Business Keynote
COMMERCIAL CREATIVITY: HOW TO MERGE CREATIVE DISCIPLINES TO CREATE RICH CONSUMER EXPERIENCES
Bertrand Cesvet
Chairman and Senior Partner, Sid Lee
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Time - 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Keynote Theatre - Free
As one of the key strategists behind Cirque du Soleil's marketing machine, Bertrand Cesvet knows a thing or two about breaking barriers and merging creative disciplines. Cesvet is chairman and senior partner at Sid Lee, a creative services company with more than 300 employees and collaborators, known as "artisans," spread across Montreal, Amsterdam and Paris. In 1997, Cesvet became employee number 11 at a then-fledgling graphic design shop in Montreal, called Diesel Marketing. With his two business partners, Jean-François Bouchard and Philippe Meunier, he set out to turn it into one of the most original marketing companies in the world. A cultural and commercial incubator, Sid Lee has experts in advertising, graphic design, interactive communication, interior design, architecture and experiential design. In his keynote, Cesvet will demonstrate commercial creativity in action, presenting Sid Lee's work for Adidas Originals which spans multiple consumer touch points, from store design to mass and interactive communications.
Cesvet is a co-author of the groundbreaking 2008 book, Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About, with Tony Babinski and Eric Alper. Based in Paris, he heads Sid Lee's two European offices but splits his professional life between North America and Europe. Cesvet previously worked as a strategy consultant for Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman). He holds a BA in economics and an MBA from McGill University.
For more information on Bertrand Cesvet, please visit www.sidlee.com
Environment Keynote
WHAT MAKES A GOOD CITY?
Enrique Peñalosa
Urban Consultant and Former Mayor of Bogotá
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Time - 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Keynote Theatre - Free
Recognized as one of the world's most visionary politicians, Enrique Peñalosa is credited with single-handedly changing for the better Colombia's capital city, Bogotá. An accomplished public official, economist and administrator, Peñalosa completed a three-year term as mayor of Bogotá in 2000. In his short tenure, Peñalosa profoundly transformed his city of seven million inhabitants, making social equity and human happiness its most urgent priorities. He promoted children's needs and public spaces by restricting private car use and building hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways and parks. Peñalosa also led efforts to improve Bogotá‘s marginal neighborhoods through citizen involvement; planted more than 100,000 trees; created a new, highly successful bus-based transit system; and turned a deteriorated downtown avenue into a dynamic pedestrian public space. In his keynote, he will focus on sustainable mobility as a tool for achieving social equity.
Peñalosa is currently a consultant on urban vision and sustainability strategy and works with many local, regional and national governments, as well as other organizations all over the world. He holds a BA in economics and history from Duke University, an MA in government from the IIAP in Paris and a DESS in public administration from the University of Paris II. He was also a visiting scholar at New York University and has taught at several Colombian universities.
Lighting Keynote
LIGHTPAINTINGS IN ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Stephen Knapp
Light Artist
Friday, September 25
Time - 10:30 - 11:30 AM
Keynote Theatre - Free
American artist Stephen Knapp has the distinction of creating what has been described as "the first new art medium of the 21st century." During a career spanning decades, Knapp has been producing lightpaintings, formed at the intersection of painting, sculpture and architecture, and inspired by his explorations of space and dimension, light and colour, and perception. As one of a small group of artists working with light, Knapp has gained an international reputation for large-scale works of pure radiance, making visible the light that surrounds us and transforming it. He has a well-established record of collaborating with architects and designers. Clients are often surprised to learn that lightpaintings are "green" and, in major installations, have resulted in significant savings, challenging what green design means and the role light can play. In his IIDEX/NeoCon Canada keynote, Knapp will discuss the development of lightpaintings, the impact light art could have on the art and architecture of the future, and how it could change the way we design our buildings.
Knapp's work can be found in museums and private, public and corporate collections around the world. He has written and lectured widely, and has been featured in many international publications, including Architectural Record, Interior Design and The New York Times.
For more information on Stephen Knapp, please visit www.lightpaintings.com
Design Keynote
ARE YOU A HYBRID? DESIGN AS AN AGENT OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Stephen Burks
Designer
Friday, September 25, 2009
Time - 1:00 - 2:00 PM
Keynote Theatre - Free
One of the most sought-after industrial designers of his generation, Stephen Burks continues to use every project opportunity to bridge the gap between the luxury brands he works with and his passionate commitment to design with a conscience. The founder of Readymade Projects, based in New York City, Burks believes that technological advances paired with rapidly changing economic realities demand that design rewrite its own rules. His cross-disciplinary approach and his collaborations with artisans in the developing world are the hallmarks of his hybrid practice. As he puts it, "the excesses of the last two decades, resulting from the proliferation of goods, continue to have disastrous consequences for the planet." This global crisis offers an opportunity for design practitioners of every stripe to interact meaningfully with visionaries in business, science, the arts, social work and public policy, and to play a powerful new role in the transformation of our shared reality and emerging future. In his keynote, Burks will explore hybrid design as an agent of social change.
Active internationally with Aid To Artisans and the Nature Conservancy, Stephen Burks studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, product design at IIT'S Institute of Design, and attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture. His clients include Cappellini, Moroso, Boffi, Coty USA, B&B Italia, Missoni, Calvin Klein and Audi. He is a member of the Cologne Furniture Fair international trend board. Burks' work has been published and exhibited internationally.
For more information of Stephen Burks, please visit www.readymadeprojects.com
Attendee