Seattle arts leader, Randy Engstrom, will deliver an insightful and entertaining overview of Seattle's creative identity and the story Seattle is telling the world.
Intertwined throughout the presentation will be special performances by local artists, including:
- Ahamefule J Oluo
- Valerie Curtis-Newton
- Greg Lundgren
- Leah Baltus
This masterclass will introduce you to a framework to understand the role of entrepreneurs in the creation of well-being, creative expression and what makes entrepreneurs resilient.
Resilience is a rich and complex process. Because of the mercurial nature of causes and conditions that precipitate resilience, it is difficult, if not impossible, to create a static theory of resilience. However resilience is a way of being and doing, not an end state. Initiatives and strategies are never finished, much less set in stone, because conditions are unlikely to remain constant. Resilience-building efforts must adapt as conditions and needs change.
Therefore we will frame resilience not only as a strategy to bounce back business in difficult environments but a new way of understanding what makes the difference when things get really tough.
Crisis is not only owned by the emerging markets and developing countries but is a condition that can hit any well developed economy, cities and even neighborhoods through economic and political crisis, social unrest and environmental catastrophes to mention a few.
Through showcasing the results of a study and examples, you will leave this masterclass with a new framework and practical ideas for strategies to make your ecosystem and its participants better prepared for situations that require the capacity, skills and qualities to ultimately thrive despite the conditions in challenging environments and moments.
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“The topic of resilient entrepreneurship fascinates me because it surfaces the imperfection of how large human systems are designed and the beauty of the human capacity to embrace creative ways of evolve together. It’s an invitation to inquire human nature and rethink our business strategies and the cities we live in. “ Pablo Handl
Is a living urban river possible? Can we rebuild our cities so that the land and water work together and support healthy populations of sensitive fish like salmon? My 55 mile swim adventure from the headwaters to the mouth of the Duwamish found some surprising answers. Watch a short video and see reasons for optimism in Seattle and the Duwamish.
Cities are increasingly playing a critical role in our collective response to climate change. This session will outline this role and present case studies that address the equally critical role public engagement serves to build policy support--from social media campaigns, competitions, and online games. Participants will learn how cities can lead on climate and methods for meaningful engagement of citizens and stakeholders to drive city decision-making.
“Grand challenges such as health and ageing and sustainable development are both local and global in nature…these have hitherto been addressed from a technological or medical science ‘fix’ perspective and a linear model of innovation rather than one where societal actors work together in the co-production of knowledge tightly linked to innovation… Much of this can come from collaboration locally.”
– Professor John Goddard, 2015
The modern city presents us with the biggest social and environmental challenges of this century: from rising energy consumption and waste, to growing health inequalities, homelessness and unemployment. So, for the key stakeholders within modern global cities, harnessing the untapped collective creative agency around them will be key to addressing the social and environmental issues arising in their metro areas.
In this masterclass session, we will introduce some key principles that help us to understand issues and constraints, stakeholder mapping and collaboration conditions, and solution generation for future cities.
The session will begin with a short presentation that will include some examples of forms of governance, civic action and social innovation. We will then follow with three 15 minute rounds of breakout groups to work through specific ‘Moonshot scenarios’. The outcome of the exercises will be a template for action, giving attendees a practical application of the framework presented.
Pioneer Square, Seattle’s “first neighborhood,” is the backdrop for participants in this learning expedition to explore the root causes of homelessness and experience first-hand the challenges facing homeless individuals and those who provide them assistance. As a group, festival participants will then apply their collective knowledge to design human-centered approaches that fill gaps and contribute to a seamless method of providing service. The goal is to identify actionable steps that a group of “Unlikely Allies” can take, either in Seattle or upon return their own cities, to prevent homelessness and addiction and help those crisis recover their lives. A variety of distinguished panelists, guides, and facilitators will provide depth of knowledge and insight on why, in one of the world’s most prosperous cities, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray recently proclaimed a state of emergency on homelessness and what is being done in response.
By signing up for “Finding a Way Out”, participants are committing to a learning expedition that extends from Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday in various locations across Pioneer Square. Food will be provided. Space is limited and you will be contacted to confirm your spot.
