Speakers 2011
Jodi Smits Anderson,
“There Is Only One Wrong Answer”
Jodi Smits Anderson is the Director of Sustainability Programs for the Dormitory Authority, State of New York. She is an architect, LEED Accredited Professional in the Building Design + Construction specialty, AIA member, on the Community Advisory Committee for Sustainability for the City of Albany, daughter, wife and mom, and more (ever-changing). She is well involved with the NY Upstate Chapter of the US Green Building Council, serving as Vice-Chairman on the Board, leading the planning of Cultivating Green events in the Capital Region, and as the regional representative to the national level Chapter Steering Committee which answers directly to the national Board Members of the USGBC. She has given presentations on green building and sustainable choices throughout NY State, is a certified G-PRO trainer, eager to train labors and contractors about sustainability and building operations and maintenance, she has worked with a talented and knowledgeable committee on “Greening the Executive Mansion”, and had the pleasure of speaking at Greenbuild 2009 as a panelist on “Becoming a Green Government Guru”. She is currently working with Interagency Councils on several Executive Orders for NYS including one on green procurement and a more recent one, EO #24, on reduction of GHG emissions 80% by 2050. Her goal is to incorporate sustainable practices into as many elements of design, construction and living as possible, and to share whatever she has learned and learn still more from whomever will talk with her.
Lisa Barone
“What Stuttering Taught Me About Running A Business”
Lisa Barone is the co-founder and chief branding officer of Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company based om Troy, NY. You can catch Lisa blogging daily about marketing at the Outspoken Media blog or talking about the importance of voice at VoiceInterrupted.com.
Doug Bartow
“29 Things Young Designers Need to Know”
Doug Bartow is an art director and designer with over 20 years experience working with national and international clients. As Director of Design at MASS MoCA for 8+ years, Doug helped put the country’s largest arts center on the world’s cultural map. Doug left MASS MoCA in 2003 to co-found id29 in Troy, NY. Since opening its doors, id29 has collaborated to build powerful brands, campaigns and marketing strategies for a number of international and regional clients.
Doug frequently lectures on design, and has written for design publications such as Speak Up and HOW Magazine. In 2010, Doug was named by Graphic Design USA as one of the top 50 People to Watch.
Christopher Chabris
co-author of “The Invisible Gorilla”
Christopher Chabris is a psychology professor at Union College in New York, where he studies intelligence, thinking, and decision-making. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller and Editor’s Choice book The Invisible Gorilla, and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, which is being translated into 17 languages. He shared the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology (awarded for “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”), given for the experiment that inspired the book. Chris has spoken to audiences at major conferences and businesses, and his work has been published in leading journals including Science, Nature, Perception, and Cognitive Science. He is also a chess master, poker amateur, and contributor to the Wall Street Journal and other national publications.
Dr. John Delano
” Is anyone else out there? NASA’s search for life in the galaxy” John Delano is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Dept. of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany (State University of New York), and is the Associate Director of the NASA-funded, multi-institutional New York Center for Astrobiology headquartered at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the author of 60 scientific publications, and has served on many advisory panels for NASA.
NASA’s Astrobiology program is frequently in the news with important discoveries (e.g., discovery of habitable planets orbiting other stars; environments and processes that led to life on Earth; sequencing of DNA that has revealed evolutionary relationships). These discoveries are providing Humanity with a better understanding of the events that have led to life’s emergence on this planet and of our context in the galaxy.
Joel Goodman
“Prevent Hardening of the Attitudes with HUMOR”
This learning-filled, laughter-fueled, FUNdamental presentation provides insight on how to survive AND thrive by tapping the positive power of humor. Dr. Joel Goodman, founder of The HUMOR Project in Saratoga Springs and author of eight books, is a popular speaker throughout the United States and abroad (including as far away as Antarctica). He is one of only two speakers in the world to have presented on all seven continents and in all 50 states. Joel has addressed millions of people at conferences and programs for hospitals, schools, non-profits, corporations, government agencies, and associations. Honored to receive the International Lifetime of Laughter Achievement Award, Joel’s pioneering work in the past 34 years has been featured in more than 5000 TV and radio shows, newspapers and magazines in 150+ countries. Humor is a universal language!
