TEDxBerkeley Announces Speaker & Performer Line-Up for Feb 8 Event

The fifth annual TEDx Berkeley, which will be held at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on Saturday February 8, 2014, will feature 20 inspiring and innovative speakers and performers who will address this year’s theme Rethink, Redefine, Recreate.  

From education and healthcare to the monumental shifts we are seeing across technology, digital entertainment, sustainability, communications and the environment, the goal of this year’s event is to open up a global conversation around innovative ideas and transformations that happen when we don’t follow the status quo. The speaker and performer line-up for 2014 includes the following thought leaders and visionaries:

Kare Anderson: Kare is Say it Better Center founder, an Emmy-winning former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter, columnist for Forbes and Huffington Post, and a translator of neuroscience research which improves how we connect and collaborate.

Nikki Borodi: Nikki is a musician, clown, aerial acrobatic, yoga instructor and artist who is in the process of writing a circus rock show to inspire people to manifest their dreams.

Vangelis Chaniotakis: Vangelis, who dreams of starting his own circus troupe, has been training on partner acrobatics since 2011 while also dabbling in hand balancing, tumbling, and static trapeze.  

Brenda Chapman: Brenda was formerly a story artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation, story supervisor on The Lion King, helped launch DreamWorks Animation Studios and created, wrote and directed for Pixar Animation Studios including Golden Globe winning Brave.

 

Dr. Al Greene: Dr. Greene is Medical Director at HealthTap, former President of The Organic Center, founding partner of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment and his site DrGreene.com, cited by the AMA as “the pioneer physician Web site”, has received over 80 million unique users.

Roberto Hernandez: Roberto co-directed and produced a documentary film which was nominated for three Emmy Awards and won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism as a result of the film’s success in implementing an amendment to the Mexican Constitution.

Sarah Hillware:  Sarah is an outspoken advocate for young women’s health and women’s empowerment and founder and director of Girls Health Ed., a health education program for girl youth ages 8-17.  

Beth Kanter: Beth is a well-established international leader in nonprofits’ use of social media and her book “The Networked Nonprofit” introduced the sector to a new way of thinking and operating in a connected world.     

Guy Kawasaki: Guy is special advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google, former chief evangelist of Apple and a prolific author with 12 books under his belt.

Leslie Lang: Leslie is the Senior VP and General Counsel of Microclinic International, a global health nonprofit that is revolutionizing how chronic diseases are prevented and managed in under-resourced communities around the world.       

The California Golden Overtones: The California Golden Overtones are an all-female completely student-run A Cappella group on the UC Berkeley Campus, which has been around for over 20 years.

Yonat Mayer: Yonat and her band Yonat & Her Muse have shared the stage with artists such as post rock musician Fink and singer-songwriter Foy Vance.

Ted Miguel:  Ted is the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics and Faculty Director of the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley, where his main research focus is African economic development.

Paul Rucker:  Paul’s work as a visual artist, composer, and musician combines media that integrates live performance, sound, original compositions, and visual art, and incorporates human rights issues, historical research, and basic human emotions.

Carol Sanford: Carol is the Founder and CEO of The Responsible Entrepreneur Institute and author of multi-award winning, The Responsible Business: Reimagining Sustainability and Success  and The Responsible Entrepreneur: Four Game Changing Business Archetypes.   

Dutta Satadip: Dutta heads up Sales Support for the Americas region at Google, where he is responsible for driving operational efficiencies and customer service across a multi-billion dollar portfolio of over 100 products.

Randy Schekman: Randy is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where his research is focused on the process of membrane assembly, vesicular transport, and membrane fusion. Schekman won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology.

Tim Shields: Tim is a desert biologist who has traversed a number of miles equivalent to circumnavigating the Earth and founder of Green Light Enterprises, now Hardshell Labs, which provides solutions to how to make conservation not only meaningful but fun.

Ashley Stahl: An award-winning advocate for women in security, Ashley is Manager of the Enterprise Risk Management Center at Control Risks where she leads a team who advises companies on how to protect their personnel and assets from security threats in hostile environments around the world.

The New Orleans Manifesto: New Orleans Manifesto performs the various flavors of New Orleans Jazz with flair, funk and finesse, ranging from exciting groove oriented music to beautiful New Orleans serenades.

Marnie Webb: Marnie is a master at using new technologies to help communities achieve their goals. Currently CEO of Caravan Studios, she plays a pivotal role in shaping how the nonprofit sector uses social media. She also launched NetSquared, an evolving global experiment that empowers developers and organizers build and share innovative solutions to social challenges. 

To attend this incredible event that takes over Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall at a special 25% discount, go our EventBrite page and use discount code: Renee25.

Disclosure: I am co-curator again this year and we are looking forward to an inspiring event next Saturday February 8. 

Happy Holidays & Reflections on 2013!

As I began reflecting on the 2013 year, I realized it has been a watershed year for me in so many ways. What an incredible year of personal growth and professional reflection, where projects and encounters I didn't think would be diverse and creative ended up being more powerful because of what they didn't offer more than what they did. I experienced calmer and more serene waters, and re-ignited with nature in a way I haven't since childhood. As the 2013 year begins to close to an end, here are some photo highlights from the year.

Be sure to check out the photos and blog posts from Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia, Kentucky, Finland, Greenland, Adirondacks & Upstate New York, Yosemite National Park and Chile. 

Happy Holidays & A Toast To An Incredibe 2014!

Reflecting On Nelson Mandela's Life, His Impact On South Africa & The World

I write today with great sadness after learning about the passing of Nelson Mandela this week. You see, I have a long history with South Africa and every time she graced me with another memory, I was forever changed. Her imprint wasn't the kind of imprint other country destinations leave; it was if South Africa's spirit spoke to me each and every time, as if she had to teach me something larger than myself...a bit like Mandela did over the course of his lifetime...

As I reflect on Mandela's impact and his important life work, I began thinking of all the talks I have heard him give including a dramatic one in person in the 1990s, and zeroed in my own South African story, one which he influenced by his actions, his courage, his resilience and his solitude. He changed how I absorbed not just culture, politics and history, but how I viewed humanity and the world.

My story goes deep. Endure me on an important life journey for a moment, starting in a pre-Mandela world.

Apartheid was still very much in place when I lived in South Africa as a foreign exchange student in 1984, two years before the country's declared State-of-Emergency.  

Being white, I was placed with a well-off English speaking white family in a ritzy Johannesburg suburb and sent to a prestigious white school. In this bubbled existence, I was meant to be protected from the waging cultural war that was brewing under the surface. We wore uniforms and lived colonial lives, with two tea breaks a day at school, private tennis lessons and trips to the stables for horseback riding. And, it was oh so very proper. Girls hung out with girls, and boys hung out with boys even at co-ed schools.

I also studied at a white Afrikaans school just outside Johannesburg. Boys played sports and marched -- remember that military service was mandatory for South Africans - my boyfriend at the time served in Namibia for two years.

Below one of my teachers from Hyde Park High School instructs a black gardener who serviced the grounds during a 'tea' break.

Meanwhile, another world existed outside Johannesburg's wealthy white suburbs. While we played crochet, ate strawberries and cream, and sipped champagne by the pool, black South Africans lived in their own neighborhoods, a far cry from the world I had begun to know.  Imagine a world where life existed for your entire family in one room with nothing but a tin roof or a leaky plastic covering to protect you from the rain. 

Violence was rampant and deaths occured daily in townships between black communities (many westerners don't realize that fighting happened not just between whites and blacks at the time but between local tribes who disagreed). Important movies like Cry Freedom & A Dry White Season made the world aware of the social injustice, all driven from the top.

Unfathomable stories came into the international spotlight, unveiling atrocious crimes of white police beating and killing black prisoners, many of whom didn't deserve to be arrested in the first place. Buried in a corrupt system under the guise of Apartheid, some whites turned a blind eye, while others lived in their own colonial bubble, oblivious of what was happening behind the scenes. Then, there were a few brave white souls who risked their lives to bring these heart wrenching stories to the western media and fought hard and long for equality and a united country, not one divided by color.

Outside the cities, black South Africans lived in straw huts in the rural countryside. The below shots were taken in the northern Transvaal and Swaziland in 1984.

 

My naivity at the time still dumbfounds me. While I may have been a smarter than average teenager, the siloed education I received in small town America limited my awareness of global politics and injustice. While it's not rocket science to understand the concept of a segregated country by color (crikey, we had our own until the 1960s), but since I had never 'lived it,' I wasn't prepared for what I witnessed. This lack of preparedness and awareness resulted in me living in a world blinded by sugar-coated glasses for the first few months. During that time, I avoided probing too deep when answers to my questions remained unanswered or even worse, were undigestable.

