sweetriot blog - cacao | culture | cool!

TED 2008.

Intense.   I seriously haven't been able to blog about TED for 7 days because I was percolating on the experience.   Anyway, TED is a conference held annually on the West Coast, which is highly thought provoking; in addition, at the conference and through out the year, the TED organization works to create a community of people who are committed to changing the world through business and more.

Not only did I attend TED but sweetriot was lucky to be featured there and attendees and speakers were happily sharing and snacking on cacao through out the 4 days.

Some of my favorite speakers are not yet online but they will be soon at TEDTalks.  Benjamin Zander of the Boston Symphony was absolutely fantastic.  I will say that one of my favorite presentations used this website - World Mapper - it's an amazing way to look at world statistics.

And lastly, my favorie part of TED was definitely the people...here are a few pictured above.  Artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, and more.

Faith Popcorn.

Faith Popcorn is one of our favorite futurist marketing gurus and she recently hosted the visionary Majora Carter to speak at her home.   sweetriot was of course standing by for the happy guests...

GOOD, Kiva, & sweetriot!

Our friends at GOOD magazine threw another great party with their non profit partner, Kiva.   Kiva facilitates microlending online around the world, and I was happy my friend Jessica, Kiva's co founder, came out to NYC. 

sweetriot was happy to stand by and to support their efforts - Clare did a great job rioting with the crowd.  Here are a few great pictures and GOOD's blog on the event.

The rioters at Woodstock.

It was a cold, winter day and we made the trek to Woodstock, NY, the original artists colony, for our annual planning retreat.  There was no better place for a team of hippie capitalists to think of the future.  Woodstock today is still full of artists, peace symbols, little shops and restaurants and a great vibe.  Perfect place for planning and thanks to my sister, Mary, for finding our little Inn.

On our way home, we made a ceremonial visit to the original site of the famed Woodstock concert weekend held in Bethel Woods in Bethel, NY.   Alas, the site is actually over 1 hour through the Catskill Mountains from the small town of Woodstock.  The concert was originally supposed to be held in Woodstock but they had to search for a larger site to accommodate all of the visitors.   Needless to say, it was a great site to see.

Here's some amazing trivia from Wikipedia:
"Woodstock was a profit-making venture, aptly titled "Woodstock Ventures". Around 186,000 tickets were sold beforehand and organizers anticipated approximately 200,000 festival-goers would turn up[5]. The fence was purposely cut by the UAW/MF family in order to create a totally FREE EVENT. Tickets for the event cost US$18 in advance. Ticket sales were limited to record stores in the greater NYC area, or by mail via a Post Office Box at the Radio City Station Post Office located in Midtown Manhattan.

The festival came amidst military conflict abroad and racial discord at home. It was the biggest bash for the counterculture and is a reminder of the youthful hedonism and excess of the 60s. It was a culmination of what the counterculture meant - the bands appealed to the generation that was questioning the direction of American society. Many of the biggest artists of the 60s were at the Festival, and it was their influence on the youth that brought them together to a farm in Bethel to struggle against bad weather, food shortages and poor sanitation[7].  Minds were open, drugs were available and love was “free”. It was a festival where nearly 500,000 "hippies" came together to celebrate under the slogan of “three days of peace and music”.   

Womensphere in NYC!

The good people at Womensphere recently invited us to speak about entrepreneurship at their inaugural conference.   Congrats to Analisa and her team for a great event!

Net Impact!

Net Impact invited us to address their NYC chapter recently to talk about business with a social impact.   We had a great crowd at the 'Riot Room!' from all over the New York area.  Our friends from Peak Organic, Whole Foods, and Honest Tea all donated product, and Clare was a rock star organizer!  Net Impact is great organization in case you haven't heard of them.

Fashion Week rioting!

It was an amazing Fashion Week in NYC with beautiful artistic design abounding... sweetriot loves to support artists of all forms. 

sweetriot was featured backstage at numerous shows including Charlotte Ronson, The House of Organic, Tracy Reese, Twinkle, Akiko, Tony Cheng, and Nicole Romano.   Here are a few photos backstage with Tracy Reese and Charlotte Ronson and some amazing shots from the runway.  Huge thanks to Clare and Karlie for organizing!   

Fancy Foods Show in San Diego & Whole Foods Napa!

Sundance came so quickly, I didn't even have a chance to tell you about the Fancy Food Show in San Diego and the Whole Foods Napa opening!    Whew, things have been crazy.   (Did I tell you Josh Hartnett, Mary Kate Olsen, and Paris Hilton all were seen with sweetriot at Sundance?) 

The team went to San Diego for the annual Fancy Food Show and then Geneve and I flew straight to Napa for a Whole Foods store opening.  We met the mayor of Napa who was scared of us until she realized we weren't real protestors.  :) 

I'm not really sure what is going on lately with mayors rioting ...when we arrived in Park City, UT, one of our first new friends was the Mayor of Park City.  He too was a chocolate lover.  sweetriot is not political but let's say hats off to those mayors who serve our cities!  They deserve cacao too!

Colin Farrell on a diet?

I met Colin Farrell on the street at Sundance and asked him if he wanted some chocolate.   He said in his THICK Irish accent, "Sorry, sweetie, I'm on a diet."   Too bad his posse was moving too fast to even hear more - sweetriot is only 1-2 calories per 'peace' and absolutely perfect for Colin's diet.  He's missing out!  :)  (Check out his film here -In Bruges - it opened Sundance!)

On the other hand, Freddy Rodriquez happily ate sweetriot and was quite sweet.

Sundance Film Festival scenes...

We're live at the Sundance Film Festival!  Park City is beautiful as usual -- it's a bit overcrowded this year (or should I say waaaay overcrowded?!)  There are lines and people absolutely everywhere.   Here are a few shots.   

Clare and I are spreading sweetriot through out the festival!  :)   You can find us at the Gen Art St Ives Lounge, The New York Lounge, the Stereo Scanty Party, The always cool and ever stylish Queer Lounge and more!