Interesting. As I sat watching TEDxMidAtlantic, I assumed that Christiana Aretta was being paid because of the amount of time and effort she was putting in. It was a long day, and photographing was work that did not allow her to view the event.

I attended the event primarily as a viewer, volunteering to take photographs out of interest and as a thank you for the help I received gaining entrance to the event late in the day.

I would not have asked to be paid for such an event in part because of my interest in the event and in part because people hosting the event are people who I respect and who hold other similar community events throughout the year that are made up of volunteerism.

Besides we are being paid through the people we meet at the event, receiving recognition online through hundreds of views and blogs using our images, future work, and good will of the people.

The comment should appear on the site after moderation. How do you feel about volunteerism in this situation?

Seth Godin’s blog appears in my RSS feed. I read what he has to say–some of it gets me, some of it doesn’t. When I read about his November sessions, I immediately wanted to attend. Then I noticed the cost of each session and nearly fell out of my chair.

I can’t afford to go to any of his sessions!

Instantaneously I asked myself what people paying for his sessions would want? A way to show that they have been their of course! I thought to myself, is there going to be a photographer there? Would someone be documenting the people attending the session?

Not only do I feel that this would be desired by the attendees to show they were there, it could be a money maker for the photographer–selling pictures back to the attendees, to a news source, or just to draw traffic to the photographers blog–it also is great publicity for Seth Godin in general.

So I am firing this off into the world wide web in hopes that Seth sees it, contacts me, and I get to attend as the photographer for a session or two. I am passively doing this because if he invites me, great, if he doesn’t I wont have to skip class for great opportunities!

Lesson learned, creating utility for others opens doors for even more utility to be created.

The real matter is my interests have become more complicated to express.
I am no longer just trying to brand myself, I am trying to incorporate an idea into it.
Trying to make myself appear a certain way is harder. Perhaps I should just focus on my interests.

So you know, here is what I would love to dabble in as a career:
I love the idea of marketing and media.
I would love to be involved in recording/promoting music. This industry just fascinates me!
It’s explosive.
I also love movies and photography. The more I work with film and still, the more I want to be creative.
Real estate. This is perhaps a lofty dream right now, but something I want to try my hand at as well.

Right now I am in school for photography/cinematography.
It is a far cry from computer science, which I started with, and the entrepreneurship I studied last year.
Believe me I am still interest in both of those! (Computer science I have a less formal interest for.)

So if you work in one of these fields, marketing, new media, recording, cinema, photography, I want to hear from you.
Follow you on Twitter.
Read your blog.
Talk to you.
Attend your event.
Learn from you.

Perhaps the reason for this blog has come half circle–I had a lot of ideas, now I need to sit back, shut up, and learn again.
Patience isn’t my greatest virtue.
I would rather be doing in the field than in school.
So help me out by contacting me about events, ways I can help, internships, et cetera.
I hold residence in both New York State and Pennsylvania. If you have events in NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, or somewhere in between, let me know!

Email sethnenstiel [at] gmail [dot] com, or on Twitter, @pyrosarco.

Looking at this idea, I thought that this might be a good idea to implement for young adults.  Late teens and early twenty year olds would be the target demographic.  More specifically young adults who still live with their parents but want a place to hang out where they can listen to music, talk, stay up all hours of the night with out distrupting anyone, while still maintaining a safe and friendly environment.  Granted this need is filled by college, if a student lives on campus.  But for those who commute, choose not to be involved in (crazy) partying, or during the summer time, this could be a viable option.

In any instance the business structure would be designed around membership levels.  Ideally enough people would join to pay the rent or mortgage on the space where this ‘hangout spot’ is and everything above and beyond would go to the investor and back into the facility.  Membership cold be broken down into levels like at the coworking spaces.  Certain levels would have all hours access to the facility and be trusted to be their.  This would be at more of a cost and through a tighter contract.  Other membership levels would have a more basic access to the facility, during only certain hours–in this case maybe from 10:30pm to 9am.  Enough time to let people in before curfew and out at a reasonable time in the morning. 

Othere thoughts immediately go to liability.  Agreements which outline the rules, would have to be signed by the users of the facility.  Some quick regulations that come to mind are:

1. No use of substances, ie. drugs and alcohol.  After all this is a varied range of people.
2. No conducting business out of the facility.
3. No weapons in the facility.
4. A clause stating that by ignoring the rules will result in proper action being taken, ie. you get kicked out, forfeit the money you paid for your membership, and legal action may be taken against you.

More thought would have to go into it and a lawyer would have to be consulted.  But beyond the obvious cliche of rules, the people using the facility should have free range to do just about anything they want that isn’t destructive.  Video games, music, sleep, eat, talk, socialize in general.  The facility could even be rented out on off peak nights–like Sunday through Thursday for occasions, birthday parties, parties in general, and other events.  The facitity if large enough could host small shows for bands and facilitate other cultural experiences.  But the main premise behind having the location is giving young adults a place to hang out late a night that isn’t disruptive to the community in general.

I would love to hear thoughts or suggestions on the matter.