Future of StoryTelling today announced the preliminary lineup of speakers, interactive workshop leaders, and returning speakers who will be featured at the 2015 FoST summit, to be held October 7th and 8th in New York City. The FoST summit is the centerpiece of year-round initiatives developed by Future of StoryTelling that include innovative narrative driven exhibitions, FoST films, and the prestigious FoST Prize. Charlie Melcher, Founder and Director of Future of StoryTelling, said, "As artists, entrepreneurs, media companies, marketers, and corporations continue their exploration of new storytelling mediums, FoST continues its dedication to sharing those advancements, creating unique dialogs and showcasing the ways in which audiences are becoming more deeply engaged, empathetic, and aware." An announcement of additional selections, including main-stage presenters and performers, is forthcoming. For complete programming information, please visit www.futureofstorytelling.org/summit/ ROUNDTABLE SPEAKERS Thought leaders, experts, and innovators leading intimate and participatory discussions around topics related to the changing landscape of storytelling. Al Gore FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AUTHOR OF AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH Former Vice President Al Gore spends the majority of his time as chairman of the Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit organization he founded that is focused on solutions to the global climate crisis. He is the author of the best sellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason, Our Choice, and, most recently, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change. He is the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth and was selected as the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change." Alan Gershenfeld PRESIDENT AND COFOUNDER, E-LINE MEDIA Amy Fredeen CFO, E-LINE, AND EVP AND CFO, COOK INLET TRIBAL COUNCIL Alan Gershenfeld has spent the past twenty years at the intersection of entertainment, technology, and social entrepreneurship. He is currently President and Cofounder of E-Line Media, a publisher of digital entertainment that engages, educates, and empowers-with a focus on computer and video games. Alan has worked on impact game projects with the Gates Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation, USAID, DARPA, the White House OSTP, the California Endowment, the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Games for Change, Google, Sesame Workshop, the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, and the ASU Center for Games and Impact. Amy Fredeen is of Inupiaq heritage and served as the Lead Cultural Ambassador for the game Never Alone. She currently serves as the CFO at E-Line and as the Executive VP and CFO of Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC), an innovative nonprofit that provides educational and social services to Alaska Natives and American Indian people in the Cook Inlet Region of Alaska. Amy is also President/Chair of the Board of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples and member of the Board of Directors for Cook Inlet Native Head Start and the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Clint Smith TEACHER AND POET Clint Smith is a teacher, poet, and doctoral candidate in education at Harvard University. He serves as a resident teaching artist in Boston Public Schools and as a writing instructor at Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk, MA. His research interests include critical pedagogy, mass incarceration, the intersection of art and activism, how literacy shapes the formation of adolescent identity, and youth civic education. He was the 2014 National Poetry Slam champion and an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist. He has also served as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State conducting international workshops on cross-cultural understanding and youth advocacy. Franklin Leonard FOUNDER, THE BLACK LIST Franklin Leonard is the founder of the Black List, the yearly publication highlighting Hollywood's most popular unproduced screenplays. More than 250 Black List scripts have been produced as feature films, earning almost 200 Academy Award nominations and 37 wins. Franklin has worked in development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack, Anthony Minghella, Leonardo DiCaprio, and John Goldwyn. He has been named one of Hollywood Reporter's 35 Under 35, Black Enterprise magazine's "40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future," and Fast Company's "100 Most Creative People in Business." He was also awarded the 2015 African American Film Critics Association's Special Achievement Award for career excellence. Joe Marchese PRESIDENT, ADVANCED ADVERTISING, FOX NETWORKS GROUP Joe Marchese is the President of Advanced Advertising at Fox Networks Group and the former CEO of true[X], which 21st Century Fox acquired in 2015. He founded true[X] in 2007 with the goal of creating a scalable advertising system uniquely suited to consumer, publisher, and advertiser demands in a digital world. Today true[X] powers engagement advertising for a broad portfolio of advertisers, agencies, and publishers. Joe has appeared in major publications including the New York Times, Forbes, and AdWeek, and he has been published in Fortune and Mediapost, writing on the broad impact of digital technology on the media landscape. Margaret Atwood AUTHOR Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; Oryx and Crake, short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize; The Year of the Flood; and her most recent, MaddAddam. She is also the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Innovator's Award. Michael Wesch CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST Dubbed "the explainer" by WIRED magazine, Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture. His videos on culture, technology, education, and information have been viewed by tens of millions, translated in over twenty languages, and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide. Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award and the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology. Scott Dadich EDITOR IN CHIEF, WIRED Scott Dadich was named Editor in Chief of WIRED in November 2012. He previously served as creative director from 2006 to 2010, during which he led the magazine to an unprecedented three consecutive National Magazine Awards in Design and oversaw the development of WIRED's groundbreaking iPad app. Since becoming Editor in Chief, Scott has spearheaded the launch of WIRED's first-ever design retreat, WIRED by Design, held at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch; secured an exclusive interview and photo shoot with Edward Snowden; and collaborated on special issues with both Bill Gates and Christopher Nolan.