I used to ask questions that perhaps a ten year old might ask, such as "why does our maid live in a shack behind our house? Why can't "they" sit with us at the same table? Why can't they go into the restaurant with us? The answers of course never made any sense, nor did the sneers I received from my boss at a Sandton restaurant where I was hostess.

I'd talk to the "black" boys who cleared away the dishes and the dishwasher crew and whenever I did, I was told not to and in hindsight, they too seemed confused by communication. There were so many times I was told "not to" during my first year in South Africa, that it started to numb my understanding of what was at play on a large and deeply turbulent scale. "Not to engage with, not to play with, not to dance with, not to talk to, not to buy things for, not to give a hug to..." The list went on. And yet, my true understanding of what was happening in the early months of living there was closer to a young child's understanding, not a mature one.

I experienced different behavior when I lived with a white family on a rural farm in the Northern Transvaal, not far from the Zimbabwean border. Below, I am cooking on the grill with the oldest brother of my host family, who was one of the best hunters I had ever encountered - I once saw him kill a snake which came flying out of a tree into our window early in the morning in a nano-second. He seemed to have a unique relationship with their servants in a way I had not yet witnessed in the country's urban areas, something I would later learn would add to the puzzle of why South Africa's black and white history is so much more complex than meets the eye. No history book or novel can prepare you for the intricacies of its long and painful racial struggle.

He used to woo me with his knowledge of Zulu, Xhosa and something they referred to as Fanagalo, a pidgin (simplified language) based primarily on Zulu, with English and a little Afrikaans thrown in. It was often spoken in northern South Africa and in more rural areas, between white farmers and their black servants and staff.

In those days, people still referred to Zimbabwe as Rhodesia and many had getaways up there, so much so that we used to head over the border to waterski on Lake Kyle on weekends. (you know you're not in Kansas anymore when they tell you about the risks of crocodiles, so be sure never to fall). In Zim or Rhodie depending on who you talked to, the relationship between blacks and whites seemed milder, less hostile, less fragile and less haunting. There are a host of reasons for this but it wasn't until I crossed that border several times with my ex-husband in the 1990s did I feel the intensity of the tension the moment we were back on South African soil.

While South African tourists may most remember sipping wine on some of Stellenbosch's best vineyards or their visit to Kruger National Park, there's a whole other side to South Africa, a world where white and black South Africans worked together, tended the land, hunted and killed to eat.

Below, I am with one of my host families in the northern Transvaal after a day out in the bush, which almost always meant in those days, bringing an impala or kudo home for dinner.

I eventually learned who Mandela was, but it was only after I ventured beyond my rich white suburbs and started conversations with people who I sensed felt uncomfortable with my questions, as if I were a private investigator probing rather than an everyday civilian having a healthy dialogue. It was at this time I met some white radicals (or at least that's what some people called them) at the Wits University campus, one of South Africa's most famous universities. It was then that I discovered how deep race issues were and how close to a very dangerous edge the country was living. Little did I know how much violence was brewing and how close we were to a transformation that would not just change South Africa forever, but the world.

What would be deemed as a curious and socially active student in a free democratic country was classified as radical and dangerous in a 1970s and 1980s South Africa world. That year, I fell in love with musician Johnny Clegg and even had an opportunity to meet him and shoot one of their concerts from the edge of their stage. His music more than moved me, it transformed me from an innocent and ignorant bystander of life to a curious and caring one. If I wanted a life full of purpose and passion, I knew my life could never be one where I'd stand on the sidelines observing life, but one which involved diving with both feet even if it was sure to be a painful dive.

Above, Johnny Clegg in rare form, his passionate music echoing into a winter night on the grounds of Wits University. While he wasn't the only musician to write about this volatile time, he was a revolutionary at heart who led the way on his home soil. Steven Van Zandt's "Sun City," a song that protested the South African policy of apartheid was also instrumental as was the follow on support by such musical greats as Bruce Springsteen, Run DMC, Bonnie Raitt, Miles Davis, George Clinton, Jackson Browne and dozens more. Let's also not forget Paul Simon's "Graceland," which came out in 1986 and featured Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Their music brought South Africa's pain into our hearts and understanding in the west even if we could never begin to understand day-to-day life for people living under an Apartheid regime.

Below, locals just outside the Transkei are about to load a pick up truck with chickens, okra, tomatos and bananas.

Below, children sing at an all black school in a rural area.

To say that my experience living in the 1980s and 1990s in South Africa was diverse is an understatement. From rural farms to living with Afrikaans families in cities and towns, and then wealthy English families in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, to breathing in the land and its wildlife on various national parks and nature reserves, I felt the pulse of a country in pain.

While today Soweto is freely traveled to and even houses a Holiday Inn, back then, it was off limits to whites and considered incredibly dangerous. That didn't stop me however and I can recall the experience as if it were yesterday. People ask me all the time: weren't you afraid?

The truth is, no I wasn't afraid. The truth is...I was greeted with warmth and generosity despite the fact that there was mass hatred of whites and an extreme number of violent incidents at the time. I realize that things could have gone south and a different set of encounters could have resulted in my not being alive to tell the story today. The same could be said for venturing into certain parts of Harlem and Detroit during their most volatile times. And yet, back then, talking to locals felt urgent somehow, even though I didn't have a clue what to do with their stories.

A few years later when I was studying and living in London, a mere stone's throw from Trafalgar Square, the home of daily South Africa protests, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to join the crowd. Times were complicated and the circles I traveled in were diverse.

Below, I was out on a bush walk with an American missionary who was stationed in southern Africa for many years. Everyone and their brother seemed to be involved in stirring up a pot, whether it was religious, political or social.

In 1990, I returned to South Africa to live, this time with my South African ex-husband. Not much had visibly changed in every day life, except there was a shift in sentiment and more importantly, laws. It was the year the then President Frederik Willem de Klerk began negotiations to end Apartheid and the official abolishing of Apartheid occurred with repeal of the last of the remaining Apartheid laws.

The result would be the country's first multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, which as we all know, was won by the African National Congress under Nelson Mandela. To this day, the vestiges of Apartheid still shape South African politics and society.

That year, we drove up and down the country a few times, and eventually made our way north to Malawi in an old fashioned boxed van manufacturered sometime a few decades earlier. Economically, nothing had yet changed for black South Africans but Mandela had become a household name. 

When we weren't working in Johannesburg in the hospitality industry, we were on the road and that meant living in our van or pitching a tent when the mosquitos weren't rampant. We picked up hitchhikers along the way and made friends from around the world over the course of nearly two years.  

Life couldn't be more free; no one told us who we could talk to and who we couldn't, or where we had to be or when. Below, we stopped the van along side a cliff somewhere on the Cape's Garden Route and here, we made dinner, opened a bottle of South Africa Shiraz and toasted to a new world.

If we wanted to go into a rural area or township and have a conversation, we could and we did. To say this was widely accepted just because the Apartheid veil had been legally lifted is far from a reality. 

Considered as dangerous as it was in the 1970s? Absolutely. If you recall, violence soared before it leveled off and there was a tremendous amount of mistrust and cultural 'sorting' in Mandela's early days. Also remember that there were a lot of disgruntled white South Africans (in and out of the National Party -- which later became known as the New National Party) by De Klerk's radical political move.

It was a different vibe in rural areas however, particularly the bush. Life was much more simple and chatting about life around the fire at night was easy. Here, I sensed less anger and their personalities were more fluid. It doesn't mean that white hatred didn't exist but the energy was more relaxed and trusting. Below, we drink coffee late at night listening to hyaenas in the distance, an experience which always felt spiritual to me.

Below, a shot of a family we picked up in our van in 1990, who wasn't sure (at first) whether to trust us or not. Behind them, you can see our mosquito net which we slept under every night.

Below, drummers go wild in Hillbrow just outside Johannesburg's center.

In the early nineties, life was still very much segregated in the cities and the towns.

Young white South Africans (as my ex-husband, his brother and wife and our friends were) shifted their attitudes and wanted to make amends somehow. It wasn't uncommon to hear things like "we have a black friend now," or "we just did X with Z," as if to make a point that they were progressive in their thinking and not white South African racists. It wasn't their fault; after all, the country had conditioned them from childhood, a white racist government who created white racist schools and taught History the colonial way, which was from a very different textbook than the one I used when I taught in a Kenyan school a few years later.

