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Today is Earth Day. I should be more excited about it than I am, just because we only have one. But some days just feet like a Hallmark excuse for more cards and swag. Or guilt. There's always room for guilt (paper--which deforest our lands? Or plastic--which fill our landfills?) and sometimes a girl just needs a break from hemp guilt.

That being said, I think that Jones Soda has actually embraced the day for what it really was intended for: to remind us that the earth is what we all have in common. In celebration of Earth Day, Jones Soda employees are off the grid for the day. I didn't say they're off; but rather, they are off the power grid. All employees are cycling to power the bare essentials (telephones, computers, lights, etc.) in the office from 9:00am to 5:00pm PST.

Okay, how freaking cool is that???

At the LDSC we used a lovely Q&A tool that those sharp ETS guys first saw in use at the Berkman @ 10 Conference earlier this year. I thought it was one of the best tools for audience interaction with the speaker because, not only did it give you an opportunity to put the question out there as they came up (instead of waiting for the speaker to finish), it allowed the audience to weight the questions by voting. The more votes a question had, the greater the number of audience members who felt that was an important point to be addressed. As a speaker, you can also quickly tell if you are engaging your audience or if you really need to redirect your focus. As we saw it demonstrated in action, we even got community engagement within the engagement, as other audience members either answered questions themselves or added to the original point. I thought it was fascinating and added incredible depth to the presentations from an audience member's viewpoint. Now, I am starting to see this method of engagement elsewhere.