Creating a side venture: ALTS, a project focussed on projects

Garry Williams
Nov 4 · 6 min read
Photo Credit Justin Pearson (IG: @_flight.mode_)

I recently, very softly, launched a side-venture ALTS, which focusses on ‘unconventional career paths and the projects that consume us.’ How this manifests into output/ products/ stuff is by producing events and written content that covers a broad spectrum of the technology, cultural and creative ecosystem here in Melbourne and beyond.

Melbourne, Aus — a damn fine place to exist

You see, I’ve had a few years experience doing just this in a number of ways- from running the somewhat (in)famous FuckUp Nights events in Melbourne and Sydney with certified legend Josh Lipscombe, starting (and now re-launching) Melbourne Tech as a monthly activation, volunteering on the Melbourne chapter of the global talks series Creative Mornings, helping to curate programming for Pause Fest, MC’ing Startup Victoria events, etc. etc. etc…the list goes on.

I’m an eternally curious human being and I love playing a role in curating events and experiences that people can attend and really FEEL SOMETHING, you know what I mean? That little spark you feel when someone communicates something at an in-person event that piques your interest, helps trigger something for you to remember long afterwards, find out what is happening in the underbelly of the very city you live in and so on.

Recent crowd at our FuckUp Nights Melbourne event, October 2019 at the VIC Innovation Hub

And it is through these years of already delivering this content or being wrapped up in this scene that I’ve discovered much about myself. About my want to see a greater overlap in the tech and creative industries whilst bemused that they are consistently categorized as two seperate thingy-thangs.

A manifesto creation and Bob Sugar/ Jerry Maguire analogies go hand in hand I reckon…

My curiosity and passion for unearthing stories about subcultures and fringe industries has helped to generate the conception of ALTS in my mind, and is having a positive impact on my mindset as I seek to highlight projects and people, as opposed to just startups and businesses.

So, what is ALTS and why is this not just a one-page PR release shilling something?

As I mentioned previously, ALTS delivers a series of projects, mostly events and content for now, that emphasize unconventional career paths and the projects that consume us. This programming encompasses 4 event types (for now), sitting under the ‘A Lot To Share’ stream:

Myself and guest Kai Brach (Offscreen Mag / Dense Discovery newsletter at our recent AGENT: the human side of technology event, Oct 2019)
  • Melbourne Tech - monthly showcases, talks and trends events, highlighting Melbourne-based technology projects and companies, with an overlap between creative, cultural and technology industries. This is focussed on experiences and design.
  • FuckUp Nights - (sort of) monthly storytelling events where speakers share stories of failure in their lives and the wisdom and resilience they learn from such experiences.
  • AGENT- championing the makers and creators, where we lean into sub-culture territory
  • Snap Crackle Pop Culture - where we focus on aspects of pop-culture and how that impacts people who sit across multiple industries and where their projects play a part in that.

The A Lot To Share stream shall forge on throughout 2020 and see what interesting possibilities emerge through this intention of creative/ cultural/ tech mishmashing, and with other streams such as A Lot To Say, A Lot To Show and more on the radar…well, I’ll let you use your imagination on that one.

But the important thing to note in all this is that is intended as a highly collaborative process.

  • Between the speakers and fellow event curators who will also be a part of the ALTS vision officially and casually.
  • Between myself and the venues that host the events that play a hugely important role in that experience curation.
  • Between partners and sponsors who share that vision also and find importance in helping to play that small but significant role in influencing the ecosystem behaviour by unearthing people and projects that we can gravitate towards and aspire to create similar output with freedom of expression.

On that note, keep an eye out for ALTS Projects in Melbourne and potentially beyond. It will certainly be visibly out there, so feel free to attend our events, meet new people, get inspired, ping us on social media with your ideas and more.

Next event: Melbourne Tech Showcase (November)

Thursday November 7th at the VIC Innovation Hub feat. AKQA, nura and Leah Heiss

https://events.humanitix.com.au/melbtechshowcasenov

Melbourne Tech November Showcase highlighting AKQA creation ‘Neuromuscle’

Check us out on ze socials:

Instagram: @altsprojects_

Twitter: @altsprojects

Facebook: @altsprojects

Website: coming soon…

In the meantime, here are some projects I’ve been loving recently/ long-term:

Callum Preston — ‘Everything is Borrowed’

Melbourne artist Callum Preston is delivering his ‘Everything is Borrowed’ exhibition at the KSR Art Bar, Rialto from November 21st — December 7th. It’s a nod to collecting behaviour and mementos and the keepsakes we collect in our homes for sentimental reasons. Check out The Design Files feature on this awesome upcoming show here: https://thedesignfiles.net/2019/10/exhibition-callum-preston-everything-is-borrowed/

Young Henrys co-founder Oscar McMahon at the launch of the Pingala project in Young Henrys brewery, Newtown, NSW

Community focussed craft brewery legends Young Henrys launched a collaborative project with Pingala Co-operative to crowdfund a 33kW solar installation on the roof of the brewery. It raised $17,500 in 9 minutes! Check out details via One Step Off The Grid here: https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/sydney-community-solar-investment-round-raises-17500-9-minutes/

I work with an incredible person named Dr Niels Wouters, who created an AI Mean Machine called Biometric Mirror, which is an interactive application that takes your photo and analyses it to identify your demographic and personality characteristics. These include traits such as your level of attractiveness, aggression, emotional stability and even your “weirdness”. A video highlighting this somewhat creepy project (a lens into what is being utilized in shipping centres, airports and more) is here:

Biometric Mirror — very worth seeking out…

Making Things

An idea, which transitioned from a Facebook group to a new digital library of knitting & crochet patterns called ‘Making Things.’ Making Things grew out of the Startmate 2018 cohort into a global platform- check them out here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-idea-1m-startmate-megan-elizabeth-1c/

Side Project Sessions in full swing

Melbourne based legend Madeleine Dore, the brains behind Extraordinary Routines, an online platform telling the everyday stories of creatives, who is also running Side Project Sessions- a gathering which is peer-pressured productivity for your labour of love. It is quickly expanding to new chapters from its inception in Melbourne! https://sideprojectsessions.com/

And a million other stories like this, local and globally located!

Cheers,

Gaz Williams

@gwilliamsALTS

(This article is also published on LinkedIn HERE)

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