Most of their attempts at doing the right thing, at least in our circles, came from a pure place. Those with candy colored glasses who were so brainwashed under the old regime would either take decades of reconditioning to truly understand the atrocities of the Apartheid system or never change their mind.

Yet, during that time, things were vibrant, wild and new. It was a time when the unexpected happened and the country had a chance to start over.

Around that time, I was asked to do publicity for a black musician and his white wife who needed help opening a white & black nightclub in Johannesburg, a groundbreaking and bold move for the time. They weren't interested in traditional communications and media strategies, nor exposure from CNN. For them, it was all about grassroots efforts, from educating locals to alleviating safety concerns across three generations of whites whose lives were about to change in ways they never imagined.

Meanwhile, Mandela's respect was growing with diverse supporters and new voices (both black and white) were amplifying.

There were times we'd be at a braai (equivalent of a western barbecue except they'd often grill game) in someone's backyard, see smoke bombs going off in Soweto a mile or so down the road and suddenly be brought back to reality. Sirens would follow and we knew a death had happened or two...and yet we were untouched behind our walled gardens in some white suburb with guards by the fence.

Life could also be melancholy and surreal at times. People were struggling with all the changes, many in disbelief, even those who felt it was positive for the country and had fought for decades to see an integrated South Africa.

Other times, the intensity of it all was too much. Everyone spoke of politics and violence all the time and it became all consuming. Female friends in their early twenties were carrying hand guns in their purses to be ready for attacks, whether it was walking into a fast food joint to order a burger or get petrol in their car.

While we never carried a gun, we took the rotor out of our van every time we parked it since so many vehicles were being stolen, sometimes at gun point. We often didn't stop at red lights because that's where so many hold-ups happened and white South Africans were losing not just their cars, but often their lives. Break-ins became more commonplace and would sometimes result in a death not just a theft. It became a way of life and people assimilated into a new but more violent South Africa.

We eventually left the city and headed south to Cape Town where things were less unpredictable. The reason for this lies in the fact that Cape Town had always been more integrated than the north and as a result, the environment was milder. We stopped at red lights again and started to breathe a calmer air. We also brought sandwiches and wine out to the ocean's edge and sat on the rocks at sunset, talking about politics, democracy and war, both of us so aware how different the dialogue would be had we been back in the states sharing food with friends on the Boston coast instead.

Through all of this, I wrote. For so many reading this, it's hard to imagine a time before computers, but then, I didn't have one, nor did anyone I know. It was a world without cell phones, iPads, iPods and laptops. Texting was inconceivable and if you wanted to leave a message for a colleague you were planning to meet in Tanzania in two week's time, you'd send him a note through a PO Box or leave a handwritten message on an old fashioned pin-up board in a known hotel travelers knew about.

And so, with so much uncertainty and violence in the air, I wrote. And, I wrote. And, I wrote. I filled a suitcase with notebooks.

I wrote everywhere and anywhere I could and didn't need a power chord or an Internet connection to do so.

My brother-in-law at the time loaned me a typewriter so I could process my thoughts faster since there were times my head was spinning out of control. Late at night, my mind whirled and swirled trying to make sense of the growing violence and political changes. History was in motion as Mandela was about to take the reigns.

 

My favorite place to write was under the stars by moonlight. There's nothing like an African sky....it made me feel closer to the earth than anywhere else I had ever spent time or lived. When you consider that southern Africa is where man began, it makes sense. I was lost in time on more than one occasion under an African sky, an experience that is now but a mere memory, but one I'd gladly relive.

After we left South Africa and returned to live in Boston, the country was never far from our reach. While we didn't have Facebook, we had friend's letters, phone calls, access to the BBC and Johannesburg newspapers that my then mother-in-law used to send us. We continued to listen to South African music, drank rooiboss tea, received packages of biltong and attended South African get togethers in New York and Boston every year. We couldn't let "her" go. She had grabbed ahold of us and made us forever hers.

We watched Mandela's progress from afar, listened to his speeches and routed him on. It wasn't until 18 years later in 2008 that I returned. A trip that was slated for three weeks turned into several months, which included an extensive drive up and down the country and along the mystical and magical Garden Route in the south.

Returning to Soweto was nothing short of surreal for me. Blacks and whites shopped in the same mall and sipped coffee at the same cafe. Below is a shot I took while relaxing against a rock on a sunny afternoon.

Prophet gave us a historical account of activities; the stories felt so far removed from the South Africa I had experienced so many moons ago...pre-Mandela.

Two brothers play together in a nearby park, both of them with smiles on their faces.

In the south, in a small village on the coast called Arniston-by-the-Sea, more seemingly happy children found me and my camera and couldn't wait to pose. 

I was blown away by the positive attitude of the children, all of whom are removed by a generation from the inequality their parents and grandparents faced. They gave me a sense of hope and joy, so much so that I created a photo book on this hope. Have a look at the most precious images of what hope looks like in my book I call Post Apartheid Kids.

All this we have Nelson Mandela to thank. As CNN so eloquently put it, "word of Nelson Mandela's death spread quickly across the United States, bringing with it a mix of reverence and grief for a man who was born in South Africa but in the end belonged to the world."

His activism is a pure example of how to make a horrible wrong right. The South Africa I experienced in the 1980s and 1990s, while is full of beautiful memories and encounters with people who did make a positive difference, is an uglier South Africa than the one Mandela created over the course of his presidency.

While for many Europeans and Americans, the death of Mandela may feel akin to losing one of their own, it goes much deeper for me. Having gone to high school in South Africa, having been exposed to the rawest form of racism I had yet to experience in South Africa, having married a South African and having been transformed by its activists, its musicians, its professors, its authors and my friends, all led to a deep connection to the country, as if the country had become my own.

South Africa is imprinted not just in my memory but she is in my blood. Mandela is part of that imprint. Mandela made more than an impact on South Africa - his resilience and spirit has taught us all around the world what it means to be human and what it takes to step up to the plate and embrace humanity. I bow down and honor his life and am grateful for how he has touched me and the world at large.

May God grant you the peace and serenity you so deserve Nelson Mandela. As Obama so beautifully said in his speech, "He no longer belongs to us. He belongs to the ages."

For a beautifully reflective and heartwarming end to this tribute, listen to this heartfelt song by Johnny Clegg performed in 1999 with Nelson Mandela on stage:

Note: For those who are interested in a deeper dive into South African history, culture and tribal influences across centuries, please read one of my favorite authors Andre Brink, who I still dream of meeting over a glass of Shiraz one day. He has written countless novels and memoires, all of which I have read, however my favorites include Looking On Darkness, The Other Side of Silence, Rumors of Rain, An Intant in the Wind and A Chain of Voices. Let's just say I have read this list of novels more than once.

Photo credits: Top image of Mandela from UK Telegraph. All other images Renee Blodgett.

Wearable Wonderland Charity Gala At San Francisco's Old Mint on Dec 11

Wearable Wonderland is coming to The Old Mint in San Francisco on December 11, 2013. To celebrate the act of living this holiday season, 10% of all proceeds from the Wearable Wonderland event will be donated to a local charity.

The event will be the official Stained Glass Labs Holiday Gala celebrating the emerging Wearable Technology & IOT ecosystem. This exclusive event is poised to bring together over 500 top-­tier technology executives and innovators. 

Wearable Wonderland will also feature over 20+ models fashioning the coolest wearable tech devices of 2013. Stained Glass Labs will award companies and devices for their notable innovations within the following categories:

• Smart Glasses
• Smart Clothing
• Smart Watches
• Smart Home
• Smart Application
• Stained Glass Labs Device of the Year

Details:

Wearable Wonderland Holiday Charity Gala

The Old Mint

88 5th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Date/Time:

Tuesday December 10, 2013 from 8:00 pm-­12:00 am. 

GigaOm Roadmap 2013: The Intersection of Design and Experience

Before I learned that Tony Fadell was former SVP of Apple’s iPod division and had reported directly to Steve Jobs, there was a sense that he abided by the "Real Men Ship" rules and I hadn't yet read his GigaOm Roadmap profile, where he presented on stage this week in San Francisco.

GigaOm events have always been more B2B and enterprise at their core regardless of the theme and this case was no different despite the fact that the conference was atypical in many ways, almost TED-like. Taglined "The Intersection of Design and Experience", you were almost waiting for earth shattering insights from some of the best geeks, inventors, designers and visionaries in the industry.

In this case, I probably should have started with Tesla's Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, except I sadly missed that session, or Adobe on design or even the very cool discussion around using data to program creative spaces, which included Jennifer Magnolfi's design examples and experiences with Herman Miller and most recently, the Downtown Project in Las Vegas.

