date: Sat, Nov 15
location: uptown @ Charlotte Observer

As the first event of its type in the Queen City, Charlotte WordCamp is a conference on all things blogging. Why WordCamp? The conference is focused on WordPress, currently the most popular blogging software. Registration opened up last week and is already 50% full. It is $15 to attend if you register before Oct 31. This includes a t-shirt and a light lunch.

Charlotte WordCamp is open to all interest levels. Whether you have never blogged before and want to learn the basics, or you’re a pro that wants to network, teach, and learn some tips, WordCamp will not disappoint.

Speakers on programming, design, content, and promotion will form 3 open discussion panels. We are also lucky to have one of the lead developers for WordPress, Mark Jaquith, as our keynote speaker. The day’s events look like this:

• 10:00 – 11:00: WordPress for Beginners
• 10:00 – 11:00: WordPress.org Roundtable
• 11:30 – 12:15: Technical & Design Panel
• 12:15 – 01:00: Lunch
• 01:00 – 01:45: Content Development/Technique Panel
• 02:00 – 02:45: Promotion/Marketing Panel
• 03:00 – 04:00: Keynote Speaker (w/ Q&A) – Mark Jaquith

15 minute breaks (Lunch: 45 minutes)

watch this video on YouTube

Follow Norman around the Queen City on his hunt for gas. You can also find him on Twitter, YouTube, his website and blog.

image via Niner Nation

At the close of business Friday, a little more than 30 hours after the announcement by Chancellor DuBois that he supported football at UNC Charlotte, the Athletic Department had collected requests for 823 seat licenses. This would be about 16.5% of DuBois’ initial benchmark of 5,000 ($1k each for $5 million), which is 1/6th of the goal in less than 2 days.

Keep in mind no money is changing hands yet and all this is dependent on the Board adopting DuBois’ recommendation and suggested plan.

Interesting note: At Noon on Friday the numbers averaged out to around 3 tickets requested per person. If that holds up, only around 1,700 alumni buyers would be needed to reach the goal.

Read more at the Gold Mine, a blog by Jim Utter at the Charlotte Observer.

This is off Mallard Creek Rd. in Charlotte. I usually ride my bike on a trail that leaves from these soccer fields and follows a creek as part of the Charlotte Greenway trail system. Rain for 3 days straight and 4.5 inches yesterday alone has crested that creek to about 14 feet above normal. The rain is all Hurricane Fay remnants pounding NC. The water was actually about 5 feet higher, covering the road, a few hours before.

It should be noted that this area is designed to flood. This creek is so low compared to the surrounding University area that all the water rushes down from the paved areas and fills like a gutter. Still, it rarely gets this high.

More video and photos on Flickr, or view them embedded in this post.

Trade and Tryon, looking at the BOA tower

This entry was cross-posted at Design Charlotte.

On June 10th, Charlotte, NC was added to Street View, the collection of interactive, panoramic photos that Google Maps has been adding to since May of last year. Charlotte is thoroughly covered by Google, with every conceivable part of town and suburb getting some type of showing, including almost everything within the 485 loop.

As soon as Google Street View launched, bloggers all over the country started showcasing the weird and intriguing things caught in the moment by the Google cameras as they drove by. We look forward to the candid finds – good or bad – that await Charlotte now that we have joined the fray.

Below is a cool shot of Trade and Tryon, as well as a regional and national map to show you where Google is so far, including some broad coverage of the Triangle and Triad from Winston to Raleigh. If you find anything good on Google’s Street View of Charlotte, be sure to let us know.

Trade and Tryon, pedestrians, trolley, statues

Mid Atlantic Region covered by Google Street View

Nation covered by Google Street View

This entry was cross-posted at DesignCharlotte.org.

The Fat City Lofts developers are sponsoring “The Graffiti Exhibition” on Friday from 6 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. at 3100 N. Davidson St., Suite 104. Visitors can examine graffiti artists’ conceptual ideas for covering a wall of the residential-retail building and vote on their preferences. Five participating artists plan to paint the seventy-foot-tall wall that faces the Uptown skyline. (Read more in the Charlotte Observer).

date: Friday, June 6
time: 9:30 p.m.

Those of you who remember the old venue of Fat City Deli know how unique it was in character and the culture that it helped to foster in NoDa. As Fat City Lofts (more images below) near completion, I am glad to see their proprietors looking for community involvement in paying homage to the old Fat City.

These lofts are by no means a replacement for the original Fat City, and I am not even sure if they will include anything resembling a music venue. However, I think they will be a value-add to NoDa. More young residents, an attempt to retain some of the funkiness of the neighborhood, and more commercial/retail space will only contribute to continued growth in NoDa.

Let’s be honest: once an area becomes hip and funky, the developers will soon follow. In my opinion, the best thing is to do your part in making sure the culture grows with the buildings.

“Five artists, including some who painted the original designs on the building, will display their creative concepts Friday night at a NoDa event where people can vote on their preferences.

No matter which design is selected, [Doggett Advertising's Heather Coggins] said, the artists will work together to paint the side of the 70-foot-tall building that faces the uptown skyline.

Fat City Lofts, which includes 26 condos and 8,000 square feet of street-level retail, is the latest example of the neighborhood’s transition from restored mill houses to commercial and multi-family development.”

source: Doug Smith, Charlotte Business Journal

This entry was cross-posted at DesignCharlotte.org.

Yeah, I know, “Another social networking site?”

Bear with me. BrightKite.com has a cool twist. Think Twitter (network-based micro-blogging) combined with Google Maps. The short of it is you can see your network on an actual map.

“Brightkite enables location-based community and friendships on the fly. Discover social communities around your favorite venue, restaurant, park etc… Explore who is there, who was there, what they are saying, photos are posting, etc.”

