Keynote Speakers from FUSION 2010
Stuart Brown MD
Founder and President
The National Institute for Play
www.nifplay.org
"What Nature Wants You to Know About Play"
What is it that triggers our emotional engagement with the world throughout a lifetime? What holds our attention, helps to craft our uniquely human social brain, and when developmentally attuned to the individual fosters progressive mastery?
A close look at the evolution, neurobiology and characteristics of play behaviors, their embedment in the brain's survival circuitry, and the growing data on the relationship of play to performance, innovation and creativity, emotional regulation, and overall well-being will be presented. The consequences of play deprivation to individual life and culture will likewise be reviewed.
Julie Evans
Coming Soon: The New "Free Agent Learner" – Are You Ready?
The dynamic profusion of emerging technologies, both in school and out of school, is propelling today's students to make new demands on education institutions for technology-rich learning experiences and environments. Enabled, empowered and engaged, this next wave of students is creating their own vision for 21st century education that is socially-based, un-tethered to the traditional classroom and rich in digital media and content. Get a first hand, insider glimpse into the activities, values and aspirations of these "free-agent learners" through this keynote address by Project Tomorrow CEO, Julie Evans.
For the past seven years, Project Tomorrow (www.tomorrow.org), an education nonprofit organization, has facilitated the annual Speak Up National Research Project to collect and report on the authentic, unfiltered views of students, parents and educators about 21st century learning and technology. The Speak Up data findings regularly inform federal, state and local policies, programs and funding for education. Julie Evans has been CEO of Project Tomorrow since 1999. Prior to Project Tomorrow (formerly known as NetDay) Julie was a key executive with two educational technology startup firms and a Fortune 50 technology company. She is a graduate of Brown University and serves on several education and youth advisory councils including Advisory Boards for the 2008 Horizon K-12 Report and 2008 and 2009 Horizon Higher Education Report. Ms. Evans is a frequent speaker, writer and commentator on children, education, science and technology issues. In April 2008, Ms. Evans was named as one of the Top Ten Most Influential People in Education Technology over the past 10 years by eSchool News and was most recently elected to the Board of Directors of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
Joel Cohen
Writer and Co-Executive Producer on The Simpsons
The Business Tao of Homer: Lessons in Creativity and Innovation From The Simpsons
Joel Cohen is an absolutely hilarious, deadpan, quick-on-his feet speaker - perfect for any group that needs to inject more creative energy into their work, but who prefer to laugh a little (okay, a lot) while learning how. Armed with inspired anecdotes and clips, he takes you into the fabled writers' room at The Simpsons to draw the links - and there are many - between maintaining a hit show and running a successful company. He asks, and then brilliantly answers, questions essential to the success of any industry. How do you manage group dynamics to get the best from your talent? How do you find, evaluate, implement, and even discard, new ideas? How do you chart a renewable path to innovation? And how do you overcome creative log jams? (Note: for actual, literal logjams, Cohen recommends a chainsaw - or even better, hiring a guy with a chainsaw).
Joel Cohen earned his MBA and found success in the corporate world before making a completely illogical career move into comedy writing. Luckily for him (and taxpayers who fund the welfare system), it all worked out: he became an Emmy-winning writer for The Simpsons - "the greatest TV show of the 20th century" (Time). Cohen's experience as both a "creative" and a "suit" has not only left him with a puzzling resume, it also gives him a unique perspective to discuss innovation, creativity and their place in business. "The same factors that allow creativity to arise, to live or to die for writers are also present and relevant in corporations and even individuals." His insights are entertaining, highly practical and slightly tinged with a Canadian accent (Canadian accent not guaranteed).
