I deliberately encourage experimentation with the format - real ritual evolves, and if we want great ritual (in particular, great ritual-for-your-particular-local-community, as opposed to great ritual-for-the-NYC-crowd that you're trying to emulate), we want to iterate faster, see what resonates with people, and let the less interesting variations die out.

One thing that's clear is that transhumanist and LW content is polarizing, even within the Less Wrong crowd - some people really love it and it makes them feel connected and inspired. Others find it very offputting. It's possible that the best solution is to have multiple events that cater to different people. But I've also found it's very possible (albeit harder - it took me a couple years of practice) to make an event that works on multiple levels, resonating with the mainstream secular community with Easter eggs that are funny/sad/inspiring to people in the LW or Transhuman spheres.

A few friends and I want to organize a Secular Solstice event in Vancouver for 2015. Thanks for emphasizing the idea of experimenting with the ritual(s) invovled, as I believe Vancouver, like New York, would be open to the event having transhumanist undertones, but not being so centrally themed around that. That being stated, the secularist community in Vancouver is a real mosaic. Personally, I'm aware at the point at which transhumanist circles overlap with the skeptic community, neither much involved with the rationality movement in Vancouver, with those same values vaguely shared by humanists of all stripes. Vancouver also has the densest secular population of any urban area in Canada, which could complicate things. the event could be planned small, with the number of attendees numbering in two or three dozen, but if word spread, and capacity for organizing was there, could easily balloon to over one hundred people.