You live near a major university and a community college. There are smart people that come here every week to talk to the general public about interesting topics. Perhaps you were not aware of this fact, or were overwhelmed by the sheer number of opportunities for possible enlightenment. If that’s the case, Smile Politely understands and is here to help. Here are four events going on in town this week. Check out one or more of them if you have time.
If you have a community event, speaker, or film event that you’d like to see featured on Listen Up!, send the event information to joelgillespie [at] smilepolitely [dot] com by Friday the week prior to the event. Listen Up! runs Mondays at noon.
WHAT: Sustainability seminar – “Wind Farms in Central Illinois” by Randall Lloyd
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 5, 12 noon to 1 p.m.
WHERE: Illinois Sustainable Technolgy Center, One E. Hazelwood Dr., Champaign
From the speaker calendar: Randall Lloyd, Agricultural Awareness Coordinator for the University of Illinois Extension, McLean County, is involved with the Twin Groves Wind Farm in eastern McLean County as a land and turbine owner. He and his family have been involved with the project since its inception in 2001 and now have four turbines on their property southeast of Ellsworth. As part of his role as Agricultural Awareness Coordinator, Lloyd has developed a tour program where participants are able to observe the turbines “up close and personal!” The two hour tour includes the geography, geology and history of McLean County and the part these each play in the development of the Twin Groves Wind Farm. He also has a program for audiences unable to actually visit the wind farm. Over the past two years, more than 1,000 people have participated in these two programs, including visitors from six states and 44 foreign countries. He will share this program with us and provide insights about wind turbines and agriculture in Central Illinois. The seminar will be broadcast live on the ISTC website and archived there for later viewing.
WHAT: Nascent Entrepreneur Workshop: “Guerrilla Marketing” by Kimberly Sugden
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 5, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Levis Faculty Center, Music Room
Smile Politely: What will be the format of your talk?
Kimberly Sugden: The Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership runs the Nascent Entrepreneur Workshop series to educate both student entrepreneurs enrolled in our Innovation Teams Business Plan Competition, and also community members. The guerrilla marketing workshop this Thursday is open to anyone, and will be addressing how to create an effective marketing campaign, from pricing through to target market analysis and actual ad content. Some of these tools and case examples will be helpful for new entrepreneurs, people wanting to be intrapreneurs within a big company, and others who want to apply innovative creativity to class projects.
SP: How has the economic downturn affected marketing tactics for smaller businesses?
KS: I think sometimes in an economic downturn an entrepreneurs’ first reaction is to cut back on their marketing budget, when in fact the trends show that keeping marketing expenditures steady, even in troubled financial times, will help their business in the long-term. I think that smaller businesses should keep their marketing budgets steady, but perhaps they should re-analyze their marketing portfolio to make sure that they are getting the largest impact with the correct target audience for their dollars.
WHAT: “The Power of Heresy” by Dr. Anouar Majid
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 5, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Urbana Free Library: 210 W. Green St., Urbana
Smile Politely: What will be the format of your talk?
Anouar Majid: The talk will in the form of lecture inviting questions and discussion. No media aids will be used.
SP: Do academics or non-academics normally take more of an interest in your appearances?
AM: In my experience, yes. I have spoken in varied venues, and I’d say the interest is shared across the social spectrum.
SP: Is your call for heresy better-accepted in Muslim or Christian circles?
AM: I would say, Christians, but Muslims have been responsive, too. It just happens that there not as many Muslims interested in heresy as there are Christians.
WHAT: Colloquium – Title: “The Priority of Rightful Care to Virtuous Care: A Critique of the Care Tradition” by Dr. Helga Varden
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 6, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: 213 Gregory Hall
Contemporary liberal theories of justice have been rightly criticized not only for their neglect of care relations, but also for their inability to capture the inherent asymmetry, dependency and particularity constitutive of relations of care. Over the last three decades, the care tradition has been central to identifying these problems in liberal theories. Nevertheless, in this paper I argue that the care tradition actually reproduces the same problems in their own accounts of care. The reason is, I suggest, that much liberal theory and the care tradition agree on the voluntarist assumption that good interactions only require virtuous individuals. Moreover, I argue that when we, as we should, give up this voluntarist presumption, we not only realize that rightful care is prior to virtuous care in a sense not appreciated by either account, but we also obtain the tools needed for addressing issues of systemic injustice.