Ongoing Events
Auckland Monthly Meetups: Suite Talk
Suite talk is a regular Intersect Networking event. Every month Intersectors meet at Suite Bar in Auckland city and are led through a facilitated process over food and drink. It follows an adapted 'World Café' style. This event has inspired many spin-off activities, such as the Grey Lynn’s Farmer’s Market and the New Zealand Youth Delegation to Copenhagen.
Grey Lynn Farmer’s Market: www.glfm.co.nz
New Zealand Youth Delgation: www.youthdelegation.org.nz
Wellington Monthly Meetups: Face to Face
Wellington Intersect members meet face-to-face at Mon Ami Cafe once a month to share ideas and inspirations. There are plenty of lively interactions and food for thought. The events have a playful tone, with a shifting format to suit what members are interested in. A World Café process is often used to get some juicy conversations flowing, as well as films and guest speakers.
You can see some harvests of these events here:
http://intersect.ning.com/forum/topics/wellington-facetoface-octobers
Frocks on Bikes
www.frocksonbikes.org
What started off as a float of gals frocked up and cycling in the Cuba Carnival, has turned into a national movement, with groups in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Whangarei.
Frocks On Bikes involves women riding their bikes with style. Why? To accelerate the momentum for better cycle routes in our cities, and to demonstrate that there is a groundswell of people wanting to ride. We also want to lure SUV drivers into thinking that bikes are actually a sexier and much more fabulous way to get around.
Events include hundreds of frockers promenading through the city, to smaller lunchtime rides and cycle skills workshops.
Frocks On Bikes was awarded the New Zealand Transport Authorities’ Best Cycling Promotion Award 2009.
Previous Intersect Events and Projects
Our Launch Event
Importantly, Intersect really knows how to throw a party. We kicked off our Network with a big launch event. The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra entertained our guests and Sigourney Weaver and her Hubby came along to join the fun. It was a sign of good things to come and made the front page of the Dominion Post.
http://alto.net.nz/img/signourney.jpg
The Freeze
Intersect was the leading force behind World Environment Day ‘Climate Freezes’ in 2008 and 2009. Everyday New Zealanders stopped in their tracks to contemplate, and inspire others to think about, climate change. In 2008, 250 people froze on Lambton Quay in Wellington and thousands of people around the world saw the video. The United Nations Environment Program liked it so much that they put it on their homepage.
In 2009 the Freeze went nation-wide and over a thousand people participated. The Freeze was inclusive and non-partisan. It injected creative energy into a challenging area. It delivered the message that we all have a part to play in resolving our climate crisis - we simply need to show our courage to act. When we play our parts together, the solutions become easier and much more effective.
The 2009 Freeze was an excellent example of collaboration. Media coverage and videos are available on the Freeze website.
Official Video:
http://intersect.ning.com/video/freeze-wellington-2008
One Climate
http://www.oneclimate.org.nz
Linked with the Freeze, Intersect established a website for World Environment Day. This was a response to the proliferation of groups responding to climate change and the growing need for a single place which showcased the range of options for personal, collective and international action.
Waiora - Arteries of Aotearoa
Waiora an art competition for young New Zealand Artists, aged 18-24. Emerging artists were asked to submit proposals for a publically exhibited artwork which interpreted the idea embodied in the statement "Waiora, Arteries of Aoteroa". Intersect awarded a prize to 22 year old Amelia Hitchcock for her artwork “New Zealand Pure”. The artwork is a a fridge stacked with old fashioned baby bottles, filled with water collected from lowland rivers around the artist’s home town, Wanganui.
The competition aimed to provoke young creative people into thinking about our freshwater. As a result, many young people across New Zealand were encouraged to think deeply about water and its significance to our country.
The work is currently touring public sites, not unlike a roving coffee cart. It 'dispenses' a message that will enable more people to engage with the themes explored. Future display sites include a hospital, a theatre, and a university alongside the coke machine.
Read the blog: http://intersect.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nipple-fridge-takes-the-prize
Park(ing) Day
Intersect collaborated with Heart of the City in Auckland and other local groups to bring Park(ing) day to New Zealand. Metered car parking spaces in the hearts of Auckland, Wellington and Nelson were transformed into temporary public parks for a day.
Park(ing) day started as an annual one-day event in San Francisco (see www.rebargroup.org). It has now spread globally and is being adapted locally. Intersect crafted the New Zealand event around ‘people-friendly cities’. Participants could explore this theme for themselves. Some common attributes identified by participants are that people-friendly cities have lots of open spaces, are safe and fun for cycling, are great places for people to wander around by foot, are easy for people with limited mobility to get around, have lots of fresh air, are productive places where people can find meaningful work, and they encourage laughter, joy and happiness. People-friendly cities are also more climate-friendly cities.
Design and co-ordination for this event was hosted on the Intersect Network. You can read more about it in this article and see photos on Flickr.
See the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick-aotearoa/sets/72157622401317214/
Article:
http://www.celsias.co.nz/article/park-yourself-here/
Better by Design
Some of the worlds leading thinkers and practitioners in Sustainability
and Design came to New Zealand for the world-class Better By Design
CEO Summit in early September 2008. These included Michael Braungart, Ray Anderson, Janine Benyus, Alex Steffen and Lee Weinstein.
Intersect, with the help of Interface NZ and Better By Design made sure
that 5 young people made it there too. We got them to do a write up on each
of the speakers as well as their personal reflections on the event, which we then distributed through our network so that many young people had the opportunity to benefit from the wisdom of these sustainability giants.
Dear John
http://www.dearjohn.org.nz/
We thought that it was really important for John Key to the Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009. We reckoned that it would be an amazing process for him to be involved in, and that it was too important to just send his ministers to.
This website is an open love letter to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, encouraging him to represent us. During the COP15 summit in Copenhagen, members of the New Zealand Youth Delegation printed off the emails and gave them to John Key to support his presence at the summit.
This is a great example of the style of Intersect - positive, encouraging and solutions-focused.
Pitch Black Drinks
This was a fun candlelit networking evening, where we served sustainable cocktails. The invent was intended to connect Wellington Intersectors. We wanted to encourage people to think about ‘switching-off’ - that sometimes doing things sustainably is actually wonderful!
Thunking to Thinking
A public talk at the City Gallery about engaging new creative processes to create shifts in thinking that can meet the new complex challenges that face our generation.
Other activities that Intersect has actively supported
350 Day of Action: http://www.350.org.nz/about
No Plastic Bags: http://noplasticbags.ning.com
Eyes Wide Open: http://eyeswideopen.org.nz/
Plus much much more…
The Intersect network is a self-organised community, where hot issues often pop up quite suddenly. It is obvious when there is energy to make a change when lots of people get involved. This is obvious at face to face events as well as in the on-line forum.
Online hot spots
Flightless Birds
A discussion on alternatives to flying rapidly took off. http://www.celsias.co.nz/article/flightless-birds/
http://intersect.ning.com/group/flightlessbirds
Air New Zealand
Members have been engaging the national airline in conversations around packaging:
http://intersect.ning.com/forum/topics/air-new-zealand
Palm Oil
Intersect members have been actively involved in the Palm Oil debate. Cadbury New Zealand even thanked us for our contributions when they decided to go Palm-Oil free:
http://intersect.ning.com/forum/topics/the-dirt-on-palm-oil
Personal stories
Many Intersect members have also shared their personal stories of successes and the benefits that have flowed through Intersect. You can read some of these stories here:
http://intersect.ning.com/forum/topics/intersect-success-stories
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