But, Tony intrigued me largely because he had a "say it like it is" personality which was refreshing and ever so beautifully arrogant at the same time. He acknowledged how easy it was to raise money now because he was a known and trusted entity because of his so many successes while reminding young 20-something year olds how much faster they could work alongside mentors and get their projects to "go" because of easy access to people compared to two decades ago. It made me want to have lunch with him, maybe even dinner. 

You can't be in your forties or beyond and not disclose at some juncture that you stand by profitability and having real metrics in place to build not just a perception for a "perception sale" but a sustainable company with an inherent value-add for customers that solve real problems again and again.

Post Apple, he built an energy-efficient home near Lake Tahoe and in the process, was so frustrated with the limitations of the traditional "thermostat," he redesigned it with former Apple colleague Matt Rogers. The end result became Nest Labs, his current entity and where he spends his energy and time.

While the man has authored more than 300 patents, has a history of successes and seems to get "design" and the design process, it was his going back to basics message (rarer in Silicon Valley) that had me at "go." He spoke of magical moments, a phrase that made me think of Tony Robbins who talks about creating magical moments in life as a daily practice.

He thinks its just not just our duty to create daily magical moments for ourselves, but in that creation, the trickle effect has a significant impact on everyone and everything around you.

You create them, you don't wait for them to happen. Once in motion, they have a spiral bowling ball effect. You give (e.g, provide magic in some way shape or form) and the universe gives back in profound ways you never imagined.

Says Tony, "rethink experiences from ground up to create magical moments." Obviously in this reference, he's directly referring to product design, yet it's a way of thinking, a way of life, not a principle in a board room or behind a computer. Enuf said!

Other messages included how data and connectivity shape our world. There's a ton of Einsteins here she thinks but not a whole lot of Picassos. (Refer to the Steve Martin play Picasso at the Agile which transformed my interaction with an engineering team earlier in my career) Perhaps design is and has always been as important as the technology itself and as it becomes more prolific in our lives as time marches on, more people realize it.  

In the play, both men are on the verge of an amazing idea (Einstein will publish his special theory of relativity and Picasso will paint Les Demoiselles d'Avignon) and they embark on a debate about the value of genius and talent. Who provides more value, the artist or the inventor? You can probably guess my take away on this one.

Instagram's Kevin Systrom was on their A-list of speakers, someone I've heard speak at large business conferences, technology geek fests and in a more intimate setting with Sarah Lacy and Pando Daily. I'm a passionate photographer but still haven't drunk the Instagram coolaid despite how many times I've tried.

I have an account yet never use it and when I compare Instagram to so many other "blow it out the park" examples of design genius, I'm dismayed.

Don't get me wrong - it's not as if I don't get that filtering basic photos on a smart phone isn't a good idea or sticky, but worth what Facebook paid for it? Worth the frenzy that market gave it? Worth the badge of honor that the industry labeled as a game changer? Cool is cool, but we have an industry which has crowned thy jewel as such when it really shouldn't be a jewel at all but in the cool is cool category only.  

Says Tony of the service, "the filters thing created an initial wow factor so it created hope." Hope inherently comes from creating a solution that provides a new way to do something, solves a problem people have had for a long time or in this case, something that makes people feel more creative with very little effort.

Renowned designer John Maeda, who is now President of Rhode Island School of Design talked about how Moore's Law is influencing design. Connected devices and the web have fundamentally changed the world's relationship with design, but compared to other aspects of information technology, design can be much harder to quantify.

I first met and hung out with John in the early TED Conference days where he spoke about design concepts on the main stage some 12 or so years ago. I was a fan then and remain a fan today. Says John, "you don't 'do' technology, you 'do' people and the people thing and then you add technology back in." I couldn't help but want a bunch of Johns to replicate themselves in Silicon Valley. 

It's basic enough but not being implemented on a grand scale today. Developers more often than not, still build for technology's sake and the human piece is an after thought, so much so that the UI is often confusing enough that mass scale adoption doesn't happen.

John spoke of empathy, one of my favorite words. "Take the empathy route," he encouraged the audience. He asserts that empathy is the grounding force of the intersection of technology, art and design. If the root of technology is in fact art then figuring out where technology, art and design collide is fundamental to understanding art.

"Design is in the details - it is all about empathy," says John. Great design is as much about taking away as it is about adding to a structure, a product, an idea or a concept. More is great when it is measured against enjoyment (we always want more of a good thing), but the concept of "more" is flipped on its head when it equates to more work or more effort.

Design balances the two and yet as we are learning, computers despite their ability to fabricate real situations and design, don't do a great job at creating that balance. Today, we want more and more technology and yet "more and more of it" doesn't necessarily serve us in the most productive way regardless of how much state-of-the-art technology we integrate into our lives.

Ten years ago, technology made things better and more useful, but when "more of it" stops being a continuous and consistent positive return, then we begin to look elsewhere, like design. Design is on the rise again because we are yearning for balance. Great design can help balance the two and re-teach (and remind) us that less is more.

Focusing less about product design (although that was part of his message) and more on creating compelling customer experiences, Square and Twitter's Jack Dorsey took the stage with GigaOm's Om Malik.

Jack spoke about simplicity (critical to great design and his work on Twitter is a great example of it) and how so many companies focus on what they do rather than the value they provide. With regard to Square, he asserts over and over again that they're not in the payments business but the e-commerce business and it's the entire e-commerce customer experience, not just a piece of it.

Offline merchants never had access to analytics before but by using Square, they can get simple data on customer behavior in real time which can dramatically change the focus and priorities of their business. "End-to-end is what its about," says Jack. "We want to make sure they focus on the human experience of their business, not the transactional piece of it." 

Jack says Square's mission is to focus on the most meaningful pieces of small business, such as the daily human interaction and communications. Square essentially brings commerce to people wherever they happen to be and in this way, transactions, communications and relationships are all conducted in parts of the world that never would have been possible before.

Internally, Square is extending that attitude by showing transparency and trust with their employees, demonstrating an open and caring 'voice' inside the company's walls. Jack's philosophy is that when you keep things open, you empower employees and build trust.

Truth be told, some of the best ideas can come from employees in other departments or through random ideas they come up with at the water cooler over lunch. With trust comes new innovative ideas and it often happens randomly when you least expect it. "

"You can't schedule innovative ideas," says Jack. It's serendipity: ideas come, get formed and executed quickly and seamlessly when you gather great minds together in one place and say "go." The same applies to instilling that behavior and culture across an organization so free flowing ideas can not just see the light of day, but thrive.

Hear hear! I think entrepreneurs with like-thinking like Richard Branson and Tony Hsieh would agree.

Photo credits: Two images from Tony Fadell interview snipped from the GigaOm Roadmap video and all other photos Renee Blodgett.

Discount & Agenda For Silicon Valley's DEMO Fall 2013

DEMO Fall is coming to Silicon Valley October 15-17, 2013.  

Known as the launchpad for emerging technologies and trends, they'll be unveiling 50 new technology products from the DEMO stage, across multiple verticals and industries, including mobile, enterprise, health, wearable computing, digital money, big data, the Internet of things and more. 

Some of the speakers and judges include Di-Ann Eisnor from Waze, Evernote's Phil Libin, Ayr Muir from Clover Foods, Yelp's Jeremy Stoppelman, Jonathan Abrams of Nuzzel, Josh Elman from Greylock Partners, CNBC's Jon Fortt, Rock Health's Malay Gandhi, Spark Capital's Nabeel Hyatt, EchoSign's Jason Lemkin, Hilary Mason from Accel Partners, Google Ventures' Shanna TellermanBrian O'Malley from Battery Ventures, FitBit's CEO James Park and others.

You can register here at a discounted rate of $700 off the normal registration price. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency for those heading out from the East Coast, Asia or Europe. Check out the DEMO Fall 2013 agenda. 

  

2013 AlwaysOn Power Players in Technology Business Media List Announced

AlwaysOn just announced their first annual Power Players in Technology Business Media List. The AlwaysOn Power Players in Technology Business Media list honors editors, writers, and bloggers in the technology world who are keeping technology entrepreneurs informed and connected. Reporting on the massive technology breakthroughs hitting the market almost every day, this list of media have become the voices behind the ideas that make the Global Silicon Valley an incubator for success.

Cool beans that We Blog the World made the cut, which at face value may not make sense, but it's largely because I also write about technology trends, conferences, events, startups, launches and entrepreneurs on Down the Avenue, on the Huffington Post and of course on We Blog the World, mostly in the products and events section. The site also has a Mobile category as well as a technology category, however the products covered range from luggage and fashion to mobile devices, social apps, gadgets which may help the on-the-go warrior and digital cameras.