Sarah Gordon
“Marketing for the Future of Small Family Farms”
Sarah Avery Gordon is the founder and operator of FarmieMarket.com, the Capital Region’s online farmers’ market. Having grown up on a grass-fed beef farm (Gordon Farms) in Knox, NY, Sarah is inspired by wholesome local food produced on a small scale. In 2009, she began marketing her family’s grass-fed beef on the Internet due to lagging sales using more traditional marketing venues, and was pleasantly surprised by the tremendous positive response and increase in sales she and her family experienced. Taking her marketing strategy to the next level, Sarah organized the Heldeberg Market in 2010, helping several of her farming friends from the Heldeberg Hilltowns market their goods through a central website hosting her first online farmers’ market. Her goal was to increase profits for small farms that had limited marketing resources and skills. Heldeberg Market catalogs fresh weekly inventories from small farms so that Albany County customers can go online, shop, check out with their credit card and receive home delivery of their farm fresh goods. In her first year, Sarah personally delivered more than 500 orders to customers’ doors. In 2011, Sarah increased the scale of her operation again, launching two more online farmers’ markets under the central brand, FarmieMarket. Turning Point Market began serving Saratoga County in July 2011, and simultaneously Uncle Sam’s Farmer Stand started serving Rensselaer County; Heldeberg Market was also expanded to serve Schenectady County. Now, customers all over the Capital Region can visit www.farmiemarket.com, click on their location, and shop for local produce, meats, eggs and more from the farms that are most local to them. Currently, Sarah is coordinating marketing activities for twenty small farms throughout the Capital Region and making deliveries to customers’ doors three days a week in four counties. She prides herself on inciting “A farmer revolution. From the ground up.”
Douglas L
apham
“Talking About Performance”
Douglas Lapham knows that people deliver results. His quest is to improve how organizations focus on the people aspects of performance and complex change; a focus often lost to technology implementations and process improvement.
An accomplished facilitator, Mr. Lapham has run large meetings for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New York Department of Transportation among others. He is student of effective meetings and presentations.
Mr. Lapham has worked with leadership teams on 3 continents and more than 75 different clients across many industries. He supports strategic planning, organizational transformation and innovation with an emphasis on visual thinking.
He holds a Masters in Organization and Management and currently resides in Albany, NY with his wife and twins.
David P. Miranda
“How Intellectual Property Powers Economic Growth”
David P. Miranda is an Intellectual Property lawyer and Partner with Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti PC in Albany, New York. He will be discussing the region’s opportunities and potentials for economic growth through the pursuit and commercialization of Intellectual Property. Intellectual property is the fuel that powers economic growth and prosperity. The key to a region’s success is its ability to develop, harness, protect and commercialize its cumulative and collaborative imagination and innovation. Mr. Miranda’s law practice involves litigation of patent, copyright and trademark matters throughout the country. He has served as an arbitrator of intellectual property law disputes with the American Arbitration Association, and National Arbitration Forum and has rendered decisions regarding disputes involving such famous trademarks as McDonald’s, Amazon.com, Bausch & Lomb, Target, 3M, US News, Citigroup, and ChevronTexaco. Since 2007, Mr. Miranda has been selected as a “Super Lawyer’ in the area of Intellectual Property Litigation by the publication Law & Politics. In addition to his law practice Mr. Miranda has served as President of the Albany County Bar Association, and currently serves as Secretary of the New York State Bar Association and on the Board of Directors of the Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce.
Cindy Parrish
“Heroic Girlz: The Heroic Journey of Female Adolescence”
Imagine you’re an 11-year-old girl – how can you know who you can become? Perhaps the answer to your future lies in the past. Inspired by the story of Harriet Tubman (who discovered her purpose in life when at the age of 11 she tried to prevent the capture of a runaway slave) the Heroic Girlz Educational Project guides contemporary girls in an exploration of the lives of heroic, historic women (when they were girls) and to draw a parallel between themselves and these “great” women. Playwright, filmmaker, and teacher, Cindy L. Parrish, will tell the story of HEROIC GIRLZ, the play, award-winning film, and life-changing educational project. Her talk will describe the need in our culture for coming-of-age education for girls, and will feature clips from the film and the documentary MAKING HISTORY. In HEROIC GIRLZ each of the historic women relives an important moment from her 11-year-old girlhood. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s father asks her “why couldn’t you have been born a boy?” Louisa May Alcott runs footraces and develops a passion for writing, Amelia Bloomer defies the oppression of heavy dresses and male-imposed silence for women, and Amelia Earhart plummets down a homemade rollercoaster!
