While helping provide video coverage of TEDxYYC, I learned more about the sociological aspects of coffee houses than I’d bargained for.

Did you know that Calgary is on the cutting edge of coffee subculture? No, really.

Did you know that Phil & Sebastian’s (despite their flash-only landing page) is a perfect example of Calgary’s dominance in the field of “Third Wave” coffeehouses?

In Marda Loop, Phil & Sebastian’s is no more than 5 blocks from my house. I go there every single morning for Americano. Given my schedule (and their hours), they don’t need to make coffee as well as they do to get my business.

But they make great coffee. The atmosphere is open. It is something I hadn’t experienced before, although I’d never been able to articulate quite why. John Manzo to the rescue!

My other favorite TEDxYYC talk was given by Chris Turner, entitled “The Great Leap Sideways“.

Problem: Ocean Acidification + Economic Instability + Peak Oil = Big Trouble

The 3 solutions Chris presented are straight-forward and already demonstrated as cost-effective:

• Transportation Infrastructure
• Energy Policy
• Urban Design
   

TEDxYYC was a fantastic experience… forcing lectures down to under 20 minutes really lets the audience consume a lot of content in a day. And clearly there are Calgarians with interesting content to share.

Hopefully TEDxYYC it will be an annual event.