While the list is extremely long, and the more traditional cast of characters are listed (NY Times, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Mashable, etc), numerous bloggers are also listed who not just cover technology trends, but also social media and various vertical market industries, such as digital music, technology that moms and/or women care about and lifestyle issues.

As venture capital-backed on-demand companies continue to bring new, innovative products and services to the world, the founders and their products and services are being covered by the people on this list. Many of the winners of this competition will be featured at the upcoming OnMobile 2013: Mobile Venture Summit, which will be held at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, CA on October 10.

If interested in attending, you can register here to secure your ticket at the lowest possible rate while tickets are still available.   The list is below. (warning: it's long, but it is an eclectic and interesting curation of writers and pundits, so it's worth browsing through).

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Introducing the 2013 Power Players in Technology Business Media

Byron Acohido
Technology Reporter
USA Today

Kiran Aditham
Editor
Mediabistro

Erin Ailworth
Business Reporter
Boston Globe

Mickey Alam Kahn
Editor in Chief
Mobile Marketer

Chris Albrecht
Host, Reporter
GigaOm TV and GigaOM Podcast

Cristina Alesci
Producer, M&A
Bloomberg Television

Anjuman Ali
Mobile Editor
The Washington Post

Jason Alkeny
Executive Editor
FierceWireless

Mike Allen
Reporter
The San Diego Business Journal

Monica Alleven
Editor-in-Chief
Wireless Week

James Altucher
Blogger
Altucher Confidential

Chris C. Anderson
Senior Editor
Business Insider: The Wire

Larissa Anderson
Producer
Marketplace Tech Report – American Public Media

Nate Anderson
Deputy Editor
Ars Technica

Tim Andreacci
Segment Producer
Bloomberg Television

Robert Andrews
Senior Editor, International
GigaOM

Julia Angwin
Senior Technology Editor
The Wall Street Journal

Robert Anthony
Editor
Stadium Circle Features

Simon Applebaum
Producer / Host
Tomorrow Will Be Televised / BlogTalk Radio

Charles Arthur
Technology Editor
The Guardian

Scott Austin
Senior Technology Editor
Dow Jones VentureWire

Ed Baig
Reporter
USA Today

Brandon Bailey
Business and Technology Reporter
San Jose Mercury News

Chris Baker
Contributing Writer
Wired

Roberto Baldwin
Staff Writer
Wired

Eric Bangeman
Managing Editor
Ars Technica

Emily Banks
Managing Editor
Mashable

Mike Barton
Editor
Wired

Ronald Barusch
Columnist
The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com, MoneyBeat, The Wall Street Journal (Europe Edition), MoneyBeat (E.U.)

Zoran Basich
Editor
Dow Jones VentureWire

Dusan Belic
Editor
IntoMobile

Shawn Bender
Digital Editor
WSJ.com

Kevin Benedict
Editor
MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Drake Bennett
Reporter
Bloomberg Businesweek

David Benoit
Blogger, Deals
The Wall Street Journal

Greg Bensinger
Reporter
The Wall Street Journal

Andrew Berg
Editor in Chief
Wireless Week

David Berlind
Editor-In-Chief
ProgrammableWeb / TechWeb

Nick Bilton
Technology Reporter
The New York Times

Jon Birger
Contributing Writer
Fortune

Matthew Bishop
New York Bureau Chief
The Economist

John Blackstone
News Correspondent
CBS News Network

Nancy Blair
Online Technology Editor
USA Today

Steve Blank
Blogger
Steve Blank

Dana Blankenhorn
Contributing Writer
Seeking Alpha

Beth Blecherman
Founder
TechMamas

Henry Blodget
CEO / Editor in Chief
Business Insider

Renee Blodgett
Editor
We Blog the World

Rebecca Blumenstein
Deputy Editor-in-Chief
The Wall Street Journal

Robin Goldwyn Blumenthal
Senior Editor
Barron’s

John Blyler
Editorial Director
Extension Media

Katherine Boehret
Writer
AllThingsD

Christina Bonnington
Staff Writer
Wired

Julie Bort
Editor
Business Insider

Wendy Boswell
Web Search Guide
About.com – Computing

John Boudreau
Business Reporter
The Mercury News

Clint Boulton
Staff Writer
The Wall Street Journal

Paul Boutin
Freelanc Journalist / Bits
The New York Times

Toni Bowers
Managing Editor
TechRepublic

Tim Bradshaw
Digital Media Correspondent
Financial Times

David Brancaccio
Host
Marketplace – Tech Report

Nic Brisbourne
Blogger / Venture Capitalist
The Equity Kicker / Forward Investment Partners

Russ Britt
Bureau Chief, Los Angeles
MarketWatch

Chris Brogan
Blogger
Chris Brogan

Joe Brown
New York Editor
Wired Magazine

Alexandra Bruell
Reporter
Advertising Age

Wendy Brundige
West Coast TV Bureau Chief
Bloomberg TV West

Daniel Brusilovsky
Head of Business Development and Growth
Ribbon

Joshua Brustein
Technology Writer
Businessweek

Martin Bryant
Managing Editor / Co-Founder of TechHub Manchester
The Next Web / TechHub Manchester

Peter Burrows
Senior Writer
Bloomberg News

Ward Bushee
Executive Vice President / Editor
The San Francisco Chronicle

Jeff Bussgang
Blogger / Venture Capitalist
Seeing Both Sides / Flybridge Capital

Claire Cain Miller
Technology Reporter
The New York Times

Jason Calacanis
Blogger
Calacanis.com

Michael Calore
Reviews Editor
Wired

Elisa Camahort
Blogger
BlogHer

Christina Capecchi
Contributor
The New York Times

Pete Carey
Business Reporter
The San Jose Mercury News

Jennifer Carinci
Producer
Yahoo! Finance

Nicholas Carlson
Deputy Editor
Business Insider Silicon Alley Insider

Callie Carmichael
Senior Associate Producer, CNN Mobile
CNN.com

Sean Carroll
Managing Editor, Software, Internetm andNetworking
PCMag.com

Pete Cashmore
CEO
Mashable

Ben Casnocha
Blogger
Ben Casnocha

John Cassidy
Staff Writer / Blogger
The New Yorker

Mike Cassidy
Business Columnist
The San Jose Mercury News

Josh Catone
Executive Director, Editorial Projects
Mashable

Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology Correspondent
BBC News

Bonnie Cha
Writer
AllThingsD

Andrea Chang
Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Times

Emily Chang
Host, BloombergWest
Bloomberg TV

Laura Chapman
Head, U.S. Broadcast Interview Team
Bloomberg Television

Lizette Chapman
Reporter
Dow Jones VentureWire

Stephen Chapman
Contributor
ZDNet

Mike Chapple
Databases Guide
About.com – Computing

Brian X. Chen
Reporter
The New York Times

Kevin Chen
Blogger
Seeking Alpha

Larry Chiang
CEO
Duck9

Ericka Chickowski
Contributing Writer
DarkReading

Mark Choueke
Editor
Marketing Week

Lela Christine
Editor in Chief
The Power Player Lifestyle Magazine, Inc.

Brian Clark
Blogger
Copyblogger

Cynthia Clark
Senior Writer
1to1 Media

Don Clark
Deputy Bureau Chief
The Wall Street Journal

Jason Cohen
Founder
WP Engine / Smart Bear Software.