The learning expediton is a joint production of Impact Hub Seattle, the Alliance for Pioneer Square, and the Mayor’s Office of Policy and Innovation. The lead facilitators are:
Tuesday, July 5th 2:45 – 6:00 PM
2:45 – 3:45 - The Scale and Complexity of the Problem
A panel of experts will provide a broader context for the underlying causes and complicating factors that make prevention, treatment, and recovery from homelessness and addiction so challenging.
3:45 – 4:00 - Setting the Stage
Participants will organize into smaller groups to prepare for a tour of Pioneer Square meeting individuals who suffer from homeless and those who serve them. As part of the preparation, each group will receive tips on empathy mapping from Joel Farris, a trained ethnographer and staff in the Mayor’s Office of Policy and Innovation.
4:00 – 6:00 - Neighborhood Tour
In smaller groups participants will tour Pioneer Square and learn about the physical and psychological impacts of homelessness and addiction on both the individual and the neighborhood. As part of the tour they will visit the Union Gospel Mission, Chief Seattle Club, and the Lazarus Day Center.
Tour guides and content experts:
Sign up for Day 2 of the Homelessness Expedition HERE
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Led by James Keblas, participants will dive deeper into the fabric of Seattle to learn about what is and isn't making Seattle a more creative city. This session will serve as preparation for Wednesday's learning expedition.
By signing up for the expedition, you are committing to a full-day program in various locations throughout the city on Wednesday. Space is limited, you will be contacted to confirm you spot.
Citizens across the world have, for the rst time in history, all the tools and technology to be active participants and democratically engage en masse, in the design and running of their cities.
In this session, we’ll explore some of the tools and methods that cities and citizens around the world are using to reshape their collective futures.
HELLO! THIS EXPEDITION IS ALL DAY AT STARTS AT IMPACT HUB SEATTLE AT 8am.
Climate change is the largest challenge of our time, the shifting sands upon which all of our economic, political, and social decisions are playing out. And with most of humanity living in and moving to cities--making urbanization now the main driver of climate change--consequences of global warming will be most visible and visceral here. In particular, in Seattle and other urban areas it will become starkly apparent that people in communities most affected by the impacts of climate change--from extreme heat and rising sea levels, to changes in food and water availability--will be people of already at risk, due to economic and environmental inequities. Fortunately, cities also offer an unparalleled opportunity to address these issues: they are the hubs of creativity and productivity that we need to propel us toward solutions and resilience in the face of climate change. Seattle offers a glimpse of some truly innovative steps toward addressing social, economic, and environmental factors that will underpin climate resilience. This learning expedition is hosted by Urban@UW and the Climate Impacts Group, at University of Washington.
Guiding question:
How do we develop solutions and adaptations that help all city-dwellers—including people in historically marginalized communities—to thrive amidst the impacts of a changing climate?SESSION OVERVIEW:
We’ll spend the morning in South Seattle along the Duwamish River, examining climate impacts from environmental and social perspectives. Heading to Vulcan, we will discuss how climate action can incorporate equity in a variety of contexts. In the afternoon we’ll explore some examples of this in the city, after which we’ll have a chance to collectively harvest the day’s insights about inclusivity and innovation in climate change adaptation
DETAILED AGENDA:
8:00: Meet at Impact Hub Seattle
8:15: Drive to Duwamish Longhouse
9:00: Introduction to space - Longhouse representative
9:10: Setting the tone - Jen Davison, Urban@UW and Derek Hoshiko, Climate Solutions
9:30: Climate science, impacts in cities, and potential adaptations - Amy Snover, Climate Impacts Group
10:00: Climate change and environmental justice - Sudha Nandagopal, City of Seattle
10:30: Drive to Riverside Drive/SPU site
10:45: Discussion: stormwater, climate justice, and the South Park community - James Rufo-Hill, Seattle Public Utilities, and Rebecca Saldaña, Puget Sound Sage
11:30: Drive to Vulcan headquarters
12:00pm: Lunch/discussion; view video “Our Story: Climate Justice, Environmental Justice”
1:00: How do we begin to address climate mitigation and adaptation with an equity lens?
