howies®

Yesterday was my last day at howies.

It was my choice to leave.

It was a hard thing to do and easy thing to do.

The morale of the story is simple.

If you find something you love, you should never sell your love.

When other people own your dream, destiny is no longer in your hands.

And yes, leaving the company I helped to start is super-painful.

But pain makes for a good teacher if you listen to what it is telling you.

It teaches you what is important to you. And what is not.

So from this day forward howies will begin to appear in my rear-view mirror.

At the same time I will be sitting in my shed with Sonny (my dog) working away on the future.

Keeping me company will be the knowledge that Patagonia was not Yvon’s first company, Esprit was not Doug’s first company, and Steve Jobs got sacked from Apple.

For me those are good role models to have in the shed with you.

Luckily for howies Clare is staying. She will be the soul-keeper now.

And lastly, I just wanted to say thank you to you.

It’s been fun working for you.

My thanks.

David Hieatt

At an appropriate time, I will write a magazine article telling you all the behind the scenes bits that made me decide to leave.

I have been giving you the wrong stats.

Soup, our website guru’s, checked their server and they worked out half a million people have watched last years talks.

So this year’s aim of getting a million people isn’t so crazy.

if you would like to keep up with events, talks, gossip, stuff, you can now subscribe to a quarterly newsletter.

go to: www.dolectures.com

and there is a subscribe sidebar, just click on that.

Today we draw a name out of the hat.

The person picked out will be taking one of these seats at The Do Lectures.

We will announce the winner this afternoon.

If you want to go into the hat this afternoon, you need to become a Do lectures founding member.

It costs £50.

You have a 1-20 chance of coming on down.

Going. Going…..

e-mail:claire@thedolectures.co.uk

The t-shirt of the week ends in half an hour.

These films are made by you, uploaded by you.

a simple 23 seconds video about why we should pick you to come the do lectures.

Here’s our first one.

The talks held here once a year are gathering momentum.

People came from 141 countries.

People from 4,695 cities.

When you start to add up all the figures, the talks got close to 100,000 visits. (I don’t the exact figure as I don’t know what we did on Itunes)

The talks are called The Do Lectures. (www.thedolectures.co.uk)

The aim is to get Doers from all around the world, to tell their stories.

Their stories are inspirational.

They show us the way like cat’s eyes in the road.

This year the aim is to get 1 million people to see the talks.

And yup, it’s a big aim for a small tent.

But why not.

If you would like to help The Do lectures, become a founding member.

It costs £50.

For that you’ll get:

A free Do Lectures 2009 T-shirt.

And you’ll have a 1 in 20 chance of winning a free Do Lectures ticket.

e-mail:claire@thedolectures.co.uk

“The greatest danger for most of us is not
that our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low and we reach it”

Michelangelo

Remember, we have put aside seats for students, ngo’s for the Do lectures.

Tell us why you.

Tell us what you want to do.

If you can’t film, write a letter.

The Do Lectures is about energy, ideas, creativity, action, change.

So don’t just sit there, do something (Dick Dastardly)

For more info: Claire@thedolectures.co.uk

it could be you.

you can’t see it but that’s the river teifi.

and today is the river and food festival.

lots of great food, lots of stuff to do on the river.

and we have stocked up the shop.

it’s open till 7 tonight.

An American friend described them as a ‘cross between Burning Man, The Ted Lectures and Where The Wild Things Are’ (But you don’t get eaten alive).

Adam Lowry

Method’s ‘chief greens keeper’

Why can’t a role model come in a bottle? This is what drives Method to make the lowest impact cleaning products you can buy.

Alastair Humphreys

Adventurer and Author

Imagine going on a bike ride that lasts for 4 years. Now he wants to try something really hard.

Alice Taylor

Ch4 Education Commissioner & blogger

Play is important. Kids learn more while playing. And if kids are playing more digital games these days, then those games need to become their teachers too.

Andrew Reason

Inventor & Founder of
 Reason washing machines

Are you happy with your wash? Andrew isn’t. That’s why he is changing how washing 
machines work.

Ben Hammersley

Deputy editor of WIRED UK

Clothes that know when you’re in love, doors that know when you’re angry, phones that know when it’s raining. How knowing what we know will help us live our lives.

David Rosenberg

CEO of Hycrete Inc.

Is it possible to change the construction industry? Is there a better way to make concrete? David has some answers (and some patents) to say that it is possible to make it a greener industry.

Duke Stump

Principal & Chief Architect of the ‘North Star Manifesto’, a brand consulting studio

These are the times of change. New powerful ideas are being born. A shift is happening. 
And Duke will be talking about that shift.

Gabriel Branby

CEO of Gränsfors Bruks AB

Gränsfors make one the finest forged axes in the world. It has become more than just an axe. It is an icon for quality and a belief that there is another way of making things.

Geoff McFetridge

Graphic Designer/Illustrator

There are Graphic designers. And then there’s Geoff McFetridge. Probably the world’s best doodler.

Gerald Miles

Organic Farmer & GM Activist

What would you do to protest about GM crops being planted in Britain? Just sit there? Or get on your tractor and drive to London in protest.

Gregor MacLennan

Campaigner for Amazonian peoples’ rights

Over three decades of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest. Now Gregor is helping the local communities to hold Chevron to account.

Jane Davidson

Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing

Can a small country like Wales lead the way in terms of sustainability? Can an entire country go organic? Why not?

Michael Pawlyn

Sustainable Architect

Can we work with nature? Use it as a blueprint? Treat it as a partner? There are huge gains to be made by learning from how the natural world works.

Patrick Holden

Director of the Soil Association

Where does our food come from? Patrick believes an identity of a nation is related to its food. And that we need to reconnect to the story behind the food we eat.

Paul Deegan

Mountaineer and Everest’s Dustman

Climbing Everest is one thing. Bringing everyone’s rubbish back down with you is quite another.

Rolf Potts

Author of ‘Vagabonding’

His zeitgeist defining book is not just how to travel the world on a shoestring, but, more importantly, the mindset you need to take with you. It is now in its 10th reprint.

Tim Birkhead

Author of ‘The Wisdom of Birds‘

Tim believes we can learn a lot from birds. Fortunately for us he will be migrating West in early September.

Tom Taylor

Post Digital Designer

He likes to think of the internet as the virtual shed at the bottom of his non-existent garden. From there he tries to delight and disrupt in equal measure.

Tony Davidson

Creative Director of Wieden+Kennedy

To make you feel something is the hardest thing to do in advertising. Tony does this better than almost anyone else.

Uffe Elbæk

Founder & former principal 
of The KaosPilots

Founder of the world famous KaosPilots school. It doesn’t want 
to be the best school in the world. It’s aim is to be the best school for 
the world.

For more info:claire@thedolectures.co.uk

If you are going to have 20 amazing speakers, it doesn’t hurt to give them an amazing location.

After all the best speakers will change how you view things.

www.dolectures.co.uk

sept 3-7th.