SPARKcon 2009 Starts Tonight

September, 17, 2009 , by David

Tonight Raleigh’s most homegrown conference, SPARKcon, launches with ideaSPARK. BlogAds CEO Henry Copeland will set things off with a community focused keynote. Following the keynote a Pecha Kucha event will spark your imagination with 10 influential Triangle residents, including Dan Douglas, Victor Lytvinenko, Wayne Sutton and others, sharing their big ideas for their community. This kickoff event represents the foundation of the conference - ashowcase of creativity, talent and ideas of “The Creative Hub of the South,” the Triangle NC. Following ideaSpark checkout one of the many shows from the Music Spark Page.

The rest of the wekeend SparkCon takes over Fayetteville Street as a huge centralized festival celbrating all our creative city has to offer.

Friday SparkCon heats up with a presentation for FilmSPARK from the Dude who took down Viacom. gamingSPARK also kicks off this evening. Then at 8 on the main stage the Fashion Show - the biggest event of the conference. After the fashion show, catch one of the many different concerts or dance parties going on around the city see the full list on the Music Spark Page. Read more about musicSPARK in this post from it’s organizer.

Poetry Spark also starts up Friday night at the Morning times- featuring 20 poets from NC and around the nation. Get more info on poetrySPARK

Saturday at 1pm the Gears of War 2 Tournament starts off at the Urban Design Center- read more about gamingSPARK. Then at 3 sipSPARK starts off showcasing the cities best mixology talent sipSPARK Shake Down.

All afternoon graffiti artists will be painting panels on Fayetteville Street along with hundreds of street painters. In addition there will be live Abstract painting, the NEW Barrel Monster creation and an Experimental Video Lounge in the Fish Market (sponsored by New Raleigh). artSPARK is the 500lb Gorilla this year with over 1200 artists participating. More on artSPARK

Later Saturday night storySPARK kicks off with poetry slam and goes into the erotic After Dark event.

Saturday also brings two events that New Raleigh is involved in. The first is a fun Raleigh Trivia Event right on the main stage starting at 5- I will be hosting a Raleigh Trivia show, come out and test your own knowledge of Raleigh. Later Saturday is Soul Spark a sampling of some of the hottest hiphop in the area- hosted by Phonte of Foreign Exchange and SJ Gonzo and featuring Darien Brockington, YahZarah, Carlitta Durand, Kooley High.

Also all weekend danceSPARK will have all forms of dance happening across the city from Break Dancing Friday night to Ballroom Dancing Sunday Morning.

bazaarSPARK will happen Saturday, featuring tons of local vendors:

SSD Jewlery
Eluna Jewlery Designs
Tane Addington
Olive the Beach
Revamp
Redress Raleigh
Zass Designs
Joanna ‘s Photography
Art N Design
Niyati Clothing Company
Wifey & Wifey
Good Girls Studio
My Truck Leroy
JBIN studio
Simplehands
GHA Designs
Plastic Flame Press
Lisa Jones
The Lodi Project
Jonathan & Alison Peedin
RaimbowTree
Deepika Bhatt
Epona and Oak
The Handmaidens
R.I.P. Clothing
FYSH Clothing
Get Dressed
Captive Collective
indieNC
Old Broom Street