Content Poll

After spending all last week at CNU 21 in Salt Lake City, I'm back at Strong Towns HQ today finding myself buried in the details of payroll, grant reporting and other logistical details that were neglected for the last week, despite their urgency. Looking ahead, I'm headed to Ontario on Wednesday for an event in Niagara. Very excited about that, but it is going to limit what among this amazing CNU 21 content I can get processed and online for you.

So, you the actively engaged reader/listener, help us decide where to prioritize. I hope to have these all our in the next couple of weeks, but if I can only get one done this week, which one is it?

CNU 21: Closing Plenary

It is a great honor to be asked to speak at the closing plenary. Thank you for all of those that stuck around. I've attached the slides for those of you that would like them and will be uploading the audio in a future podcast.

Strong Towns began as a blog. We still publish three times a week (at least). We also have a podcast that you can get weekly from our site and also through iTunes. We started a TV channel (inspired by Steve Mouzon's OG.tv) which can be accessed through our site or on YouTube.

This year we started the Strong Towns Network, a social space for those of you interested in discussing how to implement Strong Towns (and CNU) principles in the trenches at the local level. If you signup (free) you'll see a lot of familiar names. 

We have many other initiatives going, but the most popular one is our Curbside Chat program. We've held these community conversations in over a hundred places across the continent. It is a game-changer. If you are interested in hosting one in your community, we have a signup form where you can get a hold of us.

At CNU 21 we made the announcement to our NextGen friends, and will make it here as well, that long time CNU member Jim Kumon has joined Strong Towns as Executive Director. If you have a question, a project or something you'd like to engage Strong Towns with, he's the go to guy. You can email him at jkumon@strongtowns.org or give him a call at 218-828-3064.

I hope you'll explore our site a little bit, but if you'd like quick hit, here are a few of the most popular posts we've developed:

• Confessions of a Recovering Engineer

• The Growth Ponzi Scheme

• Conversation with an Engineer (video)

• The Curbside Chat (booklet)

• Thoughts on Building Strong Towns (book)

• The ASCE Infrastructure Cult

• From the Mayor's Office

Finally, I planned to put together the long list of my CNU friends that I need to thank for encouraging me, supporting me, gently critiquing my work and inspiring me to go further. As I worked on that list, it not only got enormous, but I kept thinking of other obvious people I had failed to include. My fear of overlooking someone is going to keep me from publishing that list here, but to my friends and colleagues: so many thanks. I know that I've taken no steps alone. Thank you for all you do.

Strong Towns is a 501(c)3 non profit organization. If you want to help us share this message and have the means, please consider supporting our work.

Plenary Slides

CNU 21: Day 3

If you are here in Salt Lake City today, we're going to be doing a podcast or two in the main conference hotel. We'll be set up in the hallway where the registration desk is, at the far end near the bathrooms. Stop by and say hi. 

All I have to say about last night's NextGen Debate: Amazing! Like I promised yesterday, that was a crazy fun time. Thank you to our judges and participants for making it all possible, as well as Justin Burslie, Dan Bartman and Matt Steele for helping to run it. Crazy fun.

The only negative feedback I heard I received separately from three different people. They were all upset that they were not going to be allowed the opportunity to get on stage and make their argument. One even told me he didn't get the signup request but that he be allowed to speak anyway (it was a NextGen event -- there was no signup request). Only at CNU would people wander into a random event and expect s speaking slot. It's part of the charm of being here.

With all of the setup and takedown, I didn't get a chance to add much in the way of content yesterday evening, but I got good audio from the entire debate, did some additional audio around the Congress yesterday and I know that Nate Hood was out shooting SID.tv video of Salt Lake City, so there is sure to be some stuff forthcoming.

Here's the day's feed from our team.

Tweets from @StrongTowns/strong-towns-at-cnu-21