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Tuesday

Jul312012

EMC, SQUARED :: BY JON RACHERBAUMER

The final Essential Magic Conference continues to do magic even after it has wrapped. How so? Well, it has left Jon Racherbaumer speechless... almost:

I watched the entire EMC as it zigged, zagged, dipped, and soared. As I was surprised, informed, confused, edified, delighted, probed, and moved, I stopped making physical and mental notes and surrendered to being in the “moments” it provided. I was transfixed and captive.

Let the aftermath roil on. As the reportage, gossip, and babble zip through cyberspace, resultant memes will bounce and carom in the jittery feedback loop of our social networks. The blogs will momentarily clog. Meanwhile, except for these few words, I’m more or less at a loss to express my thoughts and feelings.

Let me then be contented to shout out this overwrought sentence like a boisterous fan:

THE ESSENTIAL MAGIC CONFERENCE HAS NOW CROSSED THE “HOME PLATE” OF A “PARADIGM SHIFT” IT WAS THE FIRST TO RECOGNIZE, PREDICT, PROMOTE, AND IS NOW LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING HAPPEN.

The 2000 + subscribers are now recovering from a three-day binge. They have seen what the future of conferences will look like. They have seen what a “hive” of creative minds can produce.

The old models of magic conventions now look quaint, doddering, and inefficient. The satisfaction-dissatisfaction ratio grows wider by the hour.

Granted, the EMC was occasionally messy, incoherent, and glitchy, but the trade-offs were worth it. There was lots of real-time authenticity. There were tons of unexpected delights, mind-tweaking revelations, and intentional and unintentional humor. There were forgivable unguarded moments, several superb and artful performances, and an abundant number of tightly cohesive presentations. The air was filled with affable cultural diversity, and unfettered generosity. One consistent saw and felt a festival of kindred spirits that were truly kindred.

Over all, one EXPERIENCED real people, in real time, doing “real work” in a full-tilt Reality Show that was global-and-local at the same time. The multi-media were truly multiple. The chatter was ubiquitous. The energy was simmering, surging, or in a comfortable steady state.

The emotional and intellectual resonance of the EMC is yet to be determined in terms of scope, influence, and longevity. But rest assured that at this juncture, the event itself was nothing short of being nuclear.

Onward…