What Sort of Talks Will There Be?

Since 2006, Mindshare LA has been a forum for over two hundred diverse presenters to share their minds. Mindshare 50 will gather some our favorites from years past, as well as some great new additions, bringing together more than fifteen presenters to explore the theme of “WHAT COMES NEXT?”.

Each presenter will creatively interpret the theme as it relates to the cutting edge of their fields. We’ll also have interstitials and performances from Super Tall Paul, Eban Schletter, Boom Boom Boom and David Rona! The talks will run from 10am-6pm on Saturday, which is conveniently when the after party gets under way!

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Order of Talks:

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10am: Introduction to “What Comes Next?”

Douglas Campbell / @ProjectFresh Co-Founder, Mindshare LADoug is a community constructor, experience engineer and tuxedo traveler. He co-founded Mindshare LA in 2006. From the start he saw the power of technology to augment social interaction and began forming an interactive collective which led to it’s spin off and incorporation as Syyn Labs, LLC in 2009, and gained quick notoriety for their RGM music video collaboration with OK Go.

10:15am: MIND

Tristan Ursell Ph.D. / @Creepuscular Biophysicist, Stanford UniversityTristan is a passionate teacher and communicator of science, exploring the interface of science, policy and daily life. He works as a biophysicist at Stanford University, as Managing Editor of the Stanford Journal of Law, Science and Policy, and is a resident of the infamous Langton Labs intentional community in San Francisco.

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Sena Koleva Ph.D. / @SheFeline Psychologist, University of Southern CaliforniaSena’s research explores a variety of social psychological topics, e.g. morality, romantic relationships, political ideology, evolution and biology of attraction, mate selection, and love, religious beliefs, and culture differences. She is currently working on a large project that investigates how individual values, beliefs, personality, and culture may influence everyday decision-making and behavior.

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Moran Cerf Ph.D. / @TwtrDtCm Neuroscientist at Caltech, UCLA’s Department of Neurosurgery, and NYUMoran is interested in attention, emotions regulations, and dreams. His set of studies include examining the conscious control of single neurons in humans, the ability to affect altered states of consciousness as dreams or sleep, and the ability of humans to regulate high-level emotions.

12pm: BODY

Jason Porath / @JasonPorath Effects Artist and Technical Director, Dreamworks AnimationJason hails from Kentucky, where his parents met at a Renaissance Faire, hooked up at the Wicca Coven, and raised him at sci-fi conventions. This upbringing naturally steered him to Los Angeles, where he now works in computer graphics for feature films. Although Jason currently is employed at DreamWorks Animation, he has previously worked at Digital Domain, Luma Pictures, SW Digital, CIS Hollywood, Ring of Fire, and yu+co.

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Amanda Parkes Ph.D. / @AmandaJParkes Biomedia Designer, Fashion Technologist, Curator, ProfessorAmanda is a biomedia designer & fashion technologist interested in how digital technologies and smart materials can expand our relationship with natural phenomena to facilitate a more intuitive connection interfacing technology to the natural world.

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Eric Gradman / @egradman Artists & InventorEric is an artist and inventor in Los Angeles, CA. He make others see technology as magic. He is a founding member of the creative collective Syyn Labs and loves to make new things. He can also spin fire while balancing on a circus ball and whistlin – but not just any whistling, eric finished in the top 10 at the world’s whistling competition in Louisburg, North Carolina.

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Zak Holdsworth / @zakholdsworth Director of Business Development, WellnessFXZak is fascinated by the cross section of technology, experience design and health. An electrical engineer by training he has built embedded medical devices, consulted on lean/agile, founded a couple of (failed) startups, worked as a VC, and has advised and invested in a small handful of early stage companies. Prior to joining WellnessFX (consumer directed health technology), he completed his MBA at Stanford. He is also a health enthusiast and likes to teach people how to cook simple delicious food and live healthier lives.

2:15pm: Interview with Nolan!

Nolan Bushnell / @NolanBushnell Co-Founder and Chief Game Designer of Anti-Aging Games Nolan is a seasoned entrepreneur who founded both Atari, Inc and the Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza-Time Theaters chain. Bushnell has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the CEA’s Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News “Innovator of the Year” award, and was named one of Newsweek’s “50 Men Who Changed America.” Bushnell has started more than twenty companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. Together with two doctorate scientists, he is currently working on games designed to stimulate the brain.