Kes Sampanthar
“Motivational DNA”
Kes Sampanthar is an award-winning innovator and recognized strategic thinker. He is a prolific inventor and polymath with the audacity to reinvent meaningful experiences. Kes is Director of Media Strategy at Cynergy Systems, the premier technology agency. He is the inventor of ThinkCube — an innovation system, process and game for businesses — and the founder of MetaMemes — an innovation company.
Kes will talk about ‘Motivational Design’ a new design paradigm that he developed based on over a decade of research into neuroscience, behavioral economics, sociology and game design. The talk will be a preview of his up-coming book – ‘Mind 4.0 — Engineering Humane Technology through Motivational Design.’
Jim Snack
“The Magic of Change”
Jeremy Snyder
“The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe”
For years, Jeremy Snyder collected chocolate chip cookie recipes from chocolate chip bags, cookbooks, newspapers, magazines, recipe websites, and blogs. As the recipes piled up, he wondered which one produces the best cookie. To answer this question he and his family served up 52 pounds of cookies to family and friends, and in the end one favorite recipe emerged. Jeremy will discuss the favorite recipe, how the chocolate chip cookie reflects American culture, and how to engage children in science at home. When he’s not baking cookies, Jeremy is a program manager in the field of energy efficiency and produces videos and multimedia at Science in a Nutshell Productions. (http://www.scienceinanutshell.com/).
Kristen VanGinhoven,
“The Art of Double Philanthropy – Using Theatre to Help Women and Girls”
Kristen is co-founder and artistic director of WAM Theatre, a theatre company based in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and the Capital Region of New York State. WAM, inspired by the book ‘Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide’ by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, uses a unique double philanthropic model to use theatre to benefit women and girls. She is a member of Canadian Actor’s Equity Association and an associate member of the Society of Stage Director’s and Choreographers. Kristen has taught at Emerson College and Queen’s University and is a freelance theatre artist for ISTA, the International Schools Theatre Association.
Patti Vitale
MindUP, Head of Brown School
Nick Webb & Jennifer Goodall
“Social Robotics for Computer Education”
Dr. Nick Webb is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Union College. His research encompasses a range of Natural Language Processing applications, including Information Extraction, Question Answering and Dialogue Systems, as well as Social Robotics, and Computer Science Education. He was the Principal Investigator of the NSF-funded Social Robotics Consortium of the Capital Region, and is co-PI of the Social Robotics Workshop, funded by the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT).
Program 2011
8:30 – 9:00 House opens, breakfast
9:00-10:30 Session 1
1. Joel Goodman ”Prevent Hardening of the Attitudes: Survive AND Thrive with the Positive Power of Humor”
2. Doug Bartow “29 Things Young Designers Need to Know”
3. Doug Lapham ”Talking About Performance”
4. Kristen VanGinhoven “The Art of Double Philanthropy – Using Theatre to Help Women and Girls”
BREAK – 10:30-10:50
10:50-12:20 Session 2
5. Jeremy Snyder “The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe”
6. David P. Miranda ”How Intellectual Property Powers Economic Growth”
7. Jodi Smits Anderson ”There Is Only One Wrong Answer”
8. Dr. John Delano NASA Astrobiology program
Lunch 12:20-1:30
1:30-3:00 Session 3
8. Cindy Parrish “Heroic Girlz: The Heroic Journey of Female Adolescence”
9. Lisa Barone “What Stuttering Taught Me About Running A Business”
10. Nick Webb “Social Robotics for Computer Education”
11. Kes Sampanthar “Motivational DNA”
Break (3:00-3:30)
3:30-5:00
12. Christopher Chabris co-author of “The Invisible Gorilla”
13. Sarah Gordon “Marketing for the Future of Small Family Farms”
14. Patti Vitale MindUP, Head of Brown School
14. Jim Snack “The Magic of Change”
