Many of our clients create tangible products like toys, games, puzzles, or gadgets. But today, we’re featuring long-time client: Gathering 4 Gardner (G4G), an educational foundation and non-profit corporation focused on the playful exchange of ideas and critical thinking in recreational math, magic, science, literature, and puzzles to preserve and extend the legacy of writer and polymath Martin Gardner.
Since 1993, G4G has hosted a biennial gathering of about 300 people from all around the world with attendee presentations, math-based sculpture building, book and puzzle displays, stage magic, and hours of discussion and camaraderie. There’s also the famous Gift Exchange where attendees exchange 200 or so copies of an item they’ve created and receive a tote bag filled with 200 items from other participants. It takes a bit of math and planning to assemble all of these bags…good thing the volunteers are experts! Countless games and puzzles have been collaboratively designed and brought to market based on ideas shared in this exchange of ideas.
Their most recent gathering, G4G15, took place this past February in Atlanta, GA with attendees from 15 different countries. Our Creative Fold team helped organize and run the conference alongside the G4G Board and many other volunteers. I got some insights about attending the conference from Jeremiah, our Product Design & Development Manager.
"There’s a lot of diverse interests but then there’s a unified community at the same time which is pretty awesome. I once went to an aquarium convention and everyone there is only into aquariums, then within that there are saltwater people, freshwater people, plant people. G4G just seems so much more diverse than that: art, math, literature, logic, magic, but unified by Martin Gardner. Everyone has this sense of who he was and what his interests were and somehow he was able to link together all these diverse interests into one common feeling and community.
Attendees can sign up to give a five minute talk about whatever they wish. Sometimes they’re so niche that not everyone will be interested but if a person is interested, they can then go find that person, have a whole conversation about it, and learn more. These little five-minute snapshots give you a preview of what every person there is passionate about. It really spurs those connections rather than passively watching an hour long presentation like at some conferences.
One thing that stands out to me is the sculpture building activity. Everyone is just cutting hexagon shapes out of paper, for example, and repeating a pattern as instructed. The math and art all take shape in a very demonstrable way and by the end you have this amazing giant sculpture. There were some made out of cardboard that could be pulled on and moved around and one that opened and closed.
The evening entertainment showcased some impressive juggling and magic. There was a magician that had participants essentially do their own card trick. Each person started with three cards and was instructed to pick a card and rip it in half then keep exchanging with other people and moving it around in all sorts of ways. The card we were left with at the end was the same as the one in our pocket. I was like, ‘But I ripped it and shared it with a bunch of people, how do I still have the one that was ripped?!’ Usually you’re a passive observer with a magician but this time you were the one performing the trick with the help of the magician. It blew my mind. One of the best magic tricks I’ve ever seen. There must be a mathematical thing where it seemed random but really it’s not. A really mathy person in the crowd maybe understood how it all worked but I sure didn’t.
I heard some attendees say they go to other math conferences and it’s a little bit more dry but people here really, really engage with each other. The conference winds down at 8pm or so and you’ll walk into the lobby at 2am (which I did after staying up to work on something) and there’s still a bunch of attendees in the lobby all talking or doing a magic trick or playing a board game or something. It’s like one big massive hangout."
If you’re interested in learning more about Gathering 4 Gardner, check out their website for past conference info, upcoming events, and an endless library of materials.
Comentarios