The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s guest blogger is social media maven and world jetsetter, Sloane Kelley. Read on for updates regarding Sloane’s favorite weekend – - GEEKEND.

Summer is almost over and that means one thing:  The third annual Geekend is almost upon us.

The Geekend crew and I have been hard at work over the past eight months incorporating feedback and lots of new ideas to ensure this year is even bigger and better than before.

One of the big changes is that we’re taking the show on the road this year. In addition to our main Savannah event in November, we’re also going to be in Boston delivering a mini-Geekend at the Direct Marketing Association’s annual event in October. The hope is that this global stage of 10,000+ attendees will put a spotlight on the Geekend conference, the Savannah area and all of the creative energy in the region.

Last minute dish: ?In conjunction with this week’s Savannah Ocean Exchange festivities, Charlotte Vick, Content Editor and Chief Evangelist for Google Earth’s “Explore the Oceans Layer” will hold a workshop to train and register local filmmakers, photographers and marine researchers as content partners. The workshop will be hosted by ThincSavannah. Content providers who upload short clips or photos with an educational message have the availability to link their content back to their own web sites, providing a great way to showcase ocean films and photography within the Google Earth framework.

When:
Thursday, September 23rd, 10:30AM – 12pm

Where:
ThincSavannah
35 Barnard Street, Suite 300
Savannah, GA 31401

Participants may wish to bring their own laptops to follow along with the presenter, though laptops are not required for the session. We suggest you check out the Ocean layer in Google Earth before the workshop.

Workshop is free, but limited seats are available!

Email Mari Carswell to reserve space:
mari@southernfilmcenter.com
912.414.0240

By now most of you have probably heard about Google’s bold play to offer fiber/broadband in select cities across the country. The search engine giant has invited municipalities to submit requests to host an ultra-high-speed broadband network that promises to deliver Internet service 100 times faster than what most Americans can access. Google will spot for the cost of installing the fiber network to connect up to 500,000 people, and would provide access at a competitive price to current services. (Check out the recent article in the Savannah Morning News for more info.)

It seems like cities across the country are pulling out the stops to court the Internet behemoth to their respective towns, from Topeka, KS renaming itself “Google” for one month, to the Deluth, MN mayor tossing himself into Lake Superior.

Before you ask, “why isn’t Savannah looking into this”, we are. The city and local business leaders have been meeting quietly to pull together information for the March 26th application deadline. We’ve also received many calls and emails about “the situation”, and will be meeting with a local group organized by Marjorie Young on Thursday. We’ve been talking to the City about how we can help and are fully on board and excited about making Savannah’s bid for this deal as creative and compelling as it can possibly be. 

I feel like Dean Cain on an episode of Ripley’s Believe it or Not (yes, that still airs)…

An article in last month’s Details Magazine is evidence that truth IS stranger than fiction: according to a recent survey, 84% of young Germans would prefer to lose their current partner or automobile over their internet connection or mobile phone.

Bitkom, a German internet service provider interviewed 1,000 people between the age of 19 and 29, assessing their dependability on their internet and mobile phone as compared to love and car ownership. The outcome was shocking (Volkswagons ain’t that great I guess). In the same survey, 97% of interviewees said that it would be unthinkable to live without their mobile phone, so unthinkable that they’d rather kick their lover to the curb. Now, I can kinda understand that if this is an iPhone we’re talking about (there’s probably a boyfriend app anyway), but just a plain ol’ mobile phone? WHAT? Internet/phone better than sex/love?

In this day and age the phone and internet are the lifeblood of business, commerce and communication. But to think that people would willingly give up partnership and copulation (isn’t THAT as old as humankind?) for their internet connection. Makes me wonder how all this new technology is affecting reproductive rates.