Ever heard of SXSW (South-by-Southwest), the uber cool annual music festival that takes place in Austin, TX? Well, did you know the music aspect is one of only three parts of AWESOME conference? The skinny is this… In 1994 as the entertainment business adjusted to issues of future growth and development, SXSW added conferences and festivals for the film industry (SXSW Film) as well as for the blossoming interactive media (SXSW Interactive Festival). Now three industry events converge in Austin during a Texas-sized week, mirroring the ever increasing convergence of entertainment/media outlets.

It’s one of the biggest events in nerdery, and we’re not exaggerating. It’s BIG.

So, imagine our extreme delight when we learned that three (count ‘em, three) groups of local Savannah braniacs are competing for an invitation to present at the Interactive Festival. This is the major leagues, people. And they could really use your help!

The competition is fierce, so please consider giving some Savannah folks your love! Do it before Friday, 9/4!

• Kevin Lawver (of Music Intelligence Solutions):
  From Doer To Manager: Making The Transition From Individual Contributor To “The Boss”
• Susan Isaacs (of Paragon Design Group):
  Emergent Cityscapes: Designing Future Spaces for Human Development

It being Monday, we thought we’d do a cheery blog about something really upbeat. Thanks to Shirley Sessions, Director of Hands On Savannah and one of my favorite people in the world, we have some really great information to impart on you about volunteerism. Now what could be more warm-fuzzy than that?

Volunteerism is an extremely powerful, yet often overlooked, aspect of our communities. There are organizations around the country (the world even) that – like Hands On Savannah here in our little community – work to promote the power of service, how it weaves together communities and transforms both those serving and those being served. Volunteering empowers people in communities to improve the quality of life for all. It also develops more informed and inspired citizens. Furthermore, through activities such as fundraising, training, and collaborative development, volunteers help to mobilize community resources and increase the capacity of the organizations that help to support the community structure by reaching out to senior citizens, children, the poor, the disabled and environmental endeavors.

There’s a new public awareness campaign coming to a library near you. And let me just say we LOVE it. As some of the biggest nerds on the block, we can’t get enough of the new use of an old four-letter word: ‘Geek’ as a verb.

The community-based awareness campaign known as ‘Geek the Library’ is being launched exclusively in Savannah (you’ve prolly seen the billboards around town) and Des Moines, Iowa and is designed to highlight the vital role of public libraries for individuals and communities, and raise awareness about the critical funding issues they face. To do so, they’re promoting a play on words to find out what you ‘geek.’

“This campaign is designed to provoke conversation about the vital role that public libraries and librarians play in today’s challenging environment,” said Cathy De Rosa, global vice president of marketing for OCLC, a nonprofit library cooperative heading campaign development and implementation. “We hope it will spark important community discussions about how public libraries can remain strong throughout greater Savannah, and ultimately across the country.”

Many people equate games with “fun.” Brenda Brathwaite, game designer and Chair of the Interactive Design and Game Development department at SCAD, equates games with interactive experience and education.

Her newest board game design is “Train,” is more of a somber treatise than a traditional game.  Through the course of play, Train leads players on a journey allegorical of Jews being transported to Auschwitz.  By the way the rules are written, however, players often don’t realize the breadth of each decision and the consequence of each move forward until the end.  With the gravity of the topic it touches, Train does more than introduce players to a poignant topic in world history, it redefines the scope of board games in general.

Train debuted at the Games for Change conference in New York City last month.  The board is comprised of three train tracks astride a broken window, representative of Kristallnacht, when the Nazi’s smashed the windows of Jewish homes.  The three train tracks are the point of play, and players are loaded into the trains and then moved to an unknown destination via command cards.