Speakers Scroll

Janine Benyus

Janine Benyus is a natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author of six books, including her latest − Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. In Biomimicry, she names an merging discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s designs and processes (e.g., solar cells that mimic leaves, agriculture that models a prairie, businesses that run like redwood forests). Since the book’s 1997 release, Janine has evolved the practice of biomimicry, consulting with sustainable business, academic, and government leaders, serving on the Eco-Dream Team at Interface, Inc., and conducting seminars about what we can learn from the genius that surrounds us.  Her favorite role is biologist-at-the-design-table, introducing innovators to organisms whose well-adapted designs have been tested over 3.8 billion years.

Video not available.

October 18, 2007.

Jan Chipcase

In his own words:

“I currently conduct research for Nokia Design and split my time between running user studies and developing new applications, services and products that, if I do my job right, you’ll using 3 to 15 years from now. Prior to this role I worked as Principal Researcher in the Nokia Research Center, Tokyo. I specialize in taking teams of concept/industrial designers, psychologists, usability experts, sociologists, and ethnographers into the field and, Jan – on the phone displayafter a fair bit of work, getting them home safely. The tough part of the job is in using the data to inform, inspire and affect how my colleagues think and what they do, and in turning research into core intellectual property that underpins the future business. I live and work from Tokyo, my home since 2000.”

Video not available.

September 27, 2007.

John Maeda

John Maeda is an American executive, designer, technologist. His work explores the area where business, design, and technology merge. He is Global Head, Computational Design and Inclusion at Automattic where he seeks to address the diversity gap in tech by exploring how inclusion can be a key ingredient for success in the technology industry.

Video not available.

May 23, 2007.

Claudia Kotchka

Vice President of Design Innovation and Strategy at Procter & Gamble.

Video not available.

April 23, 2007

Virginia Postrel

Virginia Inman Postrel (born January 14, 1960) is an American political and cultural writer of broadly libertarian, or classical liberal, views.

She is best known for her non-fiction books, The Future and Its Enemies and The Substance of Style. In the former she explains her philosophy, “dynamism”, a forward-looking and change-seeking philosophy that generally favors unregulated organization through “spontaneous order”. She contrasts it with “stasis”, a philosophy that favors top-down control and regulation and is marked by desire to maintain the present state of affairs. In November 2013, she published a third book, The Power of Glamour, which defined glamour as “nonverbal rhetoric” that “leads us to feel that the life we dream of exists, and to desire it even more.”

Video not available.

April 12, 2007.

Mark Pauline

Founder Survival Research Labs. Mark closed by firing a railgun mounted in the back of a pickup truck at the library – he was banned from campus in the 90’s – we were glad to have him back.

Video not available.

May 27, 2004.

Ralph Hotchkiss

Founder Whirlwind Wheelchairs International.

Video not available.

May 20, 2004.

Yvon Chouinard

Founder of Patagonia

Video not available.

April 15, 2004.

Joani Blank

Founder of Good Vibrations

Video not available.

May 13, 2004.

Martin Fisher

Founder, KickStart

Video not available.

April 8, 2004.