Sarah Cohen
Senior Reporter
Mergermarket – New York, NY

Alex Colon
Mobile Writer
GigaOM

Louis Columbus
Contributor
Forbes

David Connell
Editor
Techmeme

Jim Cooper
Executive Editor
Adweek

Lane Cooper
Founder and Editorial Director
BizTechReports

Michael Copeland
Partner
Andreessen Horowitz

Stacy Cowley
Technology Editor
CNNMoney

Jason Cozza
Research Analyst
MergerMarket

Robert Cringely
Blogger
I, Cringely

Rex Crum
Technology Reporter
Marketwatch

Mark Cuban
Blogger
Blog Maverick

Kim-Mai Cutler
Writer
Tech Crunch

Dancho Danchev
Zero Day Blogger
ZDNet News

Chris Dannen
Senior Editor
Fast Company

Mike Dano
Executive Editor, Telecom Group
FierceWireless

Mila D’Antonio
Editor-in-Chief
1to1 Media

Matt Danzico
Reporter
BBC America

Damon Darlin
International Business Editor
The New York Times

Anil Dash
CEO
Anil Dash

Lidija Davis
Editor
Techmeme

Lucia Davis
Executive Editor
iMedia Connection

Wendy Davis
Senior Writer
MediaPost Publications

Michael de la Merced
Reporter
The New York Times

Anthony De Rosa
Editor in Chief
Circa

Brian Deagon
Business and Technology Journalist
Investor’s Business Daily

Martha DeGrasse
Writer / Editor
RCR Wireless News

Jason Del Rey
Writer
AllThingsD

Peter Delevett
Business Reporter
The San Jose Mercury News

Cotton Delo
San Francisco Bureau Chief
Advertising Age

April Dembosky
Technology Blogger
The Financial Times

Kathleen DeVere
Reporter
Inside Network

Jesus Diaz
Senior Contributing Editor and Art Director
Gizmodo

Marla Dickerson
Business Editor
The Los Angeles Times

Larry Dignan
Editor-in-Chief
ZDNet US

Sheila Dougherty
Assistant Managing Editor
Advertising Age

John Dvorak
Columnist
MarketWatch – San Francisco, PCMag

Esther Dyson
Chairman
EdVenture.com

Cliff Edwards
Reporter
Bloomberg News

Jim Edwards
Senior Editor, Advertising
BusinessInsider

Eric Eldon
Co-Editor
Techcrunch

Noah Elkin
Principal Analyst
EMarketer

Tobi Elkin
Senior Digital Strategist
EMarketer

Stuart Elliott
Blogger
The New York Times / In Advertising

Shelley Elmblad
Personal Finance Software Guide
Examiner.com, Freelance, About.com – Computing

Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Freelance Journalist / Senior Writer
Fortune.com

Rip Empson
Writer
Techcrunch

Ariana Eunjung Cha
Business and Technology Editor
The Washington Post

Benny Evangelista
Reporter
The San Francisco Chronicle

Joel Evans
Blogger
ZDNet

David Ewalt
Senior Editor
Forbes

Rebecca Fannin
Journalist
Silicon Dragon / Forbes

Nicole Farghalli
Business Reporter
Marketplace – NPR

Cyrus Farivar
Senior Business Editor
Ars Technica

Sajid Farooq
West Coast Bureau
Bloomberg West – Bloomberg Television

Katie Fehrenbacher
Senior Writer and Features Editor
GigaOm

Brad Feld
Managing Director
Foundry Group

Loren Feldman
Small Business Editor
The New York Times

Seth Fiegerman
Business Reporter
Mashable

Jim Finkle
Bureau Chief
Reuters

Brian Fitzgerald
Deputy Technology Editor
The Wall Street Journal

Michael Fitzgerald
Contributing Editor
MIT Sloan Management Review and Information Week

Alex Fitzpatrick
Editor, Digital Journalist
TIME

Michele Fleury
Producer / Reporter
BBC America

Robin Flynn
Senior Analyst and Research Director
SNL Kagan

Tom Forbes
Writer / Reporter
MarketingDaily Top of the News

Tom Foremski
Editor and Publisher
Silicon Valley Watcher

Bree Fowler
Technology and Media Writer
Associated Press

Zoe Fox
Writer and Content Coordinator
Mashable

Mike Freeman
Staff Writer
The San Diego Union Tribune

Wayne Freidman
West Coast Editor
MediaPost Publications

Ina Fried
Senior Editor
AllThingsD

Sarah Frier
Reporter
Bloomberg

Ben Frumin
Editor-in-Chief
The Week

Deborah Gage
Reporter
Dow Jones VentureWire

Amy Gahran
Mobile Tech Contributor
CNN.com

Dan Gallagher
Technology Editor
MarketWatch

Liz Gannes
Writer
AllThingsD

John Gapper
Chairman and Co-Founder
Financial Times

Antoine Gara
Deals Reporter
TheStreet.com

Josie Garthwaite
Freelance Reporter and Editor
The New York Times, GigaOM

Adriana Gascoigne
Founder
Girls in Tech

Marilyn Geewax
Senior Business Editor
National Public Radio (NPR) Online

David Gelles
Reporter
The New York Times

Nancy-Marshall Genzer
Senior Reporter
Marketplace – American Public Media

Tomio Geron
Reporter
Forbes

Colin Gibbs
Mobile Curator
GigaOM

Kate Gibson
Reporter
MarketWatch – New York

Melinda Gibson
Contributor
DM2 Media.com

Tom Giles
Reporter
Bloomberg

David Gillen
Deputy Business Editor
The New York Times

Amanda (A.J.) Glasser
Managing Editor
Inside Network

Seth Godin
Blogger
Seth’s Blog

Vindu Goel
Technology Reporter
The New York Times

Kaomi Goetz
Reporter
NPR

David Goldman
Technology Editor
CNNMoney – Tech Tumblr

Michael Goldstein
CEO
Stun Media

Phil Goldstein
Editor
FierceWireless

Lauren Goode
Tech Reporter
AllThingsD

Lisa Granatstein
Managing Editor
Adweek

Andy Greenberg
Tech Reporter
Forbes

Zack O. Greenburg
Senior Editor
Forbes

Kerima Greene
Senior Segment Producer, Power Lunch
CNBC

Stephen Gregory
Editor, Marketplace
Marketplace Tech Report – American Public Media

Erin Griffith
Reporter
PandoDaily

Grant Gross
Reporter
IDG News Service, Washington Bureau

Lev Grossman
Senior Writer
TIME

Galen Gruman
Executive Editor, Features
InfoWorld

Connie Guglielmo
Technology Editor
Forbes

Marc Gunther
Contributing Writer
Fortune

Bill Gurley
Blogger / General Partner
AboveThe Crwd / Benchmark Capital

Jessica Guynn
Reporter
The Los Angeles Times

Anthony Ha
Media, Advertising, and Startups Reporter
Techcrunch

Stephanie Haberman
Social and Digital Producer
NBC News

Salim Hafid
Editor
Techmeme

Walter Hamilton
Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Times

Jonathan Handel
Contributing Editor / Blogger
The Hollywood Reporter / The Huffington Post

Devindra Hardawar
National Editor and Lead Writer, MobileBeat
VentureBeat

Francine Hardaway
Press
Stealthmode Partners

Quentin Hardy
Deputy Technology Editor
The New York Times

Peter Hargrove
Managing Editor
IBR News

Lex Haris
Managing Editor
CNNMoney

Derrick Harris
Senior Writer
GigaOM

Timothy Hay
Reporter
Dow Jones Newswires

Jon He
Editorial Writer
The Los Angeles Times

Pia Heikkila
Freelance Journalist
mergermarket

Christopher Heine
Staff Writer
Adweek

Jessi Hempel
Press, Internet and Technolgy
Fortune

Stephen Henn
Technology Correspondent
NPR

Arik Hesseldahl
Senior Editor
AllThingsD

Michael Hickins
Editor
The Wall Street Journal / CIO Journal

Patrice Hill
Chief Economic Correspondent
The Washington Times

Michael Hiltzik
Business Columnist
The Los Angeles Times

Peter Himler
Founder
Flatiron Communications

Dion Hinchcliffe
Contributor
ZDNet News

Adam Hirsch
Senior Editor
Mashable

David Ho
Editor for Mobile, Tablets, and Emerging Technology
The Wall Street Journal

Robert Hoff
Writer
Forbes

Melissa Hoffman
Deputy News Editor
Adweek

Matthias Hohensee
Senior U.S. correspondent and columnist
Wirtschaftswoche

Christopher Hosford
East Coast Bureau Chief
BtoB

Denise Howell
Press
ZDNet, TWiT

Dan “Shoe” Hsu
Editor-in-Chief, GamesBeat
VentureBeat

Jackie Huba
Blogger
Church Of The Customer

Katherine Hunt
Content Editor
Mergermarket

Elise Hu-Stiles
Digital Editorial Coordinator
NPR

Abraham Hyatt
Editor
ReadWriteWeb

Gretchen Hyman
Editor-in-Chief
iMedia Connection.com

Julie Ianuzzi
Executive Producer Vieo
MarketWatch

Mike Isaac
Senior Editor
AllThingsD

Amish Jani
Blogger / Venture Capitalist
Just Getting Started / Firstmark Capital

Adrianne Jeffries
Reporter
BetaBeat / The New York Observer

Nicholas Jesdanun
Techology Writer
Associated Press

Zem Joaquin
Blogger
ecofabulous

Ben Johnson
Producer
Marketplace Tech Report – American Public Media

Branwell Johnson
Deputy Editor
Marketing Week

Steve Johnson
Business Reporter
The San Jose Mercury News

Dan Jones
Journalist
Light Reading Mobile

Pradnya Joshi
News Editor
The New York Times

Peter Kafka
Senior Editor
AllThingsD

S. Mitra Kalita
Commentary Editor
Quartz

Ziad Kane
Editor-in-Chief
The Next Web

Cecilia Kang
Reporter / Blogger
The Washington Post

Matt Kapko
Writer
ClickZ.com

Rimma Kats
Staff Reporter
Mobile Commerce Daily

Guy Kawasaki
Blogger
How to Change the World

Kate Kaye
Managing Editor
ClickZ

Kevin Kelly
Blogger
Kevin Kelly’s Lifestream

Meghan Kelly
Writer
VentureBeat

Andy Kessler
Columnist
The Wall Street Journal

Olga Kharif
Reporter
Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Businessweek

Queena Kim
Senior Reporter
Marketplace – American Public Media

Ryan Kim
Staff Writer
GigaOM

Rachel King
Staff Writer
CBS INteractive

Rachel King
Staff Writer
CBS INteractive

Richard Kirkland
Senior Managing Editor
McKinsey & Co.

