Shana Baril, director of Programming, RevolveCC

MARQUETTE — The Revolve Creative Collaboration Conference is returning to downtown Marquette this weekend.

RevolveCC will take place Friday and Saturday at the Upper Peninsula Masonic Center, returning from its pandemic hiatus in 2020 with five keynote speakers, a musical showcase, breakout sessions and more.

RevolveCC Executive Director Keith Ellis said the conference, now in its second year, is even bigger than the inaugural event in 2019.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s interesting because initially we were worried. One of our biggest funders in our first year was someone at the Michigan Film and Digital Media Office through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and that office shuttered during COVID. That was about a third of our budget last time. We had to see what we could do this year, and thankfully other businesses stepped up and raised more money this year, and now we have an even bigger event in some ways.”

One change from the 2019 conference is the length of the event, which will span two days instead of one this time around.

Keynote speakers include Tony Foster, director and Tony-nominated actor; Vashi Nedomansky, editor of 11 Hollywood films and over 50 national commercials and member of American Cinema Editors; John Orpheus, multicultural musical artist and published author; Zoe Boekbinder, musician, activist and founding creator of the Prison Music Project; and Cal Lane, metalworker and sculptor known for creating delicate, lacy sculptures out of industrial steel products.

Ellis said his team is pleased to be able to bring a group of speakers from a variety of media to Marquette.

“It’s great to get this diversity,” he said. “One of our primary goals is to try and get as many different creative voices as we can. We have someone who is a writer, musician, editor and also someone who also works in post-production. Having those people that wear a lot of different hats, it’s a good example for the community as a whole to talk with these different people and show how businesses and technology can collaborate and make some amazing things.”

RevolveCC Director of Programming Shana Baril said in a news release that the Marquette area has a knack for creativity.

“Marquette is a small community with a huge creative heart,” she said. “As a freelancer myself, it has become abundantly clear to me how important networking, collaboration and fostering creativity is to be successful. RevolveCC is proud to bring those things together for all creative disciplines. It’s exciting to see the intersection of technology, the fine arts and digital arts come together to learn from each other. Our goal is to inspire creative, innovative growth locally, remotely and beyond.”

Three main creative elements coincide with this year’s conference: flex, interact and circuit.

Flex, or flexibility, as described on RevolveCC’s website, “is the key to being creative. From our current remote work situations, to innovative solutions to bring your project to life, come see what others have done to ‘flex’ their abilities.”

Interact “is about the many ways we communicate, whether through a physical process or the digital paths we forge together. How we work together is as much a part of our creations as the objects themselves.”

Circuit is described as “circular iteration is something all creatives do. Practice and refinement are the focus of these talks, no matter the medium.”

The event is sponsored by Innovate Marquette SmartZone, Yellow Dog Creative, The Boreal Collective, the Northern Michigan University School of Art and Design, NMU Theatre and Dance, Team Wireless and Travel Marquette.

Day one of the conference kicks off at 3 p.m. Friday with registration opening at the Masonic Center. The first keynote presentation of the weekend, “Coping With Crisis: A Flex Panel,” begins at 5 p.m. in the Masonic Center’s Red Room and features a panel on how to deal with adversity in the creative industry. At 6:15, Orpheus will give his presentation, “Radically Me,” in the Red Room. Following the keynote presentations, the day will conclude with a live music showcase from 8 to 11 p.m. at DIGS.

Day two kicks off with registration at the Masonic Center from 8 to 9 a.m., and Flex, Interact and Circuit sessions will run 9 to 11:15 a.m. before lunch. A networking session will take place in the Masonic Center Ball Room from noon to 1 p.m. At 1, Foster will give his “Life of a Performer” presentation in the Masonic Center Red Room, followed by Lane’s “Disobedient Virtues” at 2:15. After a half-hour break, Boekbinder will present “How Teaching Music in a Prison Made Me An Abolitionist” at 3:45 before the keynotes conclude with Nedomansky’s “The Filmmaking Journey: Tales from the Hollywood Trenches” at 5.

The conference will conclude Saturday night with an after party at BODEGA from 6:30 to 8:30.

While in-person registration will be available each day, interested attendees can also sign up online at www.revolvecc.net/registration.

VIP admission is $65 (plus $5.59 processing fee) and includes all sessions, a special RevolveCC T-shirt and a bronze pin. General admission is $35 (plus $3.77 processing fee), and student admission is $25 (plus $3.16 processing fee). There’s also an option to add a RevolveCC T-shirt for $10 more.

Ellis said everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

“It’s open to everyone,” he said. “Whether you have an interest in being creative or are just supporting creativity. We want to get as many different voices talking together as we can.”

For more information and a more detailed schedule of events, visit www.revolvecc.net or visit its Facebook page at www.bit.ly/3 bevzBe. You can also email info@revolvecc.net with questions.

Ryan Spitza can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is rspitza@miningjournal.net.