About

Free Intelligent Conversation is a movement dedicated to creating conversation between people of different perspectives. Utilizing the edge-cutting technology of sign-making, Free Intelligent Conversation (FREEIC) creates excuses for interaction.

By backing FREEIC, you will help us produce thousands of these signs, which will be released into the world, and allow us to fund their distribution, while helping people interact with and learn from the intelligence of others.

We believe that everyone is intelligent—more important than collected information is the life experience we each have. We believe that when this is shared, great conversations take place; wisdom can be gained, perspectives can be shared, and differences can be understood.

We want to create a culture and engage the communities we pass through with the hope that when we leave they continue to have Free Intelligent Conversation. Together we can make this movement grow and watch as the world comes together a little bit more through the simple, often-forgotten art of conversation.

This summer, from June 15–29 we will be visiting ten cities across the U.S. We will be creating conversations and distributing upwards of 2,000 signs so that people in those cities can join the movement. All money contributed will go directly towards the expenses of the tour and producing the signs. If money is not raised, this tour will not happen.

Cities we will be visiting on this tour:

Chicago, IL — 6/15

Indianapolis, IN — 6/16

Columbus, OH — 6/17

Cleveland, OH — 6/18

Pittsburgh, PA — 6/19

Washington, D.C. — 6/20–21

Baltimore, MD — 6/22

Philadelphia, PA — 6/23–24

Boston, MA — 6/25–26

New York, NY — 6/27–29

Our first priority is including you in the conversation. To maximize the amount of signs we can hand out on tour, we have reduced all other expenses. Even after we leave the cities, we want you to take our place and continue the conversation.

See the details in FAQ section found at the bottom of the page

FREEIC was started by Kyle E., an undergraduate psychology student from southwest Michigan. In the fall of 2012, with the help of three other friends the project began in Wicker Park, Chicago.

In 2013, at the beginning of the summer we decided we wanted to take this a little more seriously and added nine people. We started going out twice a week, with one goal and one rule; encourage conversation and no person or conversation is off limits.

We were commuting two hours each way, paying for everything ourselves (signs, gas, parking, etc.) and still felt like we were getting the better end of the deal. It was so much different than anything any of us had done before. We felt that our perspectives were being enhanced—that we were learning real things from real people. We were expecting nothing in return but were leaving with a priceless experience.

We received incredibly positive feedback. People encouraged us, the Chicago Tribune wrote an article about what we were doing, radio stations mentioned our project to their listeners, blogs featured us, and tweets were tweeted about us. After all this support and hearing people’s thoughts about what they wanted from FREEIC in the future, we decided that this is something we wanted to share with the rest of the world.

Our group is now made up of thirteen college students with diverse backgrounds, who all share the desire for better interaction among individuals and groups within society. More than anything, we want this to be a cultural movement, where people take these opportunities for conversations and carry them forward into their own neighborhoods and lives.