The folks at the Waffle Shop are looking for your big idea – really big ideas – and if your big idea is the best idea you could win $250 and Free Waffles for a Year!  You don’t have to be in Pittsburgh to win either.  If you aren’t in town to attend the idea event on Oct. 3, 2009 – they will have an actor stand in for you.

Here are the details (see the Facebook page for the event here):

Call For Proposals!

The Waffle Shop, in conjunction with The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, would like to invite YOU to pitch your mind-blowing visionary idea for the future for possible inclusion in a live contest on Saturday, October 3, 2009. The winning concept will be broadcast to the cosmos and will receive a year’s worth of free waffles, along with a $250 cash prize.

The Ideas:

We’re looking for really BIG ideas here, not just a run-of-the-mill proposals for a more fuel-efficient car or a better coffee grinder, but visionary schemes for things like: how to survive the end of the planet, a way for animals to run governments, a cloning system that reinvents history, or an entire alternate universe of your own design.

The Event:

Ten participants will be selected from all walks of life, from scientists to bricklayers, children to seniors, to pitch their visionary proposals in front of a live audience and panel of judges on October 3rd at the Waffle Shop in Pittsburgh. Locals to the area will pitch in person and international participants will present their ideas at the event live via a skype-feed body double*. Local experts from diverse fields will act as judges.

Participants will be chosen based on the nature of their idea and their ability to pitch it to a live audience. The idea must be presented orally and without any electronic accompaniment (no laptops, video projections, CD players, transparencies). Each delivered pitch will be limited to a maximum of 4 minutes in length, with 2 minutes for questions from our panel of judges. The top three selected contestants will then defend their proposal against questions from the entire audience.

The Body Double*:

As all participants may not be able to join the contest in person, the event will provide an actor who will pitch in absentia. The actor will wear headphones connected to a live Skype feed of the absent participant. The virtual participant will pitch their idea as if they were present, and the actor present at the event will repeat verbatim the audio feed they receive from the virtual contestant. Materials may be shipped to the event so that the actor may utilize visual aids during the presentation.

Please send a brief abstract of your written proposal, as well as a short biography, to dawnweleski@gmail.com. Abstracts must be 500 words or less and may include visuals. All applications must be received by September 13. All applicants will be contacted no later than September 20.

Waffle Shop is an experimental platform for media production and public dialogue that combines a restaurant with the production of an online TV show directly on the premises. At Waffle Shop, our customers are our funders, audience and participants as we film each night, inviting interested patrons to express their unique opinions and personalities. Our recordings are streamed live on our website during our open hours, and then produced into episodes which are broadcast publicly 24 hours a day in the windows of the storefront, and made available through our online archive. For more information, please visit: http://www.waffleshop.org

The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University presents 29 Chains to the Moon: Artists’ Schemes for a Fantastic Future, an exhibition that runs from August 28 through December 6. Curated by Andrea Grover, 29 Chains to the Moon features artists who forth radical proposals, from seasteads and tree habitats to gift-based cultures, to make the world work for everyone. For more information, please visit: http://www.cmu.edu/millergallery/exhibitions/29chainstothemoon

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