21 September 2009, 10:31 by Lykle de Vries

Mark Hoekstra PechaKucha Award

Today, September 20, we mark the passing of a dear friend of the PechaKucha family, Mark Hoekstra, with a very special announcement, and the first public project from the PechaKucha Foundation. Read on for full details on the “Mark Hoekstra PechaKucha Award.”

Mark liked to ‘get his geek on’ and his blog GEEKtechnique.org showed the world how to get its collective geek on. Whether an iPod charger for his bicycle, a love-toy made from hacked Ikea products or his iNoPhone collection — Mark inspired many with his amazing creativity which he so generously shared. PechaKucha Night met Mark, as you would expect, online and shortly after PechaKucha Night Groningen was born with the first event held in October 2006. PechaKucha Nights were held all over the city in old churches, department stores — Mark and PechaKucha even made it onto national TV. Sadly and very unexpectedly Mark passed away on September 20th, 2008. He was 34.

To celebrate Mark’s life and his passion for the GEEK in us all the PechaKucha Foundation and the PechaKucha Groningen team are launching the annual ‘Mark Hoekstra PechaKucha Award’ today, one year after he passed away, to find the person with the most GEEK technique! This award seeks to celebrate projects, ideas that express ‘GEEK technique’ to make the world a better, simpler and funnier place. We will be looking for PechaKucha presentations that are pro-social, pro-environment and pro-city and embody Mark’s love for the geek. Explore Mark’s amazing blog for inspiration! Full details of the award, judging system and how to upload your presentations will be announced in January when the website for the award is launched. We are working with several wonderful sponsors to bring this project to fruition. If you would like to support the project in any way please feel free to contact us: info@pecha-kucha.org

permalink - add to del.icio.us

  1. Pawouek @ 22 September 2009, 22:37 :

    Excelent idea!
    Maybe the winner project will be described here – on Mark’s blog as a bonus award?



  2. MWillms @ 23 September 2009, 23:07 :

    Awesome!

    I got real excited when I saw GT pop up in my RSS reader.



  3. djneo @ 26 September 2009, 11:44 :

    i think this is something wonderfull, picks a tear out his eye.



  4. opensource101 @ 26 September 2009, 17:44 :

    Glad to see that Mark is being remembered. I miss him and his projects.



  5. Marieke Verbiesen @ 28 September 2009, 00:37 :

    This is a fantastic way to remember him



  6. Hunter @ 13 October 2009, 01:03 :

    Nice posts there. Thank’s for the interesting information.



  7. Sergey @ 3 November 2009, 13:14 :

    Great idea.



  8. Sergey @ 3 November 2009, 13:14 :

    Great idea.



  9. sid216 @ 11 November 2009, 01:27 :

    I miss Mark!!!

    LONG LIVE GEEKTECHNIQUE.ORG!!!



  10. max @ 8 December 2009, 19:26 :

    Open a Mark museum in Groinengen! All His stuffs are georgeous! Keep it up!



  11. VerbalVampire @ 26 April 2010, 18:05 :

    I don’t know Mark, but from what I read he was a very great guy, I’m glad to hear that his cat lives on happily… I’ll be sure to check back often, there is so much wonderful tech-related articles to read!



As mentioned in the Message from Mark's family this site has been made static. This means that it will be no longer possible to comment on his ideas and projects, but that we all can continue to cherish his creativity.

previous: Bates is allright

next: A message from Mark's family: Geektechnique.org will turn static