Vote for Burning Man’s SXSW 2016 Panels!

During our 25+ years of producing Burning Man, we’ve learned a thing or two about collaborative creation, participation-driven cities, inspiring creativity, creating crucibles for innovation, alternative socioeconomic models — things that we’re as eager to share with the broader creative community as they are to hear it. So for us, SXSW is as much about skill sharing as learning and community engagement.

So … that said, we’re happy to once again be proposing a few panels for SXSWi, and if you agree they’d be a valuable addition to this year’s SXSW offering, please vote before September 4, and share with others who might feel similarly!

Creating the Ideal Context for Radical Innovation

We’re witnessing the rapid growth of a culture of making and innovation across a variety of disciplines that, taken together, supply the raw materials of a vibrant and productive ecosystem of radical creativity. This panel will explore the ingredients that go into creating a successful context for innovation, and how they’re being employed in the corporate, government, design and art realms today.

Speakers
Will Chase, Minister of Propaganda, Burning Man
Smita Satiani, Director of Engagement, White House Presidential Innovation Fellows
Peter Hirshberg, Founder, City Innovate
Bill O’Connor, Founder, Autodesk Innovation Genome

Vote for this panel.

Burning Man: From Free Play To Innovation Science

Playfulness is a refined mechanism of evolution that acts as an engine of engagement and adaptability. The biology of fun is the biology of deep engagement and creative invention. In play, animals (including humans) generate novelty and build strong social relationships. Furthermore, the creativity of play is a precursor to innovation akin to how natural selection generates innovation, as some ideas generated in play’s abundance result in useful, game-changing strategies.

Here we bring together an elite panel that will show how the future of robust social networks, as well as innovation (and social joy), relies on tapping into our evolutionary resource: playfulness.

Speakers
Jenn Sander, Global Initiatives, Burning Man
Stuart Brown, Founder, National Institute of Play
Brendan Boyle, Partner, IDEO
Isabel Behncke, TED Fellow & Oxford University PHD

Vote for this panel.

Internationalization of Cultural Movements

How does the internationalization and expansion of bottom-up grassroots, cultural movements like Burning Man’s, Maker Faire’s, and Couchsurfing’s occur while maintaining foundational cultural identities? How did the missions and purpose of these organizations play a part in their becoming global networks, and to what extent did it happen organically? What are their unique challenges of expansion, and how are they responding to the needs of their communities? This panel will explore the diverse learnings, tools and future opportunities of global impact networks.

Speakers
Meghan Rutigliano, Regional Network Associate Director, Burning Man
Sabrina Merlo, Program Director, Maker Faire
Casey Fenton, Couchsurfing

Vote for this panel.

Thank you, and we hope to see you at SXSW 2016!