Synergy Conference -- May 6th thru May 9th

The ironic thing about being enough of a bike geek that you eventually manage to make it not only into your full-time job, but in fact a full-time dream job, is that it's very easy to spend all the best biking days in the shop, building up bikes for other folks and making sure cool old bikes are ready to roll. I've managed to make sure I get in 37 miles of riding in each work day by the clever use of geography, living at the base of the Issaquah Alps while working at Bike Works in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle. And while my daily three hour tour is a clearest and treasured part of my day, there still are times when I long to ramble farther.

Next week, I'm rambling to Olympia. The bike shop will survive and thrive in the able hands of my colleagues while I roll off to visit the state capitol. I'll be attending, speaking and giving a seminar at the Synergy Conference at Evergreen State College. From 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on Wednesday May 6th, I'll be talking about Bike Works, the Bikery, the Village Bicycle Project and how the synergy of various non-profit groups, individuals, businesses and government agencies work together to turn trash into transportation. The second part of the session will be hands-on work making bike fenders and luggage out of coroplast campaign signs. The folks at Evergreen have promised to have plenty of old signs, zip-ties and tools on hand. It should be a good time.


Aside from knowing exactly where I'll be for three hours on Wednesday, my schedule next week is pretty loose. I'll probably be attending some of the other seminars and talks at Synergy and I'll be doing my touring/hobo thing between Issaquah and Olympia. I'll consult my buddy Dr. Codfish to get his take on routing advice but if any of you cyberspace folks are in the Olympia area and want to meet up, drop me a note. And if any of you can make it to my seminar, I can tell you that if you like this blog, you'll probably like my talk. And you'll get to play with coroplast, which is always fun.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent