CREATIVE EXPERIENCE Santa Fe
NOVEMBER 10-12, 2023
The ultimate gathering for visionaries leading creative tech and community resilience, innovations in venture investing, and the cultivation of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.
The ultimate gathering for visionaries leading creative tech and community resilience, innovations in venture investing, and the cultivation of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Welcome
To The
Rebuild
CxSF is a transformative gathering hosted by Creative Startups and General Creativity that invites participants to imagine a new world by reshaping the existing norms of Capitalism.
Through the exploration of new technologies (think digital twinning, smarter cities, the AI frontier) and investment innovation, we will dismantle outdated structures and rebuild our social, economic, political and physical surroundings.
We will navigate the intersection of digital innovation and social impact, illuminating the immense opportunities for positive change.
Together, we will reimagine a world where creativity knows no bounds, where equity prevails, and where the potential of humanity is fully realized.
Events include hands-on, creator-led tech experiences, fireside chats, collective art creations, a handful of keynotes, immersive art explorations, unexpected moments, live music, and panels with inventors + investors + innovators! We expect/hope attendees will come with abundant curiosity and leave with a creative imperative.
GUIDING VALUES
That’s why we accelerate their success.
That’s why we invest in and champion creative entrepreneurs building inclusive, vibrant communities.
That’s why we gather creative visionaries and technologists, investors and magic makers every year at CxSF!
LEARN MORE ABOUT →
Brian Osterloh has devoted his career to service and innovation in the public sector. He invested the last 10+ years of his career as City of Albuquerque Associate CIO and then Director of the Dept of Technology & Innovation. His teams’ commitment to creative solutions won the City numerous awards and recognition as a leader in Smart Cities, GovTech innovation, and Open Data. The City has long been at the forefront of public sector technology. The City was one of the first to adopt GIS, create a website, and establish a 311 contact center. Osterloh built on these initiatives ensuring his department was oriented toward and providing high quality community-facing services. Recent innovations include being the first City to allow submission of service requests via Amazon Alexa, using open data to improve availability of transit information, comprehensive implementation of cutting edge public safety technologies, and public-private agreements to bring fiber-to-the-home throughout the entire City.
Charles Marohn is the founder and president of Strong Towns. He is a land use planner and civil engineer with decades of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.
Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019) and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (Wiley 2021). He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America.
Kevin Doyle Jones has had a number of successful startups, in the media, information and events businesses. Starting as a country weekly newspaper editor in the poorest county in Mississippi, his reporting put a sheriff in prison on 53 counts of fraud. He went on to write for the New York Times and was a columnist for Forbes.
He co-created SOCAP, the world’s largest impact investing and social enterprise conference. He has been working on events, new financial instruments and an online community focused on creating a network of interdependent, neighborly economies. He is co-founder of a community equity fund that is solving the problem of friends and family funding for Black and brown entrepreneurs.
Matty Mo is a Los Angeles-based contemporary artist and marketing entrepreneur best known for creating the conceptual art group, “The Most Famous Artist.” Through this platform, Monahan makes social media-themed installations, performance art and exhibitions to challenge viewers to examine how technology and the Internet impact society. In 2017, Forbes published a feature on Monahan, promoting his innovative outlook on technology. That same year, ABC News reported on his large-scale public installation in Los Angeles where he painted three residential homes bright pink as a commentary on class, community and digital legacy. Monahan’s “#selfiewall” in the Venice Beachneighborhood in Los Angeles was dubbed by Los Angeles Magazine as being “The Most Instagramable Wall in L.A.” and ABC’s Nightline said his art is an “instagramer’s dream.”
Anthony Marquez (Diné, Chihene Nde) is a Staff Security Engineer at Airbnb for the Application Security team within the Information Security organization. In his current role, Marquez is the technical lead for a security team that focuses on securing Airbnb’s application and the platforms that support its operation for more than 150 million registered users worldwide. He enjoys combining his previous experience as a developer and offensive security expert to solve some of the challenging security problems that Airbnb faces. Prior to Airbnb, he worked at Electronic Arts (EA) where he helped to secure EA games and infrastructure. He previously worked at Praetorian, a small start-up that focused on providing Information Security services, where he made key contributions as the 3rd technical team member in the transformation of a small cybersecurity startup to a company that raised $10M from McKinsey & Company in 2020, including authoring Praetorian’s first patent.
Marquez is from Beclabito, New Mexico (homeland to his mother’s family), but also grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He is the proud father of three children. In addition to his Stanford degrees (BS EE & MS MS&E), Marquez has a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University, as he hopes to eventually become a high school math teacher on or near the Diné reservation.
Rachel Joy Victor is an independent designer, strategist and worldbuilder, working with emergent technologies and mediums (XR/AI/web3) to create cohesive narrative, brand, and product experiences at the intersection of systems and humans. She designs for a range of applications: from multiplatform narratives and immersive experiences, to tools and platforms, to spaces and cities. Rachel draws from her education in computational neuroscience and spatial economics to facilitate the creation of data-informed emergent experience where world simulation and cognitive architectures intersect. Rachel’s clients have included Disney, HBO, Technicolor, Vans, Ford, Nike, Havas, Meow Wolf, Niantic, and many more. Rachel is also the co-founder of FBRC.AI, an initiative that connects studios and startups to innovate their content production workflows.
Barbara Groth Founder and Creative Director of the Nomadic School of Wonder, a traveling troupe of artists who create “adventures in awe” rooted in nature, art, community and play.
Barbara has been a creative entrepreneur for over thirty years — guiding teams through creative invention, design and production of highly participatory, immersive experiences for Walt Disney Imagineering, Google, X, Meow Wolf and others.
In between crafting wonder retreats for individuals, groups and organizations, she teach The Art of Wondermaking — How to design experiences that bring people into a felt experience of awe.
Kelly Holmes co-founded Skoden Ventures with business partner Alice Loy. Skoden Ventures is the first Native female-founded boutique venture fund that focuses on supporting very early-stage start-up ventures with Indigenous, Black, Brown, and female founders. Kelly utilizes her significant personal experience and long expertise in start-ups to help disrupt the traditional VC model, helping make capital accessible to historically-excluded communities.
Joanna Garner is a writer, immersive experience designer, and creative strategist based in Santa Fe, NM. For nearly six years, she was the Senior Story Creative Director for Meow Wolf, leading story development and world building for multiple projects, including Omega Mart and Convergence Station in Denver. She is currently writing and designing experiences for Jon Favreau’s new company, Fairview Portals.
Boaz Ashkenazy, the CEO and Founder of Simply Augmented, is a visionary leader at the forefront of shaping the future of work through the strategic integration of AI into business operations and product offerings.
Candice is a corporate and securities attorney specializing in entity formation, corporate governance, contracts, capital raising, asset transfers, and corporate restructuring. She is a native of Northern California. Candice graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law, where she was Senior Articles Editor for the Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, San Diego.
Candice is a co-founder and partner in Blackgarden Law, a boutique business law firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Prior to Blackgarden Law, Candice was a partner at Leverage Legal Group, and founder of The Owens Law Firm, P.C., a dedicated corporate and business law practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Candice was previously an attorney and partner at Sommer, Udall, Sutin, Hardwick & Hyatt, P.A. in Santa Fe. In California, she worked at Cooley LLP (Palo Alto) in the corporate securities group. In between law careers, Candice owned a boutique in downtown Santa Fe called “Miss Maybe”. Candice currently sits on the Board of Creative Start Ups. She is a past Board member of St. Felix Food Pantry, the Santa Fe Business Incubator and the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.
Leila recently joined the Industry Solutions Engineering team at Microsoft as Principal Program Manager, driving innovation with strategic customers to solve business problems with future tech (AI/AR/VR). Leila was Principal Product Manager on Microsoft Mesh where she helped birth, build and launch the product to market, and was Product Manager on AltspaceVR, Microsoft’s metaverse and mixed reality platforms.
With over 25 years in entertainment, digital product development, and production, Leila has created content and built products across mobile, web, OTT, AI, AR, VR, and the metaverse, as well as launching award-winning integrated campaigns for brands and startups.
She’s worked on major franchises including Halo, Star Wars and X-Men, and has worked with some of the world’s most innovative companies including, Disney, Red Bull, Comcast, Sky Broadcasting, Mattel, Two Bit Circus, Chevron, Warner Bros, AREA15, Takeda, Live Nation, Accenture, Citi, Meow Wolf, Activision, Universal Studios, and the World Economic Forum.
Leila has worked on large-scale physical and virtual productions, including Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, and the multi award-winning BRCvr, has launched several immersive and location-based experiences, and was co-creator of the Unreal Garden, the world’s first mixed reality consumer LBE experience.
Leila started working on immersive and interactive projects in 2007, AR in 2008, and gaming in 2009. Leila is co-author of the book “A Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts & Roles of Immersive Media”, founder of XR consultancy MESH, and a member of Spatial Activations.
Leila sits on the Boards of Cloudtree Ventures, Enklu, Ethereal Matter, and Vibes + Logic, is a member of AIXR’s LBE Advisory Board and the NAB Insight Advisory Group, and as one of the early pioneers of the metaverse, Leila continues to push the boundaries of what is possible across the physical and digital worlds. Leila is a veteran Burner of 20 years and Black Rock Ranger.
Bill has over 25 years of experience in wired/wireless strategy, Digital Transformation and deployment of networking technologies for several private and public companies. Most recently over the past 9 years, working with cities and utilities on strategies for executing “Smart” initiatives around Street lights, Smart Parking, Intelligent Traffic, Digital Twins and Security best practices.
Sharon Kopp is a C-suite executive, strategic business advisor, investor, co-founder and former IP/Media attorney. Sharon currently is the Chief Business Officer at PTK Capital, a Los Angeles based investment fund, where she leads the investment firm’s creation of new companies in the areas of entertainment and wellness. She also manages investments in early stage start-ups and provides management, operations, legal and strategic business expertise and serves as a board member/advisor to portfolio companies. Sharon has expertise in the operations and management of established companies and as well as start-ups, with an extensive background in licensing (technology and IP), content distribution and business development. She served as Head of Content & Partnerships at Fresno Unlimited and General Manager, Entertainment at Whalerock Industries. Prior, Sharon served as Vice President, Digital Distribution for Viacom Media Networks and Assistant General Counsel, Business and Legal Affairs for Verizon. She began her career as an intellectual property, media and technology transactional attorney at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York. She received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and her B.A. from Northwestern University.
J Ross Parrelli is what it would sound like if Joss Stone had been raised in the same duplex as Notorious B.I.G. Signed to Universal Records, J Ross Parrelli’s repertoire includes rap battles and festival stages from the Bronx to the Bay. Sultry songstress turned community cultivator, Parrelli has spoken and performed at youth leadership conferences all over the globe, with a recent award as the top 40 Icons in Art and Advocacy for Placer County Art Council. Her interest in education reform led her to co-found Beats, Lyrics, Leaders through which she has developed and implemented Hip Hop based curricula in Public schools, foster youth programs, Juvenile Delinquency Facilities, and native reservations. As a member of the AUSD Board of Education, BAE (Benefits Access, Equity), Police Chief Advisory Council, and many more committees and councils, J Ross has set the stage for trauma-informed communities everywhere and has encouraged and fought for equity in education utilizing Hip Hop for decades.
Dr. IndigiNerd aka Lee Francis IV, Ph.D. is the founder of the Indigenous Comic Con, Red Planet Books and Comics, and the CEO of A Tribe Called Geek (atribecalledgeek.com). He is an educator, poet, activist, and entrepreneur who has spent his career shining a light on the spaces where Native and Indigenous people are too often overlooked, especially in popular culture. He has been a featured speaker around the world – from Calgary to Melbourne to Dubai – always bringing attention to the brilliance and capability of Indigenous Peoples. You can check out his comics at atcgbooksandcomics.com or see him talking about Native science and engineering on the NMPBS show IndigiGenius. He believes that Native People don’t exist in tragedy, as pop culture would have you believe, but rather are incredible survivors with deeper understandings of how we move forward in these chaotic times. He currently resides in Occaneechee Territory (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) with his family and dog.
Michael Baker is an experienced professional and educator focused on the convergence of real-time technology, mixed reality, and immersive media powering new forms of storytelling, education, and business. A year 20 veteran of the game industry, he has worked on projects large and small, including indie games, big licensed projects based on Star Wars and Alien, and software tools for the popular Bullet Physics Framework which powers countless authoring tools, feature films, and games. Michael is a graduate of the Imaging and Digital Art program at the University of Maryland.
