Science, Nature, Art, People: It’s Boulder’s newest intellectual get together and it’s called SNAP! Yet another acronym with a great purpose, the conference joins TED and PopTech! as an excellent place to go get inspired, educated, and network — and it’s invite only as well, and at $1500 a ticket it’s still a little spendy but on the brighter side, it’s just fraction of the price of TED.

Speakers like Daniel Pink, Author Naomi Wolf and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis and many more interesting folks will be telling their stories September 23rd to 25th at the Boulder Theater. Michael Franti and Spearhead will be on stage as well, for the musical and film portions of the program.

Oh, wait, did I mention we’ve got a ticket to give away?

The Prize: A ticket to the festivities in Boulder, with hosted receptions and meals (retail value $1500; travel and hotel not included).

This Week’s Rules: Make an acronym like SNAP! of your own. Come on, you can do it. Make it good, make us laugh, make it matter, and relate it to changing the world for the better through science, nature, art, and people. Politics, too. We’ll choose winners next week. Comment away!

Back in October, I raved about Whale Hunt, the latest project from Jonathan Harris, friend and JS regular. Finally, the project is online and is a must see for anyone interested in the art of story telling. If you missed it when we posted earlier, the whale hunt is a project in which Harris went up to Alaska, shooting photos at 5-minute intervals and faster when his heart rate sped up as he witnessed a traditional whale hunt (a 1000 year old ritual). The photos are incredible, but what’s even more amazing is the organization of the content. Seriously, go spend some time on The Whale Hunt and read his beautiful statement about the project. Congratulations Jonathan!

Pop!Tech is off to a running start with an awesome morning of incredible speakers like artist Chris Jordan, Kiva.org founder Jessica Flannery, and many more. Author Steven Pinker just left the stage, and Louanne Brizendine is about to begin. Wish you were here? Peek into the Flickr Stream or, better yet, watch the Live Pop!Tech Broadcast!

I’m back in the US after a mad and hectic trip through London and Greece; you wouldn’t have known I was out there this time, unless you follow the Spear Geolocator or my Twitter account. I’ve missed blogging, so I’ll be doing my best to write and twitter all my thoughts this coming week at Pop!Tech in beautiful Camden, Maine. The speaker lineup looks absolutely incredible, as do all the activities. The theme this year is all about exploring the ways human beings impact, and how we’re affected by the world and each other. If you’ll be there, drop me a note for a drink, if you wont be there, don’t worry — you can watch the Pop!Tech stage live online from October 18th to 20th.

Related: PopTech’s Pop!Casts

When you’re done twiddling your thumbs staring out the window thinking about your own earth shattering way to change the world, you should be browsing PopTech’s Pop!Casts collection– watching every single video, one at a time, becoming more educated and by default, infinitely inspired. Seriously, much like the TedTalks podcasts, the Pop!Casts are incredible– go check out Homaro Cantu, Carolyn Porco (one of my favorites), and a breath taking performance by Rodrigo y Gabriela. I’m still buzzing after TED2007, watching the videos and networking with new friends– and I’m excited to check out Pop!Tech this coming October!

Related Post: Ted.com Relaunches