Brightkite.com

And, yes, you have complete control over showing where you are (if at all) and to whom. Also, there are certain cell phones and services that have rolled out similar services, but Brightkite is the first one that crosses over to all the networks and cellphones, and works without a cellphone through their network.

The site launched less than two weeks ago, and you have to get an invite to take part for now. It has taken off just through invites, with no marketing yet. I see cool potential here and want to see Charlotte take part as a community of early adopters. The more locals on the site, the more fun the site will be for everyone.

More details:

• update your location as an address, zipcode, city, longitude/latitude, etc.
• update via email, website, or through the simplest text messaging
• iPhone owners have been a big part of Brightkite’s early growth
• an iPhone site is coming soon
• GPS integration is coming (maybe when the GPS-enabled iPhone 2.0 drops)
• API is coming very soon (within a couple of weeks)
• target demographic was 15-25 year old, but has had larger than expected 25+ growth
• a couple early hiccups include major Verizon issues and T-Mobile lagging

Leave a comment below, make sure we have your email address, and we’ll send you an invite. Or send us a DM on Twitter @cltblog. Thanks to BrightKite for giving us a few extra invites for the Charlotte area!

This entry was cross-posted at DesignCharlotte.org.

Off The Wall is the first graffiti-inspired art show in Charlotte and opens this coming Friday at the Charlotte Art League, a Southend art gallery. The exhibit will showcase graffiti and graffiti-inspired artwork, featuring veteran graffiti artist Desism, among others.

gallery crawl & reception: May 2, 6-9 pm
showing: May 2 – 30

During Art and Soul this past weekend, some area artists were promoting the upcoming show by decorating the gallery walls with graffiti. It was definitely refreshing to see this in action inside of a gallery in Charlotte. As much as I love Charlotte’s art shows, it’s often more corporate and safe art than truly inspiring unique work  (Southend, NODA, and Central Ave being the exceptions to the rule).

And yes, the city and companies have already begun to complain. “I know there’s a perception that this is an ‘urban art form’ for artists ‘without a canvas,’ but I think that’s a naive and elitist approach,” said Michael Sullivan of the city’s code enforcement division (quotation via the Charlotte Observer). I have no idea where the man is coming from when it comes to the “elitist” comment, but to each his own.

As much as people may not understand or want graffiti to be an art form, it is. It has graced the finest galleries in the world for some time and is cultivated in positive ways in the biggest cities in the world. The City of Charlotte does not even allow a private business to set aside its own wall space as a controlled and welcomed canvas for graffiti. The City needs to differentiate between illegal graffiti, mainly done by teens and gangs, and the art that will be on display this Friday. Charlotte needs more murals and public space available for unique art to be shared with the city. Frescoes bought by Bank of America and decorated rocking chairs are nice, but by no means cover the breadth of art that is out there.

“…a Cornelius police officer in an unmarked car saw the suspects breaking into a house on Will Knox Road… The suspects, driving a silver SUV allegedly stolen from Huntersville on Tuesday, veered around the stop sticks and the pursuit began. When the suspects got to Sherwood Road, they allegedly carjacked a Huntersville town employee at gunpoint, taking his public works pickup truck with a trailer attached.”

This all went down a few days ago on Wednesday, April 9th. Read more from WCNC staff.

“Charlotte’s trolley, which some credit with laying the groundwork for light rail, will resume service again Sunday after a two-year hiatus. Three replica trolleys will run from uptown to the historic South End, using the same tracks as the Lynx Blue Line.”

Read more from Steve Harrison at The Observer. When we searched for a better picture of the new CATS trolleys, we were surprised to find this striking new design.

Back by popular demand, the Thursday Night Concert Series, River Jam, sets off May 1st – with what looks to be a pretty eclectic set of acts throughout May. The US National Whitewater Center is definitely one of Charlotte’s hidden gems. Charlotteans are just beginning to discover what the center has to offer, and with more events like this, hopefully more people will stop by to see the secluded charm of the place. If you haven’t seen the Whitewater Center yet and dig good music, here is your chance to checkout both. Or in their words:

“Catch a unique Whitewater Center sunset over the river and eat some great food; you won’t find a more relaxed scene anywhere!”

Studiobanks is a young, web-focused design firm that has steadily recruited bigger and bigger clients over the years, always delivering unique eye-catching designs. Of note recently is their work on the Muzak family of websites, the Kublin’s Transportation website (above), and Dilworth Billiards. All are very slick, especially Kublin’s with its awesome animation work. More stories about them here.

Another stylin’ Charlotte design shop, Carbonhouse, is making a name for itself by whipping out some big websites for arenas and venues like the Sprint Center (Kansas City), the Target Center (Minneapolis), and the Prudential Center (Newark).

The trend started locally with the Bobcats Arena and Blumenthal Performing Arts Center websites. They partnered with an event venue expert, perfected the venue website product, and haven’t looked back. Read more about Carbonhouse here or on their blog.

Both of these up-and-coming creative shops are smaller than your typical ad agency in town, but have consistently competed with established agencies, producing great-looking design, as well as garnering local Addy awards and building a richer creative community in Charlotte as a whole.

Target Center Website by Carbonhouse

Muzak Website by Studiobanks

Sprint Center Website by Carbonhouse

“Dilworth is the latest Charlotte neighborhood that hopes to hire moonlighting police to cut crime — or at least allay the fear of it…. In Dilworth, over Easter weekend, a man and woman walking down Worthington Avenue were assaulted at gunpoint. About three weeks ago, a couple fled a robbery attempt. In December, an employee of Owen’s Bagel & Deli on South Boulevard was carjacked.”

Read more by Greg Lacour at The Observer.