CBC Eye Opener Jim Brown chats about Awesome Calgary

Thanks to Chris Dela Torre for inviting Awesome Calgary to chat with Jim Brown on CBC Eye Opener about all things awesome.  Here is the interview with Jim and Lori.  

MP3 Experiment wins $1000 May grant!

Kiran pitching MP3 experiment (photo by Jeff Wielki)

Congratulations to Kiran Somanchi for his winning pitch "MP3 experiment"!  Kiran will use the $1000 to create an amazing event for Calgarians to coincide with the amazing Bow River Flow in August. 






Special thanks to Higher Ground Cafe for hosting us for a fun night that allowed us to showcase 4 great ideas - with four great pitches.   It was tough decision but Kiran wowed us with his energy, passion and creativity to bring a unique, interesting social media/community building project to show off and celebrate some of the truly awesome things in Calgary.

 Stay tuned on how to join in and participate in this fabulous event! 

Congratulations Kiran!

Pitch n' Party - Watch the April 2011 Top4 finalists

Why Calgary is Awesome!

Special thanks to Chris Hsiung (founder of Hidden Story Productions where they seek, capture, and share important stories for the life journey.) for this awesome video of Awesome Foundation Calgary's first ever Pitch n'Party awards night!

 
And the winner is .... 

Art Matsui - 100 Year Houses, J Snider - Meganopoly, Dean Balkenstein - Fire Tornado, Paisley Sim - YES!

 You'll have to watch to see!  :)  (or scroll down to see the original April 28th winners post)

May Top4 Finalists!

It's been another good month for interesting and diverse ideas flowing into Awesome Calgary.  We're loving the creativity and broad thinking that people are putting into the ideas they submit to us.  We truly wish we had more than $1000 to give out each month!

We're excited to announce our  
Top4 finalists to pitch for the $1000 on May 26th:

• Calgary Bike Swap  - bringing used bikes back to life and making them available to people who can't afford a new bike (Laura & Chris calgarybikeswap.ca )
• Planet Tour Calgary - webisode entirely about Calgary and all the awesome things this city has to offer (Daryl Makk The Planet Tour)
• The 2nd Wind - a device to stretch a firefighter’s air supply from a standard 20 minutes to up to one hour (Gordon Rumley )
• MP3 Experiment - epic experiment in Calgary to bring people together and highlight the importance of Great Public Spaces. (Kiran Somanchi )

*****

We had so many great ideas that again we have to call out the following as Honourable Mentions:

• Rope Swings Calgary - providing rope swings in all of Calgary's best swimming spots 
• Google a Lifesaver - locate closest Automated External Defibrillator (AED) with a Google code
• Seniors Skype - build a service that would help seniors to connect to each other via Skype
• Community Composting - enable communities to have a centralized composting area and provide that community back with free composted material for gardening 
• You've Got Mail - send personalized postcards to people around the world reminding each recipient that they are both loved and valued, and more importantly, that Calgary is an amazing city
  waiting to be discovered by new faces.  
• New Calgary Moms - bringing back the old concept of "Welcome Wagon" to new mothers in Calgary, especially those in under-served communities and situations.

We love that so many of these ideas are awesome and care about building community and doing right for the world.  This is what Awesome Foundation Calgary is all about!   Thank you to all who submitted and we look forward to all the great ideas we get for next month.  

Mark your calendars for the Pitch n'Party Award Night - 6pm May 26th at Higher Ground Cafe in Kensington.  

May Submissions are in!

Well, it's down to decision time - who's in May's Top4 finalists list??

With 14 incredibly awesome ideas to ponder and discuss this month, it's not only going to be a tough decision for the trustee team on Thursday but I think it's going to lead to a very exciting Top4 Pitch n' Party night on May 26th.   Finalists and honourable mentions will be published on Friday May 20th.

Save the date for Party n' Party - May 26

Here's a bit of a preview and scoop on how to attend this months' Pitch n'Party  where you can watch and hear the pitches and help the trustees make the decision on who gets the $1000 free grant this month!

May 26th - 6:00 pm at Higher Ground Cafe (1126 Kensington Road Northwest)

• Mix & mingle at 6pm 
• 90-second rapid pitches from each finalist start at 6:30pm sharp
• Trustee Q & A 2mins each
• Audience Q & A 2mins each 
• $1000 cash awarded on the spot to most awesome idea
• chat with finalists & trustees 

Then stay at Higher Ground as they host CJSW 90.9 and  Breakthrough Acoustic at 7:30.  It's going to be an Awesome evening!  

Got your own awesome idea?  Need $1000 cash and a boost to get it going?  Submit for June!  Next deadline is June 10th.