2:30pm: CULTURE

Lucien Vattel / @GameDesk Founder & CEO, GameDeskLucien has designed and produced over a dozen educational games for industry and education and is at the forefront of developing how games and digital learning technologies can be used for core curriculum education. He currently owns and operates Chizuru Games and serves as CEO of GameDesk, a national center for game and digital learning research, development, and outreach. Lucien is also co-founder and co-director of a new game and interactive-based school launching in Los Angeles in the fall 2012. Lucien’s goal is simple, to completely redesign education.

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Jeet-Kei Leung / @MazeGuider Writer, DJ & Experience DesignerJeet-Kei illuminates the phenomenon of Transformational Festivals, conveying a ground-breaking articulation of this emergent culture. He is the writer, narrator & host for an upcoming 4-part documentary webseries on the subject, covering a dozen of the premier festivals of this kind. Jeet-Kei resides in Vancouver, B.C., where he rocks dancefloors as the DJ named Mazeguider and is the founder of Intention, an annual 5-day new years celebration which just held its 13th year of gathering.

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Anthony Batt / @DJABatt President, Katalyst NetworksAnthony runs Katalyst, a team of storytellers that creates digital and television programming media for some of the world’s biggest brands. Katalyst is a reknowned champion of technology who sees the world years before it arrives. As a digital media pioneer, Anthony understands how to engage audiences through compelling original digital programming. Anthony also founded the entertainment-blog powerhouse BUZZMedia, played a role in early craigslist.org as well as Absolut Vodka’s award winning digital media strategy.

4pm: PLANET

Erica Wohldmann, Ph.D. / @CSUNorthridge Associate Professor California State Univeristy, Northridge, Department of PsychologyErica’s research is concerned with factors that influence learning and memory for knowledge and skills, as well as decision-making. She is also a reknowned food advocate, studying how we can continue to sustain an expanding population while exploring studies and trends in food-based health and food production.

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Dario Mutabdzija / @DarioMRM Co-Founder and President, BlueseedDario is entrepreneur bricoleur who is passionate about connecting people and businesses around the world. He is co-founder and President of Blueseed. Dario studied and/or worked in Hawaii, China, California, Austria and Bosnia. He received his J.D. and LL.M. in Transnational Business Practice from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento CA, and the University of Salzburg in Austria. Prior to Blueseed, Dario served as Director of Legal Strategy for The Seasteading Institute.

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Dezso Molnar / @DezsoM Co-founder, CTO, Molnari, Inc.Dezso is the co-founder and CTO of Molnari, Inc., a vehicle design company specializing in street-legal aircraft. Dezso is a pilot, flew passenger jets in the US Air Force, has 4a Professional Aeronautics degree from Embry-Riddle University.

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Gianelle Veis / @GianelleVeis Manager, Prize Development, X PRIZE Foundation. Gianelle specializes in making the impossible possible, predicting the future by creating it, and bringing about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. Gianelle designs incentive prize competitions across X PRIZE’s four prize groups: Education & Global Development, Energy & Environment, Exploration (space & deep oceans), and Life Sciences. Gianelle’s work at X PRIZE fuels her passion for improving our world.

5:30pm: COSMOS

Adam Steltzner Ph.D. / @MarsCuriosity Entry, Descent and Landing Lead, Mars Science Laboratory Mission, Jet Propulsion LaboratoryAdam leads a team that has developed the novel entry, descent and landing system for the rover Curiosity, the largest rover ever sent to another planet. His team, spread across the country, has developed with heats shields, parachutes, rockets engines and a radar all to gently place this mega rover, wheels down, safely on the surface of Mars.

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Dan Goods / @DanGoods Visual Strategist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Dan’s passion is to give people experiences where they interact with something beautiful, meaningful, and/or possibly profound. He gets to do this as the Visual Strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he creates ways of communicating the awe of space to the general public, as well as on his own time through public and private art commissions around the world. He is featured in this months LA Weekly for the “Best of LA People 2012” issue.

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Kevin P. Hand Ph.D. Deputy Chief Scientist for Solar System Exploration at JPL Kevin’s research focuses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the solar system with an emphasis on moons of the outer solar system that likely harbor liquid water oceans. These moons are prime targets in our search for life beyond Earth. His fieldwork has brought him to the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, the depths of the Earth’s oceans, the icy permafrost of Alaska, and to the glaciers of Kilimanjaro. In 2011 he was selected as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.

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