Spencer Reeder,Vulcan Philanthropy
Kevin Taylor, World Wildlife Fund
Jessica Finn Coven, City of Seattle
Laura Stewart, EPA region 10
2:00: Walk to Plymouth Housing’s St Charles Place
2:15: Intro to Affordable Housing: Barriers - Steve Gelb, Emerald Cities Seattle
2:30: Walking Tour of St. Charles Place
2:50: Overcoming the Barriers to Efficiency in Affordable Housing - Steve Gelb
3:00: Renewables for Low Income Communities - Linda Irvine, NorthwestSEED
3:15: Fresh Bucks and Access to Healthy Food for Low Income Communities - Tammy Nguyen, Got Green
3:30: Discussion and Questions
3:45: Program ends and walk to Impact Hub
4:00: Discussion/harvesting insights - Jen Davison and Derek Hoshiko
5:30: Closing ceremony
Using Seattle as a case study, participants will go on a day-long field mission to discover and assess how Seattle values the importance of arts and culture as a contributor to its social, civic, economic, and educational health. The goal is to learn why and how the arts are important, as well as why it’s not a priority for everyone. A variety of panelists across disciplines will provide for a balanced perspective about the role of creativity in a community. Conference participants will then spend time synthesizing the different perspectives to determine what works well in Seattle that other cities can emulate, and what are important steps Seattle can take to address its weaknesses.
Participants who register for this expedition are encouraged to attend the "Developing a More Creative City" keynote and orientation sessions on Tuesday. Food and transportation will be provided. You will be contacted to reserve your space.
9:00 - 10:30
Art and Commerce hosted at Zillow
A panel of leaders in business, economic development, and workforce training will be on hand to share their thoughts on the role of creativity and creative place-making in their organization’s work. For example: Is art a priority? Is creativity a hiring criteria? How does a creative city or workplace help attract talent? Does art matter to the bottom line?
Panelists:
Mary Pat Lawlor, Puget Sound Regional Council
Sasha Nolan, Workforce Development Council
Rebekah Bastian, Zillow
Kim Obbink, Filter
Wyking Garrett, The Black Dot
Kate Becker, Seattle Office of Film + Music
11:00 - 12:30
Art and Philanthropy hosted at The Seattle Foundation
A panel of leaders from local foundations will be on hand to talk about their prioritizes and how the arts fit into their giving portfolios. For example: What’s the value of investing in arts compared to other areas of need? What’s different about arts and philanthropy today than in previous generations? With millennial philanthropy money flowing, why are the arts groups missing out?
Panelists:
Heidi Rogers, Fred Hutch
Huong Vu, The Boeing Company
Lauren Domino, Seattle Foundation
Mari Horita, Arts Fund
Sydney Martin, Effective Altruism
1:00 - 2:30
Art and Education hosted at Seattle Center High School
A panel of education leaders and students will talk about a Seattle Public School arts plan called, The Creative Advantage. How does this effort fit into a system of competing learning priorities and shrinking budgets? Do the arts actually help students achieve success in school and in life?
Panelists:
Gail Sehlhorst, Seattle Public Schools
Lara Davis, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture
Elizabeth Whitford, Arts Corps
Dave Ferrero, Vulcan
Laurie Utterback, Arts Education Washington
Ella Swenson, Student at Center School
3:00 - 5:00
Creative City Learning Expedition Debrief hosted by Seattle Center Foundation
Facilitated group discussion to surface the take-away points from the expedition. What are Seattle’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities in developing a more creative city?
Using Seattle as a case study, what can other cities learn from what has been discovered.
Wednesday, July 6th 8:00AM – 5:30 PM
This session is a continuation of the previous day's program. Please make sure to sign up for both to receive updates and background information.
8:00AM – Noon
Participants will engage a series of experts on the key factors, illnesses and institutional practices that make problem solving so difficult. Learn about:
12:00 – 1:00
In preparation for the afternoon of creative prototyping of bottom-up and inside-out solutions, Joel Farris will lead the group in a debrief and discussion session over the morning’s discussions that participants can activate in their own communities. Lunch will be served.