Scott Kirsner
Contributing Writer
Boston Globe

Alex Knapp
Staff Writer
Forbes

Dennis Kneale
Senior Correspondent / Desk Editor
Fox Business News

Josh Kopelman
Blogger / Venture Capitalist
First Round Capital / Redeye VC

Steve Kovach
Senior Technology Editor
Business Insider

Matt Krantz
Markets Reporter
USA Today

Tom Krazit
Executive Editor
GigaOM

Carol Krol
Managing Editor, Custom Content
CBS Interactive

Danielle Kucera
Reporter
Bloomberg

Sarah Lacy
Founder and Editor in Chief
PandoDaily

David LaFontaine
Partner
Artesian Media

Ed Lambert
Blogger / Venture Capitalist
Lambert’s Logon / Bridge Bank

William Langbein
West Coast Managing Editor and Bureau Chief
Mergermarket San Francisco

Matthew Lasar
Associate Writer
Ars Technica

JD Lasica
Founder and Principal
Socialbrite.org

Doug Lavanture
Editorial Umbrella Team
Bloomberg News – Bloomberg Television

Ryan Lawler
Writer
TechCrunch

Corrina Lawson
Senior Editor and Blogger
Wired, Wired.com, GeekDad

Stephen Lawson
Senior U.S. Correspondent
IDG News Service

Christopher Lawton
Reporter
The Wall Street Journal

Michal Lenchner
Innovation and Cleantech Writer
The San Francisco Examiner

Rebecca Levey
Writer
Mashable

Sam Levin
Host, Co-Founder
AppMinute

Matthew Levine
Senior Producer at Bloomberg TV
Bloomberg TV

Meridith Levinson
Senior Writer
The Wall Street Journal, CIO Journal

Michal Lev-Ram
Writer
Fortune / CNNMoney

Jessica Liebman
Managing Editor
The Business Insider

Michael Liedtke
Reporter
Associated Press

Marc Lifsher
Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Times

Kelly Liyakasa
Associate Editor
AdExchanger

Jeremy Lockhorn
Contributing Writer
ClickZ

Steve Lohr
Senior Writer / Technology Reporter
The New York Times

Constance Loizos
Tech Transfer Department Head
Venture Capital Analyst

Linette Lopez
Editor, Clusterstock
Business Insider

David Louie
Tech Reporter and Business Editor
ABC7 (KGO-TV)

Ingrid Lunden
Staff Writer
Techcrunch

Eric Lundquist
Blogger / Technology Analyst
eWeek / ZBI

Peter Luria
Business Editor
BuzzFeed

Matthew Lynley
Business Editor
BuzzFeed

Dan Mabbutt
Visual Basic Guide
About.com

Douglas MacMillan
Reporter
Bloomberg News

Jamis MacNiven
Pancake Guy
Buck’s of Woodside

Kate Maddox
Executive Editor
BtoB

Michelle Maisto
Senior Writer
eWeek

Om Malik
Founder and Senior Writer
GigaOM

Joe Mandese
Editor
MediaPost Publications

Sue Marek
Editor-in-Chief
FierceWireless

John Markoff
Reporter
The New York Times

Matt Marshall
Founder and Editor in Chief
VentureBeat

Cody Maxwell
Contributing Writer
MediaBiz

Patrick May
Staff Writer
The San Jose Mercury News

Megan McCarthy
Deputy Technology Editor
Reuters

Mark McClusky
Editor
Wired

Ben McConnell
Blogger
Church Of The Customer

Becky McCray
Blogger
Small Biz Survival

John McDermott
Mobile Reporter
Advertising Age

Ellen McGirt
Senior Writer
Fast Company

Scott McGrew
Producer
NBC- KNTV San Francisco

Kevin McKenna
Deputy Business Editor
The New York Times

Robert McMillan
Senior Writer
Wired.com

Jennifer McNally
Vice President of Content Marketing
IAB SmartBrief

Stephanie Mehta
Deputy Managing Editor
Fortune

Fred Meier
Reporter
USA Today

Mark Meinero
Assistant Managing Editor
CNNMoney

Martha Mendoza
National Writer
Associated Press

Diane Mermigas
Editor-at-Large
Marketing Daily

John Mervin
New York Business Editor
BBC America

Ellen Messmer
Senior Editor
Network World

Cade Metz
Enterprise Editor
Wired

Rachel Metz
IT Editor
Technology Review

Dan Meyer
Editor-in-Chief
RCR Wireless News

Mike Michalowicz
Blogger
Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

Michael Miller
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VatorSplash, Where VCs, Entrepreneurs With Cool Apps & An Industry Ecosystem Meet

I haven't had a chance to attend a VatorSplash event in awhile because of so much travel however I was in town for the latest one, held this week at San Francisco's Cafe Du Nord on Market Street.

The event, as always, was packed full of interesting speakers, including renowned investors Jed Katz, Lars Leckie, Charles Moldow, Rory O'Driscoll, Keith McCurdy, Erin Hakansson, Alan Chiu, Dave Samuel, Rick Moss, Charles Hudson, Rob Coneybeer, Howard Hartenbaum, Tony Conrad, and others.

Docusign's CEO Keith Krach keynoted on best practices and Jared Simon talked about lessons learned from their work at HotelTonight. In traditional VatorSplash style, the band Coverflow played in the basement at Cafe Du Nord following the event. With a new sound that has leapfrogged from their more well known 1980s standards, Raj Kapoor, Phil Kaplan, Ethan Beard, Prashant Fuloria, Tim Chang, Kristian Segerstrale and The Mule played through the night while the die hards danced.

Above, HotelTonight's Co-Founder and COO Jared Simon on the VatorSplash stage.

Of the companies who presented, a few call outs include The Orange Chef Company, a great new product for foodies, which focuses on the notion that eating well starts at home. With the Prep Pad and accompanying iOS app, Countertop, you’ll have insight beyond your plate. Quickly assemble meals on Prep Pad and watch as Countertop presents you real time nutritional information on your iPad or iPhone. Set your own goals, discover more about your food and gain confidence in making the right choices. They're taking pre-orders now.

SweatGuru was founded by two women and is based in San Francisco. SweatGuru is the first marketplace that brings people together around fitness classes and experiences. By allowing anyone to organize, discover, book and share fitness classes online, SweatGuru takes the work out of working out. They also help small and medium-sized fitness businesses get online and be more successful.

By offering easy-to-use tools for marketing, scheduling, payments and staying in touch with clients, SweatGuru allows fitness professionals to spend more time teaching and less time behind a desk.

TravelingSpoon is an online marketplace that connects travelers with vetted, local, and authentic food experiences -- from cooking classes to homemade meals -- in people's homes around the world.

TravelingSpoon creates an alternative to traditional restaurant experiences that allows travelers to experience local culture and cuisine on the road, providing travelers with meaningful experiences and cultural exchange.  It has launched its beta in India, Thailand and Vietnam but they hope to expand to other regions later on.

In addition, they also offer in-home cooking classes as well as market tours as an extra add-on to many of the meal experiences. They say that all of their hosts have been vetted to ensure a safe and delightful culinary experience.

Kudos to Bambi and her team for always pulling off such an amazing event.

The Chile Connection: Why South America Took So Long...

Chile has long been on my bucket list and for a long time traveler who started hearing tales of this diverse country since childhood, it’s astonishing that it took me so long to get there. Something has always gotten in the way of me spending time in South America.