FoST FAVORITES Returning roundtable speakers brought back by popular demand. Aaron Koblin ARTIST, DESIGNER & ENTREPRENEUR; COFOUNDER & CTO, VRSE Aaron Koblin is an artist, designer, and entrepreneur specializing in data and digital technologies. He is the Cofounder and CTO of Vrse. His artwork uses real-world and community-generated data to reflect on cultural trends and the changing relationship between humans and the systems they create. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Centre Pompidou, and his projects have been shown at international festivals including TED, Sundance, and the Tribeca Film Festival. He received the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Interaction Design and the National Science Foundation's award for science visualization. Bjarke Ingels ARCHITECT & FOUNDER, BIG Bjarke Ingels started BIG Bjarke Ingels Group in 2005. Through a series of award-winning design projects and buildings, Bjarke has developed a reputation for designing buildings that are as programmatically and technically innovative as they are cost- and resource-conscious. Bjarke has received numerous awards and honors, including the Danish Crown Prince's Culture Prize in 2011, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2004, and the ULI Award for Excellence in 2009. In 2011, the Wall Street Journal awarded Bjarke the Architectural Innovator of the Year Award. Jake Barton FOUNDER, LOCAL PROJECTS Jake Barton is recognized as a leader in the field of interaction design for physical spaces, and in the creation of collaborative storytelling projects where participants generate content. He has overseen projects for the National September 11th Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, StoryCorps, and the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Jennifer Aaker GENERAL ATLANTIC PROFESSOR OF MARKETING, STANFORD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS A social psychologist, Jennifer Aaker studies time, money, and happiness, focusing on questions such as: What actually makes people happy, as opposed to what they think makes them happy? How can small acts create infectious action, and how can such effects be fueled by social media? Her work has been featured in a variety of media, including The Economist, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and NPR. She coauthored the award-winning book The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change. She teaches courses such as Social Brands, Designing Happiness, and How to Tell a Story. Sarah Wood CO-FOUNDER & COO, UNRULY Sarah Wood is cofounder and COO of marketing technology company Unruly, where she ensures that the company delivers the most awesome social video campaigns on the planet. Sarah has been voted UK Female Entrepreneur of the Year by the Growing Business Awards, one of 15 Women to Watch in Tech by Inc., one of 10 London-Based Entrepreneurs to Watch by Forbes, Digital Woman of the Year by RED magazine, and a Rising Star in Computer Weekly's Most Influential Women in UK IT.
WORKSHOP LEADERS Artists and innovators lead interactive sessions and creative activities aimed at teaching unique skills. David Nadelberg FOUNDER, MORTIFIED David Nadelberg is best known as the creator of Mortified, a grassroots storytelling project where adults share the embarrassing things they created as kids. Over the course of thirteen years, he grew Mortified into a cultural phenomenon that includes stage shows in over a dozen cities worldwide, a series of books, a weekly podcast, and various film and TV projects. He is currently producing and hosting The Mortified Podcast. David hosted two seasons of Sundance TV's The Mortified Sessions, which featured intimate conversations with personalities ranging from actors to rock stars to CEOs. In 2013, he produced the documentary Mortified Nation. James Braly WRITER, PERFORMER, AUTHOR & TEACHER James Braly is a writer, performer, author, and teacher of autobiographical storytelling. His monologue Life in a Marital Institution: 20 Years of Monogamy in One Terrifying Hour was a New York Times Critics Pick, selling out Off-Broadway and then playing a fourteen-city national tour. His live audio recording, Life in a Marital Institution: Live from Bass Performance Hall, spent twelve weeks on the Amazon Hot 100 Comedy List last summer. Recent projects include teaching at Fordham University, writing a TEDx talk on forgiveness, and developing his next autobiographical monologue, The Monthly Nut (How Much Misery Does It Take to Be Happy?). Maira Kalman AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR Maira Kalman is an author and illustrator of numerous books for adults and children. She is a contributor to the New York Times and The New Yorker. She has collaborated with Isaac Mizrahi (dancing the part of the duck in his production of Peter and the Wolf), Mark Morris, Michael Pollan, Lemony Snicket, and Nico Muhly. She is represented by the Julie Saul Gallery, is the owner of one pair of Toscanini's pants, and lives in New York City. Todd Oldham ARTIST Originally a New York fashion designer, Oldham's career has evolved to include all areas of design, from interior design, to film and photography, to furniture and graphic design. Oldham recently completed his 19th book, Charley Harper's Animal Kingdom. Most recently, Oldham's Kid Made Modern, a collection of art supplies and kits, books, and events, debuted in all Target locations.
About Future of StoryTelling (FoST) The Future of StoryTelling is an annual summit and community platform that draws leaders from the worlds of media, technology, and communications to explore how stories are changing in the digital age. In addition to the summit (October 7-8), FoST produces a daily blog, a weekly online speaker series, a monthly newsletter, quarterly influencer salons, international technology exhibitions and showcases, the FoST Prize for Innovation in Storytelling, and dozens of short films highlighting the big ideas shaping the storytelling landscape. For more information visit: www.futureofstorytelling.org
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