Tesla in Pop Culture, May 30th, 2018
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Serbian Days, June 2-3, 2018
Our event on May 30th was a memorable one! It was held at the home of Serbian Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton and whose welcome was very much appreciated. We started with the AGM to be followed with the Tesla in Pop Culture presentation. Lillian Beltaos, the President, made introductory remarks announcing a pending Nikola Tesla Award of Innovation in a higher education institution in Alberta. She recapped a hard-working year of strategic planning and priority setting that culminated with a facilitated session led by Ms. Kim Ghostkeeper of Alberta Culture and Tourism Department.
Approximately 35 folks enjoyed delicious food: pizza and (tyro)pita and, with refreshing drinks, settled in to hear Ms. Ellie Schuster, President of Sculptors’ Association of Alberta talk about her path to sculpting. She highlighted Tesla sculpture along with sculptures of other famous individuals. Following her enjoyable talk, Dr. Rob Agostinis made his keynote presentation on Tesla in Pop Culture. Anything I say here is going to fall short of being at this lively, informative and entertaining presentation. Rob amazed us all with interesting facts about Tesla’s life and moved us into different areas of pop culture centered around Nikola Tesla. It was, as I said in the opening sentence, a memorable talk. Rob also designed the artistic poster -- a keepsake -- for the event.
The evening ended with members, new members and guests, socializing and enjoying a cup of coffee or tea with specially designed and skillfully baked cupcakes decorated with Tesla’s name (even in Cyrillic!), light bulb and lightning bolt on them. These were made by our own Vice President Lydia Emanuel.
If you were with us, maybe even picked up a T-shirt or a pen, you can relate to everything that I am writing. If you were not able to join us this time, we hope that you will make it to our next event.
Shortly after this event, we were invited by the Serbian Community to have a booth during Serbian Days on June 2 and 3. We did so and enjoyed Serbian food, multicultural performances and wearing of Tesla T-shirts. All T-shirts were sold out and we have a new batch on order now.
Our thanks go to everyone making these events successful. Special thanks to Serbian Canadian Cultural Society and Serbian Community for establishing a heritage link with Nikola Tesla and our Society here in Edmonton. A big thank you to Ms. Dragica Dumanovich for her (tyro) pita and to, once again, Ms. Emanuel for delicious cupcakes. Finally, it is our speakers that engaged our minds and got us even more excited about future activities and initiatives. Tesla universe is unfolding. Thank you, Rob, for giving us just a taste of what is yet to come.
Here are some photos from the events. The photos are curtesy of Mr. Radenko Kosmajac, Ms. Lydia Emanuel and Ms. Lillian Beltaos.
Summary written by Lillian Beltaos
(See Attachment for photos)