The Pop!Tech conference, held annually in Camden, Maine, is rapidly expanding beyond a “big think” gathering of academics, journalists, scientists, and innovation gurus. It’s becoming a magnet for corporate executives, too, who are trying to answer questions such as those posed by Pop!Tech’s curator, Andrew Zolli, in his opening remarks: “Is reinvention possible? Can technology save us? What is the next social contract?”
Even in the downturn, when corporations are curbing travel budgets to trade shows, employees from such diverse companies as Genentech, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Nike, Microsoft, and AT&T were in attendance. There were more corporate sponsors than ever this year, including Nike and Microsoft, who were new to sponsorship this year.
Attendees listened to acoustic guitar and soulful songs sung by Malaysian musician Zee Avi, and watched while artist Chris Jordan showed disturbing photos of dead baby albatrosses whose corpses revealed stomachs full of plastic bottle caps—intended to motivate people to understand the consequences of pollution and garbage.
Michael Pollan who has fundamentally changed the way many of us understand what we eat, how it’s made, and how it gets to us, spoke on whether a vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius – it was fascinating.
Speaking of food, the preparation for the conference attendees was intense and interesting. If you didn’t attend this year’s conference, you can get the flavor of the conference and the food preparation by viewing the short video below.
Belfast has been voted one of the ten coolest small towns in America in a Budget Travel Magazine survey. The towns listed in the top ten have fewer then 10,000 people, but can rival larger cities when it comes to good food, culture, and quality of life. Belfast sits at the northern tip of the western shore of Penobscot Bay, and is about a 20-minute drive north of Camden. The town is just off of Route 1 and many tourists miss it, giving the town a very laid-back feel. The relative lack of tourists during the prime season combined with lower real estate prices is helping to create an artist’s enclave in Belfast – and not just painters, but jewelry makers, glassblowers, and weavers. Every Friday morning from May through October there’s a farmer’s market that attracts a wide variety of local organic farmers, bakers, artists, and musicians.
If you missed Belfast during your travels in Maine, you can get a sense of this picturesque village by viewing the video below. We hope the video will entice you to stop by on your next visit to the mid-coast.
Maine Postcards & Voices is a blog of, and about, Maine.
My family has lived in, worked in, and been a part of the New England Destination Resort environment for over 50 years – I started at age 10. In 1956, our parents purchased the hotel next door to the cottage we had vacationed in on Martha’s Vineyard for the previous eight summers (the sellers included the cottage in the deal). The hotel had 36 rooms, full dining facilities, and a cocktail lounge. Twelve years later we left the Vineyard when my parents purchased Migis Lodge on Sebago Lake in South Casco, Maine. Since then, our family has been involved in either owning or managing five destination resort properties in Maine. As you might imagine, during this time we’ve met thousands of travelers vacationing in Maine, the State whose moniker is “Vacation Land”.
The purpose of this blog is to give those of you who are interested in Maine, whether you’re thinking of visiting, going to school in Maine, or just love the spectacular coastline (over 3500 miles long) and lakes of this State, a chance to see places and hear voices that those vacationing in the State rarely see or hear.
We’ll start with a short video clip of a favorite (out of the way) in-town Portland scene.