First, it was because Europe and Africa were on my first ‘must stops.’ Europe, well because my heritage is there and I had to see if the French were really as snobby as everyone said they’d be and the Italians were as gorgeous as I’d imagined. Africa was next because somehow I feel as if I was African in a past life since the beating of the drums calls to me in the same way blueberry picking does in the Adirondacks in this life.

Southeast Asia happened first by chance since an ex-flame dragged me there with a backpack in my early twenties and two years later after countless stops with bouts with dysentery, hepatitis and numerous other third world-like bugs, we returned to call England home. Not getting to South America is an easy excuse when you live in Europe since it’s simply so far away and after returning to the states and set up shop in New England, I had more excuses – there was more of Europe to do, more of Africa to do, more of New England to do. You get the point. And so, there South America was in nearly last place as a continent.

Chile, Peru and Argentina have always been my top three destinations. In other words, these were the three countries I always wanted to break my South America virginity, not necessarily in that order. Peru has the views, the mountains, faces with unique features that left me in awe and I imagined the best photo opportunities, Argentina has more mountains, great skiing, and Buenos Aires, where I could eat fabulous steak, tango through the streets and buy fabulous leather bags and boots.

And Chile….well, I had all the stories from my childhood and those photos of sexy looking boys from my host sister’s homeroom class (we were both AFS exchange students - she went to Chile and a year after she returned, I lived with her family in South Africa). It also had Patagonia of course and was the skinniest piece of land I had ever seen on a map, one which stretches for 2,700 miles north to south. Of course, I didn't know that it would have breathtaking glaciers that would have me at "hello."

Having that knowledge didn’t seem to stop me from being far more ignorant about the country than I had hoped before landing on her gracious soil for the first time. Truth be told, I’m an Isabel Allende fan and have read every single one of her novels, save one.

When I heard about the opportunity to join the 4^th annual Chile EXPOCOM that would gather some of the top tour operators, vendors and sellers in the world and roughly ten or so travel writers, I realized I had to say yes, even though I didn’t have time to read the fine print about where in Chile it was going to be held or what we were going to do.  

After I filled out the form confirming my attendance, I looked over at my visualization mirror which had Chile and Argentina at the tippy top of a list of a dozen or so countries I had to visit in the next 18 months. And alas, I was to be off to Chile in less than a week.

With so little time to plan, the truth is, I didn’t plan….anything. That means, no research, no pre-reading of our trip details until the two days before I left, when I made a few Google searches, which included two hotels, a little history on Puerto Arenas (my first stop) and photos of the region which left me breathless.

Despite the fact that it was nearly 20 hours of flying time and four flights, I realized I had just signed up for pure heaven and couldn’t wait to board the first plane.

Nature once again knocked on my door and I answered.

You see, I’m a true believer that nature calls to us when we’ve abandoned her for too long. In my case, it was abandoned to technology and when I didn’t give her enough time, she decided to take it back and remind me of the important things in life.

In less than two years, I was thrown into polar bear country in Canada’s Churchill Wild, returned to Maine’s seaside in the magical New England Fall, driven through the romantic countryside of Lithuania and Estonia in Spring, escorted out to an ancient graveyard in southern Ireland on a drizzly cold day, drove through the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York where I had my best childhood memories, flew above Greenland’s icy waters, brought out to the cold and windy cliffs of Western Iceland to watch Puffins at 3 am and now, flown to the heart of Chile's Patagonia where I’d be face-to-face with guanacos and black necked swans.

Despite my love of warmer climates and walking along a beach in a saucy colorful mini skirt barefoot on a balmy humid night, the universe seems to think I need to spend time in cold countries at the moment.

Sometimes I wonder whether it’s because California has started to make me ‘soft,’ and my New England roots doesn’t want to wait until I’m too far gone before it reclaims my soul to its rightful place.

Alas, on the night before my trip, my MacBook Pro started misbehaving again for the umpteenth time and I hadn’t yet finished packing. It was late and I was too cranky and fatigued to figure out how I was going to pack light when I had to fit warm sweaters, hats, mittens, boots, hiking boots, long johns and a down parka into the same suitcase I used for most of my longer trips that didn’t call for such bulky items.

Cranky as I was, I wore a smile, because deep down, I knew it was the time for my South American adventures to begin. It was time for me to master Spanish and Salsa, time for me to devour Pisco Sours instead of Cabernet Sauvignon for awhile and time for me to flirt with Latin culture and all that it means. I had no doubt I would be reignited by Chile’s fire, her charm and her spirit.

Security was a breeze. Since I had to clear customs, immigration and pay a whopping $160 entry fee (the U.S. is the highest of the countries which have to still pay one upon entry, although the requirement is supposed to disappear in 2014), the transition from Santiago to the third floor where all national flights departed was long.

That said, once I did reclaim my luggage and head towards the security gates, the guy before me shook his head as I started taking my belt off. “No need,” he said with a thick accent. I then proceeded to take my MacBook Pro out of my bag and he shook his head again. “No need,” he said again. I went for my boots and as I unzipped one of them, I looked up at him and saw his nod. “No need, right?” I said with a smile. It turns out I didn’t have to dump my two water bottles either or take my silver cuff off.

Patricio or rather Dr. Patricio, an orthodontist happened to live in Punta Arenas, which was where I was due to catch my connecting flight to meet the Expo organizers. You know you have ‘arrived’ when you’ve met the local orthodontist and as you’d expect him to, he had a great set of white teeth and a warm smile. In Spanish, he said to me, “slow down, no rush.” He quickly translated into English although I somehow knew that was exactly what he said. “You’re in Chile now,” he added with another warm smile.

He had just returned from Seattle and goes to the states each year for an annual conference and it was just the dose of medicine I needed to hear. Always rushing, even when I travel, I am often reminded that traveling DOES slow me down but if often takes a few days of being on the road for me to get out of my American skin. For the most part, the rest of the world travels at a slower pace than Americans and it’s the thing I crave more than anything else once I leave my hood.

Yes, slow down I thought and took a deep breathe. I had time – quite honestly, there was plenty of time to make it to the gate and it was time to get onto Chilean time and I don’t mean the numbers on a watch.

We chatted at the gate while he asked about my agenda which I scoured for in my black leather bag that happened to house everything a girl might need on the road, from toothpaste and napkins to a video camera, lipstick, a bottle of water and sunglasses. He scanned the document, nodding every now and then like a professor does as he’s looking at the paper he’s about to grade. Sometimes the nod was one of approval and other times ambiguous. Ahhh yes, this is beautiful he said as he pointed to a line on the page and this restaurant, it’s okay, it used to be much better nut has lost some of its lustre. And oh yes, you are going to Torres Del Paine National Park…THIS is the most beautiful and he gave me that warm smile again.

It was the first of many warm smiles I was going to experience in Chile. And as it shone, our flight was called to board. Since I slept through breakfast on the longest of my flights, I was starting to get hungry and so I asked the first LAN Airlines flight crew whether there was food on board. “Yes,” he said with a warm smile. “Good,” I replied, “because I’m hungry.” Soon, as I sat there quivering from the cold air blowing through the vents, Pablo showed up with a blanket three times the thickness of the ones we get on airlines in the states.  

Less than thirty minutes later, there was Pablo again pouring me tea with his beaming and addictive warm smile. Then, after handing my neighbors a box each which housed our morning crackers and a cranberry chocolate cookie, he handed me two boxes, gave me a smile and then finished off with a wink. Oh, those dark eyes. Oh, that warm smile.

We hadn’t even landed in Punta Arenas yet and I knew Chile was going to steal my heart. It already had!

All photo credits: Renee Blodgett.

GLAZED, An Event Dedicated To Wearables On September 30

On September 30, 2013 in San Francisco, Stained Glass Labs will kick off its first ever Glass and Wearables Platform ConferenceGLAZED!  The GLAZED Conference was created to take wearables and conversations around it to the next level with a goal to help the Wearable Platform ecosystem generate billion-dollar companies.  

The event is a fabulous curation of technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors. Join in the dynamic discussion September 30th in San Francisco and get tickets using promo code "glazed" for 20% off tickets.

The GLAZED Conference will take place in Mint Plaza located off of Mint and Fifth Street between Market and Mission Street in San Francisco's Central Market district and be followed by the Digital Fall Tech Fashion Show.

GLAZED Conference in the Old Mint
88 5th Street, San Francisco CA 94103

Digital Fall Tech Fashion Show in the Mezzanine
444 Jessie Street, San Francisco, CA 94103