1:00 – 5:00
For the remainder of the afternoon, Joel Farris will facilitate a series of sessions involving rapid ideation and prototyping of challenges and solutions to answer the following questions:
**By signing up for “Finding a Way Out”, participants are committing to a learning expedition that extends from Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday in various locations across Pioneer Square. Food will be provided. Space is limited and you will be contacted to confirm your spot.**
The learning expediton is a joint production of Impact Hub Seattle, the Alliance for Pioneer Square, and the Mayor’s Office of Policy and Innovation. The lead facilitators are:
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HELLO! THIS EXPEDITION IS ALL DAY AT STARTS AT IMPACT HUB SEATTLE AT 8am.
How do we encourage civic engagement in a diverse community?
How do we build bridges of trust and connection across race, class, religion and ethnicity? How do we ensure that marginalized communities have access to leaders and resources? How do we teach civic values and skills so that residents can become effective advocates and change agents?
AGENDA:
As cities & neighborhoods themselves are increasingly more influential drivers within our global and local development, we must explore new ways to bringing together citizens and institutions in ways that are more conducive to collaboration and effective at creating change through shared understanding. This panel discussion unites Impact Hub founders from across the globe to discuss and explore their unique approaches to how they are using their Impact Hub’s as a platform in their city to connect, inspire and enable civic innovation.
Panelists Include:
Ashara Ekundayo- Impact Hub Oakland, Co-founder
Indy Johar- Impact Hub Westminster, Co-founder
Konda Mason- Impact Hub Oakland, Co-founder
Steve Johnson, Impact Hub Seattle, CEO
The refugee crisis is global, yet most of it is invisible: while the bulk of the humanitarian assistance focuses on refugee camps, the majority of refugees actually live in urban settings, with little or no support. The existing system of humanitarian aid suffers from a status quo that exacerbates refugees’ inequality and dependency. It’s time to catalyze change, to enable refugees to become active agents of their own lives.
Focusing primarily on the challenges faced by refugees in the labor force, this think tank will enable and encourage participants to engage in out of the box thinking on how cities can adapt to the massive presence of refugees. Among those displaced is a vast untapped talent and knowledge. How can we best tap into refugees' skills and match those with appropriate job opportunities wherever they may be? Human capital flight, or brain drain, refers to the emigration of highly skilled or well-educated individuals for better pay or conditions, causing their places of origin to lose those skills and expertise. How can we include refugees in talent migration strategies that currently benefit some economic migrants but not refugees?
The term maker city has emerged recently to describe the rise of participatory/DIY activities, from coding to 3D printing, that engages citizens & local government in developing solutions for social issues and creating economic impact. We are seeing more spaces (coworking, fab labs, incubators, etc) proliferating, but they generally are not focused on social solution design and development. This session will establish the context for the maker cities futures conversation and panelists will provide their perspectives from industry, disaster zones and African social enterprise communities. Our group ideation and mapping exercise will be guided by the question “ What is required to develop a global purpose driven maker city ecosystem by 2025?”
Topics to be covered:
Evolution of Maker City - What are the root and genealogy of the movements that are converging in the modern maker city? What cities are defining the space now? What is the future of maker cities?
Social impact meets the Maker movement - Where are these movements intersecting and what are the outcomes? How can we increase the “collisions” between these communities?
How is 3D printing driving advanced manufacturing, aiding in disaster response and developing markets in Africa?
Background:
Maker Faire:
Maker Faire celebrated it’s 10th year in the Bay Area in 2016. A record 215,000 people attended the two flagship Maker Faires in the Bay Area and New York in 2014. Also in 2014, 119 independently-produced Mini and 14 Featured Maker Faires occurred around the world, including Tokyo, Rome, Detroit, Oslo and Shenzhen. Make Media is develops web content, video and Make Magazine covering developments in the Maker Community.
White House Nation of Makers Initiative:
Launched in 2014, the Nation of Makers initiative, an all-hands-on-deck call to give many more students, entrepreneurs, and citizens access to a new class of technologies – such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and desktop machine tools – that are enabling more Americans to design, build, and manufacture just about anything. The initiative garnered commitments from 100+ Mayors, Federal Agencies, schools, NGO and corporations to advance the Maker ecosystem.
