BIL Santa Cruz

Tickets are Now Available!

We don’t require that you pay, but you have the option to – BIL isn’t free to operate. If you choose to attend for free, we encourage you to volunteer. How, you ask? Check out our Wiki, and add your name to the Volunteer Page! (Almost every task has been covered by our awesome core volunteer team.)

You will also be able to register at the door, but please register online if you can.

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This is not a big conference. In fact, this is not a conference. It is an Unconference. It will be somewhat chaotic by its very nature. It will be egalitarian to an extreme that may surprise anyone used to conference stratification. It is an emergent phenomenon, and will be no more or less than what the all of the participants bring to the event.

Who talks at BIL:SC?

• You do.
• We are aiming for as wide a spread of ideas as possible. Some people likely to attend:
  • Social Entrepreneurs
  • Sociology, Economics and Politics Researchers
  • Inventors
  • Social Activists
  • Programmers and Game Designers
• Again, this is not a big event, and we aren’t paying for travel expenses or speaker fees. The people who come will be the people who will enjoy BIL, are free and are in the area.
• See the related events page. Urgent Evoke and the SE Summit attendees are very likely to enjoy this event, as both audiences are very project-oriented.

What will the structure be?

• There will be three rooms running simultaneously. In two rooms, speakers can give talks. In the third, smaller room, people can run discussion sections. These may follow up on a talk.
• There will be an hour lunch break – bring your own, eat at the campus dining hall or make a quick stop downtown.
• Ideas from the Ideas Canvas will be shared, and people will meet to form working groups on projects.
• After the event is officially over, we will all go out for dinner and enjoy more great conversation and company.

How is this organized and funded, and how do participants help?

• The main organizational tool we’re using to get things running is the Wiki. Anyone who wants to can edit and add to its pages.
• Funding comes from optionally priced tickets. BIL is free to attend, but not free to run. People who buy free tickets are encouraged to volunteer.
• Anyone speaking or organizing an activity can Register as a speaker after reading the speaker information page. You can also just add your name to the wiki schedule sketch page, if you aren’t worried about ensuring a slot, or if you aren’t sure you’ll give a talk. However, this is totally unofficial!
• We will write registered speakers’ talks in their preferred time slots on The Whiteboard. At the event, they can move their talks around, and unregistered speakers can add their names as well.

Why is BIL:SC?

• Why is BIL? BIL started as a response to TED – a wonderful conference from which fantastic ideas emerged, but extremely inaccessible. To promote truly open exchange and creation of ideas, BIL was created a few years ago.
• BIL:SC is about a huge set of problems which are too big for any one person to solve, and for which old methods haven’t worked. If we’re going to solve issues of global inequality, we need to explore a range and mixing of ideas like we’ve never seen before. And we can start by making our conference egalitarian, free and thematically broad.
• We want BIL to actually have impact. This is why we’re putting an emphasis on discussions, not just talks. The big hope is that BIL will spark ideas and form connections that will turn into projects.

Where and When is it exactly?

• Baskin Engineering on the UCSC Campus in Santa Cruz, California, from 9am to 5pm.
• How To Get There
• Rideshare
• Where To Stay

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