Announcing TorontoGRUE 2008 – The GRUEat White North
So finally, it’s been sorted out. Thanks to Graydancer’s flexible schedule, a bit of a break in my workload, and the wonderful people at Goodhandy’s, the GRUE is at last coming to Toronto: Saturday October 4th, 2008.
Graydancer, a friend from down south, is a man of many titles: Podcaster, RopeSlut, Published Author, Burlesque Performer, Sex Blogger, Educator and fellow sukebe. The GRUE is an unconference that he has facilitated around the US, giving people of kink a chance to come together in a non-mediated way and discuss issues they themselves find important and compelling. He wrote about the first GRUE, held in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, and had this to say:
“The GRUE was held this last weekend near Madison, WI, and was an experiment in running a kink event. The acronym stands for “Graydancer’s Ropetastic Unconference Extravaganza” (why, yes, I did actually come up with the acronym before the words, why do you ask?). The key word was “Unconference”: this is a model of group organization that has been used extensively and successfully in the tech & social media circles, and is also involved with something called “Open Space”. I would suggest, if you’re really interested, looking up both subjects on wikipedia.
In brief, the idea is to have a conference that is self-organizing. In our case, about 30 people converged on a house with a well-equipped dungeon at 10am on Saturday. Announcing the theme of “What do you get out of Rope?” I pointed to a blank wall and said “There’s our agenda.” I suggested that the participants come up and write down some subject they were both passionate about and willing to talk about, and about 1/2 hour later we had 11 classes scheduled for the three rooms to do over the next seven hours…”
You can read the rest of the post here. As well as in Madison, the GRUE has also been held in Lansing, MI, Minneapolis, MN, and St. Louis, MO, and the techniques have been used to teach at events like Shibaricon, TES Fest, and the Spankfestival.
A bit of an explanation of the schedule, as vague as it is at the moment. On Friday the 3rd, we’ll host a Meet & Greet somewhere close to the venue, and give those who want to come out a chance to mix and mingle with the other participants of the event. 10am Saturday we’ll start the ToroGRUE at Goodhandy’s (120 Church Street), and ending the day at 6pm. Food will be provided at some point during the day, but we don’t actually stop for a break – the classes just continue. Participants will have a chance to grab some dinner, explore Toronto and take in some of Nuit Blanche, the giant art exhibition taking over much of the city that night, before coming back to celebrate at the monthly party thrown by Goodhandy’s and Northbound Leather. The admission for the party will be covered in the cost of the ToroGRUE. After the partying is over, there’s still more Nuit Blanche to explore – the exhibition continues until sunrise. Sunday we’ll arrange a pancake brunch for those interested in participating and continuing the discussion.
Tickets for the ToroGRUE are 40$ CDN, and are limited. Due to the size of the venue and the intimate nature of the Unconference, we are making 80 tickets available for the event. If you’re interested in taking part, email me at grue@thecontrolenthusiast.com with any questions about the event, or to reserve your tickets. 2 per person, first come first served. I will email you back with confirmation of your tickets. The actual form of payment still needs to be determined, but I’ll let everyone know once I’ve sorted that out.
Keep checking here for more information and updates about the Toronto GRUE. As details become clearer I’ll both post more on the site and email updates to those who’ve expressed interest in participating. I’m very excited to welcome Graydancer to Toronto, and facilitate what I hope will be the first of a series of events for the community on the whole.
(thanks to kk & a for the image)