The speed of technology change, when combined with a broad-ranging lack of urban preparedness and foresight have not yet provided solutions to the growing nexus of interconnected urban problems—housing availability; natural resource depletion and ecosystem stress; inadequate education and health care; racial and ethnic inequalities. The coming decade could be the moment of opportunity, when we successfully harness technologies, improving on many of these dynamics. But to get there we must first answer a few basic questions:
In this engaging and dynamic presentation McLennan discusses current and future trends in architecture and sustainable living, including examples of Living Buildings from around the world, that demonstrate a new level of environmental performance. McLennan discusses the need for a new way of designing and building centered around a philosophy of being, that places humanity - not above the natural world but in its rightful place as merely one important strand within it - allowing us to move beyond our current paradigm to a new relationship with Life.
This case study session is about understanding the value of collaborating with people not like you that are critical to your success. Harnessing the power of unlikely allies is not always as intuitive or simple as we may like. During this session we will briefly cover the concepts of “abundance thinking” and exponentially growing technologies and their power to scale impact when applied to the world’s greatest challenges. We’ll review two case studies of teams innovating in the field leveraging the power of scalable Artificial Intelligence technologies.
The Cases:
After this class, participants will take away an abundance mindset; how to apply highly scalable technologies in collaboration with uncommon partners. We’ll examine the practical application of human centered design, rapid prototyping and integration in the field. The critical roles of Non-Profits, Corporations, Startups, Research Institutions, and Governments will be discussed. Participants will also leave empowered to consider their own projects’ or organizations’ capacity to complement and encourage systemic change.
How can we amplify cities as platforms for sharing?
Background:
Car sharing can replace up to 13 owned cars with one shared car. 50% of people join car sharing to get access to a car. And for every car taken off the road, a city can keep around $10,000 in the local economy annually. That means that Seattle could keep $1 billion in the local economy annually for every 100,000 cars taken off the road. Now imagine an entire urban economy powered by sharing.
The stats behind car sharing reveal sharing’s power to transform, to address multiple problems at once, and address the most urgent ones to boot. What other single strategy has the potential to dramatically reduce resource consumption, broaden access to resources, and strengthen the local economy? Sharing is so promising because it acts at the root causes of a systemic challenge.
Session:
To realize this potential, a new movement for sharing cities is on the rise. Seoul, Milan, London, Bologna, Amsterdam and other cities have sharing cities programs in place. In this session, Neal Gorenflo will first present a sample of these programs along with his favorite urban sharing case studies from his experience publishing about sharing in cities over the last seven years at Shareable.net. For the remaining time, with the help of participants, he will facilitate a world cafe discussion where discussants will explore solutions for sharing political power, space, and all kinds of assets in cities.
With the rise of civic tech, many well-meaning change makers - from entrepreneurs to service providers - are looking to technology as a panacea for problem-solving. However, oftentimes project teams are unintentionally leaving out an important component: real humans who are experiencing the real problems they’re trying to solve.
In this workshop, we’ll help you answer the following questions about the sticky problem you’re addressing by using an human-centered design approach:
What does authentic community engagement look like for technologists and program managers working to solve civic challenges?
How might beneficiaries of government and nonprofit services help better define and validate problem statements for project teams?
How can the cultivation of empathy lead to more sustainable, tangible outcomes for civic projects?
The Exchange is a collaboration space hosted in partnership with Convenors.org for Unlikely Allies attendees and thought leaders on the future of cities. Do you have a burning idea, conversation or skill you want to share? Bring it to The Exchange.
How it works:
During the afternoon of July 6th, Conveners.org will host The Exchange, an unconference space aimed at taking the conversations and the collaborations deeper that have started during day one of the festival. The Exchange will feature many of the speakers and thought leaders from the program as well as UA participants who will propose and host sessions on topics they also feel are critical to the Future of Cities. Space to propose a session is open to all participants however there are a limited number of slots so we ask all UA festival pass holders and speakers to register their session not later than the morning of the 6th (by the end of breakfast). Interested to host a session? Read more….
Exchange session formats that you can propose to host:
How to propose a session?
