Thinklandia kicks off with Mayor’s Medal Award

What: Thinklandia When: Friday through Thursday Where: Yates Street Parkade Rooftop (585 Yates St.) and Thinklandia HQ (1001 Blanshard St.) Admission: Free

As if four days of variousvenue musical variety at next week’s Rifflandia Festival wasn’t enough, organizers have put together an additional seven days of free programming under the Thinklandia banner.

Conceived in part by Joey MacDonald, creative programming director for Rifflandia, the roster of 30 guest speakers set to appear beginning Friday runs the gamut from digital entrepreneur Lauren Friese and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps to Veritasium host Derek Muller and Pitchfork editor and author Jessica Hopper. And that scattershot list of speakers is precisely how MacDonald envisioned his “creative festival” would take shape.

“It’s pretty hard to distill,” he said of the amorphous Thinklandia concept. “Every time we try, we realize it’s impossible.”

Each day of programming has a unique theme, from Perspectives (Sept. 15) to Entrepreneurship (Sept. 17). In all, plenty of bases will be covered, always with an emphasis on community. “We get to be adaptive, and that ultimately forms the parameters of what we do,” MacDonald said.

“The interesting thing about it is that it’s process. Each year we understand it a little bit better, and then we expand on that. The free model makes the most sense, because it doesn’t exclude anyone.”

Opening night gets underway Friday amid audio-visual installations on the rooftop of the parkade at 585 Yates St. Green consultant Jill Doucette and artist Rande Cook are both on tap to speak, and will set the tone for a night of public-themed talks that will culminate with Helps naming the first-ever Mayor’s Medal Award winners, given to those who are “making a difference in our community,” according to MacDonald.

Six winners will be recognized in areas that include Public, Environment, Arts, Transition, Legacy and Disruption. The open call for nominations brought to the sixmember jury a host of candidates, MacDonald said.

“I can’t think of any other award that has this kind of process, because it was up to the community to bring these forward. We were able to cover a lot of ground, and recognize people for things other than what are typically recognized. Some of these winners would slip through the cracks if not for the nominations and this jury.”

Thinklandia is larger in scope than previous editions, and it marks the first time the intent of organizers — to merge various creative aspects under one umbrella — will come to full fruition. The reason for that is simple, MacDonald admitted.

“We had more time to work on it,” MacDonald said. “Day One of Thinklandia 2015 began quite literally the day after Thinklandia 2014.”

The event “had to be bigger,” he added, if organizers were to continue reaching out to speakers across North America. He was in contact with 120 speakers from around the world, but could only book 30. After he secured commitments from guests who were interested but could not make Thinklandia this year, a lot of the 2016 roster is already lined up. That doesn’t mean his job will be any easier, MacDonald said with a laugh.

So much could change between now and then.

“It’s terrifying in one sense, but it’s liberating in another. It is so broad, but it’s nice to know that is enough to build a festival around.”