elsewhere and there is considerable push to adopt the Gross National Happiness concept or other well-being indices but as always, it’s hard to break a well-oiled machine (yes, pun intended).

But at the end of the day, do you really think that we’ll move away from this system that is fed on growth? As pessimistic as this sounds, I don’t see it happening any time soon.  We were close to changing the heart of the system during the crash of 2008, but then things got better and we reverted back to the same old practices. 

I feel weird making this post because I’m not necessary adding anything new to the debate. I just  hope that comments like the one above by the German Economics Minister shakes people at least a little. It should be a wake up call that not all is well with the system we’ve created.

I blogged yesterday about going to Spins and Needles (a DJ/DIY craft making event) and just wrote the review on LTOttawa today.

Check it out:)

My table's fancy creations.

Some changes are going on over here at janeporter.ca. (and Jane Porter in general). New blog layout and (yes, that’s right) a new tab next to the “about”:)  Nothing there yet but it’s all coming soon!

What’s changed with me? I’M IN OTTAWA – AND STAYING.

After quite the debate in my head of where I should go to “next”  (London, Helsinki, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal all being options) I”m happy to call Ottawa home again. Not only because it’s great to be with family – but I feel like I hit this city just at the right time when it comes to innovative sustainability:)

For the last few weeks I’ve been tirelessly plugging myself into the “sustainability” scene here in town – from grassroots operations to the political scene to the larger corporations in town.

Some of the groups in town…

• Ecology Ottawa
• Natural Step
• City of Ottawa Advisory Council of Environment and Planning
• Sustainable Development Council
• Making it Happen
• OCRI Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Ottawa Community Loan Fund
• Ottawa Community Challenge
• Algonquin College (Green Business Management)
• Carleton University (sustainability)
• Young Environmental Professsionals
• Art of Hosting Network – Ottawa
• TerraChoice
• Boxfish Consulting
• Stratos

Am I missing some important ones? I’m sure I am. If you know of any that you think I’d be interested in talking to, please let me know! I’m always happy to  go for a coffee and learn something new about this town!

All in all, it’s good to be home.

That being said, of course we’re dependent on that oil (few options left) and the situation is complex. If you shut it off abruptly, we’d wreak havoc.

How do you handle a complex situation? You do exactly what Nancy Pelosi did on her recent trip to Canada.

• Meet a diverse group of important stakeholders (She’s met/meeting with environmentalists, the BIG energy hotshots,  politicians, First Nations leaders etc.)
• Set the atmosphere to be comfortable and casual so people are relaxed and open – not defensive (casual dinner for good conversation)
• LISTEN She didn’t come to judge, she just came to hear all sides.

From my experiences with Art of Hosting, I’ve spent quite a bit of time this summer reading books like Fifth Discipline, Theory U, Solving Tough Problems, etc. that all exude the power of listening and talking in an open way for creating a new reality.

So far, the debate has largely been oil vs. environment. It’s time to move on and I’m happy that the Speaker of the US House is aiming to create a new reality.

“It’ll be an opportunity to spend an hour or two just having a good, casual conversation about the information we’ve got,” he said.

photo: WWF-UK, from the report Unconventional Oil

More truisms than ever in this NYT magazine article. Especially enjoyed this:

Just as adolescence has its particular psychological profile, Arnett says, so does emerging adulthood: identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between and a rather poetic characteristic he calls “a sense of possibilities.” A few of these, especially identity exploration, are part of adolescence too, but they take on new depth and urgency in the 20s. The stakes are higher when people are approaching the age when options tend to close off and lifelong commitments must be made. Arnett calls it “the age 30 deadline.”

Oh, the age 30 deadline… do I understand that notion. Now at 25 (in between jobs,  no home, not even a phone! and heading back to Finland in less than a month, for a month) I have given myself exactly 5 years to “figure it out”.

What “it” is I can’t say exactly, but partly, it’s the 5 big twenty-something milestones that the article talks about (graduate, financially independent, marriage, house, kids). When you see your other twenty-something friends and family at least as DINKs – you can’t help but feel behind to think of yourself as a SINK or even worse… a NINK? oh my… (update: worse, I’ve now been labeled SUNK, by my parents… haha. Ouch.)

Makes you ponder…

Is emerging adulthood a rich and varied period for self-discovery, as Arnett says it is? Or is it just another term for self-indulgence?

Here are a couple cool open collaboration platforms that are working on changing the world:

OPEN IDEO “Where people design better, together”

I have long been a fan of IDEO – one of the world’s brightest global design consultancy firms. Aside from seeing them on TED (of course – they’d be the big D of TED), some of their designers came to the HUB Helsinki pop-up opening last year and brought people through the design phase of opening up the social entrepreneurship HUB – very cool to watch them in action.

So.. I was excited to see that they opened up their very cool processes to the public.  You wanna work with IDEO? (Won’t lie.. I do), sign up for OPEN IDEO – where you can become part of the design phase and get recognized.

One Billion Minds

I met the founder a couple years ago in India, very cool company for youth.

…open innovation platform connecting Students and Alumni from top universities to Corporations and Non Profits looking to discover innovative solutions to challenging problems in Business, Technology and Social Innovation.

Actually quite cool to see how far its come. Sanjukt was just telling us the idea when I saw him last.

When we start looking at the world like everyone can be part of a solution (with rewards included) I think there’s a lot more that can be done out there…