Upon registration each participant will receive their festival badge along with an A5 card for The Exchange. On this card they can identify the topic, session type, and session host. The card prompts participant to return session topics to the main area by 11 AM on July 6th 2016.Timing or The Exchange Sessions:
For the first time in history, more than half the world’s population resides in cities. The world’s urban population now stands at 3.7 billion people, and this number is expected to double by 2050. The trend towards urbanization is only accelerating and 96 percent of all urbanization by 2030 will occur in the developing world. This global shift toward a more urban global population has profound implications for a wide range of issues including food, water, and energy consumption.
As cities become a reality for an ever-greater share of the world’s population, governments, companies, and civil society must recognize that they are largely unequipped to deal with city-level problems. All of this leads to the fact that we cannot organize cities as we have in the past and must take into account new approaches to urbanization.
This session will establish the context for the conversation around the global trend of urbanization and panelists will share their perspectives on different types of social infrastructure including governance, commons, community building, placemaking, resilient economies - that could drastically change how city development is approached and how cities could look in the future.
The Exchange is a collaboration space hosted in partnership with Convenors.org for Unlikely Allies attendees and thought leaders on the future of cities. Do you have a burning idea, conversation or skill you want to share? Bring it to The Exchange.
How it works:
During the afternoon of July 6th, Conveners.org will host The Exchange, an unconference space aimed at taking the conversations and the collaborations deeper that have started during day one of the festival. The Exchange will feature many of the speakers and thought leaders from the program as well as UA participants who will propose and host sessions on topics they also feel are critical to the Future of Cities. Space to propose a session is open to all participants however there are a limited number of slots so we ask all UA festival pass holders and speakers to register their session not later than the morning of the 6th (by the end of breakfast). Interested to host a session? Read more….
Exchange session formats that you can propose to host:
How to propose a session?
Upon registration each participant will receive their festival badge along with an A5 card for The Exchange. On this card they can identify the topic, session type, and session host. The card prompts participant to return session topics to the main area by 11 AM on July 6th 2016.Timing or The Exchange Sessions:
The Exchange is a collaboration space hosted in partnership with Convenors.org for Unlikely Allies attendees and thought leaders on the future of cities. Do you have a burning idea, conversation or skill you want to share? Bring it to The Exchange.
How it works:
During the afternoon of July 6th, Conveners.org will host The Exchange, an unconference space aimed at taking the conversations and the collaborations deeper that have started during day one of the festival. The Exchange will feature many of the speakers and thought leaders from the program as well as UA participants who will propose and host sessions on topics they also feel are critical to the Future of Cities. Space to propose a session is open to all participants however there are a limited number of slots so we ask all UA festival pass holders and speakers to register their session not later than the morning of the 6th (by the end of breakfast). Interested to host a session? Read more….
Exchange session formats that you can propose to host:
How to propose a session?
Upon registration each participant will receive their festival badge along with an A5 card for The Exchange. On this card they can identify the topic, session type, and session host. The card prompts participant to return session topics to the main area by 11 AM on July 6th 2016.Timing or The Exchange Sessions:
As part of the final We Are the City closing reception at the Unlikely Allies Festival, the Vancouver Economic Commission will be leading an Allies Auction.
The Allies Auction provides one last chance to connect with unlikely allies by pitching-for-partners that care about your mission.
Format:
Two 20 minute emceed sessions will host a total of 30 pitches from entreprenuers and innovators from the Unlikely Allies Festival.
Each participant gets 60 seconds to pitch their venture and make an ask. We suggest the format of
Problem you’re trying to solve,
How you’re tackling the challenge
Up to 3 asks
More Information:
Although companies are welcome to mention that they are actively fundraising, we are asking each impact venture to make at least one ask that can be solved on site. For example, “I am looking for a connection with the City of Barcelona” or “I am looking for help building a digital tool to manage our community”.
At the end of each pitch, the audience throws up their hand if they can help with one of the asks. Staff and partners from the Vancouver contingent will collect business cards (or otherwise record) those that want to connect with a participant, and at the end of the 20 minute session pitch-participants get the chance to connect with the unlikely allies that have offered to help.
