Cleveland

Winter in Cleveland -- a great time for an outdoor party in The Flats!

For the eleventh consecutive year, thanks to the Brite Winter Leadership Team and Sponsors, on Saturday, February 22, 2020, we joined tens of thousands of people laughing at the Cleveland cold by attending this annual outdoor celebration!

Here are our @sos_jr tweets and retweets with photos/videos from Brite Winter, along with videos we found on YouTube. We share this to encourage you to attend future Brite Winter events, and to thank the people that make it possible. We are very lucky in Cleveland to have Brite Winter!

February 20th, 2020, marked PechaKucha 20x20's first annual International PechaKucha Day. I was VERY fortunate to celebrate by attending Cleveland's own PechaKucha Night Cleveland at the Music Box Supper Club!!

I always enjoy attending PechaKucha Night Cleveland and PechaKucha Night Akron events, but this night ended up being special. I arrived at Music Box Supper Club after a very busy afternoon that left my energy low on this Thursday night. I ended up leaving PechaKucha Night Cleveland with a natural high. The creativity of the presenters energized me and made my week!

You should plan on attending future events with friends with whom you want to share the experience that is PechaKucha Night Cleveland!

On February 7, 2020, we attended the PROOF: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet opening at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This opening coincided with the #MIXatCMA party that we enjoy attending the first Friday of most months. There was so much to see at the exhibition that we returned to see more the following weekend (Sunday, February 16, 2020).

We enjoyed the PROOF opening so much that we wanted to share it with our son, Michael Smith, on our return visit. We wanted to show him the items we enjoyed on our first visit, and to see the photographs that we did not have time to see. PROOF: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet is the type of exhibition that warrants more than one visit.

We started 2020 by celebrating winter in Northeast Ohio by attending two ice festivals in January:

• On Monday, January 20, 2020, we attended the North Coast Harbor Ice Fest (#IceFestCLE 2020), which included FREE admission to Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.

• On Sunday, January 26, 2020, we attended the Lake Metroparks Farmpark Ice Festival.

The following are our tweets from these fun events, which include our videos and photos. We share them here to say how we appreciate being able to attend these annual ice festivals.

I am a very lucky man! In October and November 2019, I was very fortunate to attend many great events. I am publishing seven blog posts today because I really want to thank the organizers of these events. With so much happening, I have not been able to publish my blog posts on a timely basis, but still wanted to recognize and recommend these organizations.

In the interest of time, these are not my usual full blog posts, so I encourage you to click on the links and watch the videos in the tweets to learn more:

• 30th Anniversary of the NASA Glenn Graphics & Visualization Lab (GVIS)
  November 7, 2019.
  A special thank-you to NASA Glenn Research Center Computer Scientist Herb Schilling for this invitation-only event. Thank you, Tom Kunsman, for arranging an additional private tour of the NASA Glenn Library.

I am truly grateful to all those who made these great events possible.

I am a very lucky man! In October and November 2019, I was very fortunate to attend many great events. I am publishing seven blog posts today because I really want to thank the organizers of these events. With so much happening, I have not been able to publish my blog posts on a timely basis, but still wanted to recognize and recommend these organizations.

In the interest of time, these are not my usual full blog posts, so I encourage you to click on the links and watch the videos in the tweets to learn more:

• Cleveland Maker Faire 2019 and Cleveland Public Theatre "Día de Muertos"
  November 2, 2019.
  I enjoy writing about the Cleveland Maker Faire every year. Thank you, also, to @CPTCLE for the personal invitation via Twitter to Día de Muertos.

I am truly grateful to all those who made these great events possible.

I am a very lucky man! In October and November 2019, I was very fortunate to attend many great events. I am publishing seven blog posts today because I really want to thank the organizers of these events. With so much happening, I have not been able to publish my blog posts on a timely basis, but still wanted to recognize and recommend these organizations.

In the interest of time, these are not my usual full blog posts, so I encourage you to click on the links and watch the videos in the tweets to learn more:

• Cleveland Rising Summit
  October 29-31, 2019.
  I look forward to the years ahead when we will all see how the grand Cleveland Rising vision is carried out!

I am truly grateful to all those who made these great events possible.

I am a very lucky man! In October and November 2019, I was very fortunate to attend many great events. I am publishing seven blog posts today because I really want to thank the organizers of these events. With so much happening, I have not been able to publish my blog posts on a timely basis, but still wanted to recognize and recommend these organizations.

In the interest of time, these are not my usual full blog posts, so I encourage you to click on the links and watch the videos in the tweets to learn more:

• NASA Hackathon! Space Apps Challenge Cleveland 2019!
  October 18 - 20, 2019.
  I want to thank the Space Apps Cleveland leaders (Tom Kunsman, Herb Schilling, and Sarah Dutkiewicz) for inviting me to attend. I highly recommend you learn more about the winners on these special Space Apps Cleveland web pages:
  Global Nominee: Dust Bunnies
  Global Nominee: Hackranauts
  Local People's Choice Winner: Escapees from 318 V2

I am truly grateful to all those who made these great events possible.

I am a very lucky man! In October and November 2019, I was very fortunate to attend many great events. I am publishing seven blog posts today because I really want to thank the organizers of these events. With so much happening, I have not been able to publish my blog posts on a timely basis, but still wanted to recognize and recommend these organizations.

In the interest of time, these are not my usual full blog posts, so I encourage you to click on the links and watch the videos in the tweets to learn more:

• Cleveland Museum of Art "Michelangelo: Mind of the Master" - MIX: Anatomy & Pop-up Drawing Lounge
  MIX: Anatomy - Cleveland Museum of Art on October 4, 2019.
  Pop-up Drawing Lounge on October 23, 2019.
  I have written several blog posts about Cleveland Museum of Art MIX events -- they are always a great time!

I am truly grateful to all those who made these great events possible.

Better World Day is brought to you by Leading Hands Through Technology and Workmen's Circle Educational Center of Ohio. The conference focuses on technology to arm non-profits with the knowledge to continue their fight for a better world.

Blockchain for a Better World
Better World Day
Thursday, October 17, 2019 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)

Blockchain for a Better World
(How Non-Profits Can Successfully Apply Blockchain)
At our third annual event, we're excited to bring together researchers, technology experts, non-profit leaders and fund-raising professionals to develop innovative solutions that combine technology and compassion to improve our world.

I am grateful that Marc Majers knew of my interest in technology solutions for nonprofits, and thus invited me to this year's Better World Day educational event. This panel discussion and keynote address on how nonprofits can use blockchain technologies took place on October 17, 2019, at the Cuyahoga County Public Library Parma Branch.

On November 11, 2018, I had written a blog post entitled Cleveland Foundation #CtrlAltCLE Convenes: Tech & Digital Equity/Blockchain for Social Good which featured an excellent introduction to blockchain by Cleveland Foundation's Chief of Digital Innovation & Chief Information Officer Leon Wilson. I was excited to learn more from Leon Wilson and the other members of the panel, as well as the keynote presenter.

The purpose of this blog post is to capture some of what I learned, and share it with others.