Gel 2009
Thursday-Friday, April 30 - May 1, 2009
New York City
Hundreds of creative leaders will explore good experience at Gel 2009. See who attended last year.
Natascha Schüll at Gel 2008
Thursday-Friday, April 30 - May 1, 2009
New York City
Hundreds of creative leaders will explore good experience at Gel 2009. See who attended last year.
Natascha Schüll at Gel 2008
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Professor, Swarthmore College
Co-author of a forthcoming book on wisdom
Author, The Paradox of Choice
Gel host
The visual creator; the musician; the visionary; and others...
On Day 1, Gel attendees will have a choice of tours, workshops, and seminars offering experiences all over New York City. Attendees will be able to rank their choices in February or March 2009, and then assignments will be made in order of ticket-purchase date. The earlier you buy your ticket, the better chance you have of getting your first choice.
Confirmed so far: More to be announced, but here's what is confirmed so far for Day 1:
Join brewmaster Garrett Oliver for a tour of the Brooklyn Brewery, followed by a tasting of his beer paired with great cheeses. Although beer is a mystery to most Americans - few of us have any idea what it is or how it's made - traditional beer has made a big comeback and it's here to stay. This event will feature real beer, artisanal cheese, and a fun tour.
Doug Quin will lead you on a listening experience in Central Park to explore the park's sonic spaces and acoustically distinct places, and discover the balance of natural and urban rhythms, sound textures and voices that are part of this unique environment and soundscape. Participants will be given a map of the park and invited to create sound maps, journals, or "scores" of their walk - translating the sound world into their own words and images.
Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd will lead you in a deceptively simple multiplayer game called Werewolf (sometimes also called "Mafia"). It's easy to pick up and fascinating to play. Do you have the skills to convince the group you're not a werewolf, even if you are?
Explore Manhattan's contemporary art district in Chelsea with Parsons School of Design art history professor Claudia Calirman. The tour includes established galleries and cutting-edge spaces featuring the work of emerging artists.
Explore two old industrial areas that are evolving into popular destinations in New York City. Discover how these locations are becoming known for gourmet food shops, ethnic restaurants, boutique shopping, and nightlife. Taste delicious specialties from several food shops along the way.
Ben Hoffman, Founder and CEO of CityHunt, will host an interactive adventure where participants will compete in teams to capture experiences related to Gel themes throughout the West Village. These experiences will be documented with digital cameras which will be provided and will conclude with an awards presentation at a local pub. (No safari experience required.)
Join Randy Garutti, Director of Operations at Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, for the trifecta of restaurant experience. Learn how to properly taste wine from a professional sommelier at Relais & Chateaux restaurant Eleven Madison Park, watch as the chefs at Tabla prepare a traditional Indian dish with American style, and finish in Madison Square Park with a tour and taste of the legendary Shake Shack.
Rachel Shechtman, founder and CEO of Cube Ventures, will take attendees to multiple retail environments, exploring how brands are building on product differentiation by creating dynamic and engaging experiences. You will listen, taste, touch and move through these unique environments; each stop on the tour will feature the store's founder as a speaker and tour attendees around the space... and there may be a surprise or two!
Learn how to see typography like you've never seen it before! Join Ilene Strizver of The Type Studio in a mini-version of her Gourmet Typography Workshop. Get down and dirty (typographically speaking) with a hands-on exercise guaranteed to stimulate and challenge your visual sensibilities. Then find out if you are a type criminal, as Ilene demonstrates the ten worst type crimes. Open to everyone, not just designers.
Kathy Madden, SVP of Project for Public Spaces , a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public places that build communities, will teach participants the principles of creating successful public spaces. The workshop will explore best practices around the world and will incorporate a Place Game which will be used to evaluate a nearby public space. (No prior experience with placemaking required).
StoryCorps is a nonprofit whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening. This event will help participants improve their listening skills through a tutorial session, practice interviews, and an editing exercise. The seminar will cover preparing effective questions, interviewing techniques, and identifying a story line.
Learn to solder LEDs using a simple electronics kit with Rose White and Alicia Gibb at NYC Resistor, their electronics hacking collective in downtown Brooklyn. Even if you've never held a soldering iron before, you'll leave with blinking proof of your new skills. (No prior experience with soldering, LEDs, or circuit boards is required.)
All around us, murals enliven our lives and enhance our public and private spaces. Midtown Manhattan boasts of a remarkable diversity of murals - from majestic to intimate - often providing enchantment, illumination, humor, and edification. Join honored Urban Historian Justin Ferate on this unusual tour of the Murals of Midtown. Delight in world-famous murals and discover some treasures you may never have seen before!
The Strategy group at Lincoln Center will conduct a tour of the cultural institution that is undergoing massive redevelopment in advance of its 50th anniversary in May 2009. The tour will include a look at different performance spaces and how the redevelopment is improving the "experience of place" throughout Lincoln Center.
Take a bicycle ride with Caroline Samponaro, Bicycle Campaign Coordinator at Transportation Alternatives, NYC's leading bicycle and pedestrian advocates. As the Department of Transportation adds bike improvements at an unprecedented rate, don't miss out on a live tour of NYC's increasingly bicycle and pedestrian friendly streets from the experts who are helping to make it happen. The nine-mile route will take us along a newly protected bike lane, new Lower Manhattan bike network, East River Bridges, a view of the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park, and along the Greenway. (Bikes and helmets will be provided to all attendees.)
Here's a rare opportunity just for Gel attendees to climb into a manhole and see the historic Atlantic Avenue tunnel, the world's oldest subway, built back in 1844 by the Long Island Rail Road, as featured on the History Channel show Cities of the Underworld. The tunnel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was discovered in 1980 by transportation expert Bob Diamond, who will be leading the narrated tour of the 1/2 mile long tunnel. No other single historic site is so abundant with colorful stories and history, including the missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary, river pirates, German saboteurs, Murder Inc. and bootleggers. Note: attendees should bring a flashlight and wear pants or shorts and sneakers or very comfortable shoes.
(Gel logo design by Sam Brown at explodingdog.com.)
