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Speakers

Carl Alviani
A freelance industrial designer and design journalist, Carl has spent time as a structural engineer, Peace Corps volunteer, high school science teacher, materials researcher, and art furniture builder—in roughly that order. Carl is the Editorial Director for Coroflot.com, as well as western regional editor for Core77.
Brian Collins
Moderator Brian Collins designed Al Gore’s “WE” campaign. For almost a decade before founding COLLINS:, he led Ogilvy & Mather’s brand and innovation division. COLLINS: is a design consultancy focused on using design and technology to connect people with new ideas, brands, and organizations. His presentation at the 2007 SEGD Conference + Expo in Boston was wildly popular. How can he possibly top the blueberry muffins? By designing a surprise that will wow you! Be prepared to think and be creative, and you’ll be rewarded.
Amy Cotteleer
What exactly is a branded environment? Can something as lasting as a brand exist for just a moment in time? What are the strategies behind the pop-up store phenomenon? Amy, President of A Squared Group, an award-winning marketing agency, will address the idea of brand as a temporary event.
Nancy Egan
Nancy Egan is a frequent lecturer, panelist, and workshop leader on design, real estate, and marketing. She was with Harvard University’s Executive Education Program for eight years, and has taught at Yale, Columbia, the University of Wisconsin, and Rice University. She is principal of New Voodou, which provides marketing strategies and media relations services to its real estate and design clients from offices on both coasts.
Luis Fitch
What is the “Hispanic market,” and what will it mean for designers in the coming decades? There is plenty of folklore, myth, and stereotype surrounding this elusive but increasing significant market sector. Luis Fitch, co-founder of Uno, a Hispanic branding agency, will help demystify the notion of designing across cultures and show how ethnographic tools such as consumer profiling can be used to create designs that are culturally relevant.
Moira Gemmill
Moira Gemmill, director of projects, design, and estate for London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, will share how this venerable but daring institution continues to inspire designers and the public. She’ll focus on the V&A’s recently launched FuturePlan, an extraordinary transformation that will span architectural interventions, cutting-edge exhibition design, and regeneration of retail and public spaces.
Marc Greuther
Marc Greuther, curator of industry and design at The Henry Ford, is responsible for collecting and interpreting power-generating, machine tool, railroad, production/manufacturing, and modern design artifacts. He will address how the history of innovation, represented through the stories of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Buckminster Fuller, connects to innovation today. Learn how lessons rooted in the past can inspire America as we search for solutions for the future. Marc holds a degree in art history from The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.
Matthias Hank Haeusler
Author of two books on dynamic environments, Hank curated the recent exhibition on that topic at the 2008 Urban Screens conference in Berlin. As part of the transdisciplinary Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, he focuses his research on the transition of architecture to a communications medium.
Craig Hanna
A writer, filmmaker, and storyteller with over 20 years of expertise in creating compelling experiences and environments, Craig serves as the creative conscience on every Thinkwell project, directing the creative development of each from inception through opening day. His experience in master planning and attraction development spans a variety of world-class projects.
Eric Karjaluoto
Social media represent a broad change in how people communicate with one another—exciting for business as it presents new channels for reaching consumers. Eric, who runs SmashLAB, will introduce early adopters who have encountered successes and failures in developing strategies incorporating this new paradigm.
Stuart Karten
Industrial designer Stuart Karten’s ModeMapping process uses graphic communication to solve the challenges inherent in design research—organizing results, communicating findings to team members and clients, and drawing analytical conclusions. Based on ethnographic research, ModeMapping creates visual storylines organized by a series of activity “modes.” These visual maps help designers identify common patterns, which represent shared experiences. Karten uses these maps to drive innovative new product concepts.
Eric La Brecque
Eric La Brecque's approach to brand communications combines storytelling techniques from the world's great narrative traditions with an ongoing study of marketplace dynamics. He views brand development as equal parts business discipline and art form, and he and his team at Applied Storytelling have successfully addressed complex communications challenges for a wide range of clients, from cities and retail destinations to beauty products and communications technologies. In addition to helping clients achieve their business objectives by helping them strengthen their connection with their audiences, Eric is dedicated to advancing brand practice through ongoing development and refinement of tools and methods.