April Cleveland is the founder and Artistic Director of The Exodus Ensemble, a theatrical experience company based in Santa Fe. The Exodus Ensemble creates high-octane, immersive live events with extraordinary acting and a cinematic flair. Before Exodus, April created work with Oregon Shakespeare Company, Classic Stage Company (off-broadway), Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. April received her MFA (Directing) at The Theatre School at DePaul University and her BA (History of Mathematics and Science, Philosophy) from St. John’s College in Santa Fe.
Louise, aka Lou, is a strategic change-maker and top-tier global innovator. She has achieved unprecedented success in media, entertainment, sports and hospitality industries by reinventing operational and creative strategies for international matrixed organizations, leveraging her transformative leadership style and proven business management acumen to inspire sustainable revenue growth and world class customer experiences. Lou has been instrumental in building brands and overseeing creative for entertainment operations for such companies as Cirque du Soleil, The Walt Disney Company, the Canadian Open Tennis Championships, TD Garden in Boston (home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics), and the award winning Thinkwell Group in Los Angeles, California. She is now CEO of Lemuria Dreamer LLC, Chairwoman of the Board for Trio-Tech,Venture Partner at Zu MTL/Capital and many advisory boards.
Lou’s intuition and collaborative nature is legendary among her many colleagues in the entertainment industry. Her commitment to bringing together the needs of stakeholders, investors, creative authors and production teams under one cohesive vision has resulted in the successful delivery of literally thousands of events for mass audiences that number in the millions in a Transmedia ecosystem and Metaverse. Having led development for some of the most iconic, brands in the family entertainment business, Lou believes that constant reinvention is the only pathway towards cultural sustainability, financial growth, and the artistic success of any enterprise. She intuitively sees the threads of opportunity present in organizations and environments, connects the pieces, parts and stakeholders and brings them together into a coherent process to answer the identified need. Alone she could go faster, but she knows that with an integrated cross functional team, everyone will go further; she helps stakeholders extend their thinking, so material business advantages are driven.
She is an inspirational and transformational leader who, through storytelling in all mediums, inspires action, legitimatizes participants and has at heart the financial resources management that levers the business. Respected for her decision making, finding strategic processes that create value, reliability in delivering quality experiential products and offerings on time and on budget, Lou is highly sought as business partner in all environments she joins.
Robert Tercek, author of Vaporized.
During his extensive career, Mr. Tercek has worked as a leader inside established media giants that were facing disruption and also as a co-founder of several disruptive startup ventures. He has served in senior executive leadership at MTV, Sony Pictures Entertainment and at The Oprah Winfrey Network, where he was the President of Digital Media.
Mr. Tercek has provided business strategy and strategic insight to organizations including: Microsoft, Google, IBM, Docker, AT&T, Huawei, HPE, TimeWarner, NBC, PBS, InterPublic Group, Kohl’s, Aetna, and Ford Motor Company.
As a leading advisor and speaker in marketing and tech innovation, Lori collaborates with top creative and strategic executives of multiple brands, tech and content companies to ensure their understanding of emerging business models while designing unique experiences to create engagement.
A serial tech entrepreneur, Trevor Wolfe has started five businesses and sold two. In 2020 his company, BigTeam, was acquired by Mailchimp where Trevor now leads Mailchimp’s product development and innovation team.
Trevor “accidentally” started Zero Proof in 2021; the company is now the nation’s largest distributor of alcoholic-free adult beverages. Trevor is an active angel investor in tech and creative companies.
Dr. Chris Brooks has developed a strong reputation as a trusted, results-oriented leader. He is a Thought Leader, Investor, Executive, Educator, and Advisor with more than 25 years of demonstrated success across multiple sectors and industries.
His chief passion is the intersection of race, faith, and economics, and his research and work are focused on solutions for individuals, families, and communities caught in the vicious cycle of generational poverty.
He is a co-Founder and Managing Partner of Brown Venture Group. He is also co-owner and Founding Partner of Firehouse Commons, an emerging business incubator in South Minneapolis.
Founder & Owner of Awe in Art Films And The Table & Gallery, a successful Entreprenuer, Filmmaker, Artist, Philanthropist, and Futurist, currently a PhDc in Psychology. The Table & Gallery emerges as a haven for healing transformation in a multi-sensory envirotment that embraces all creatives in each medium and allows them to convey their thoughts, emotions, and perspectives through art, film, food, music, and writing, leading to an immersive dining experience. Awe in Art Films captures the intimate story behind each creative by showcasing their experiences, talent, background, and inspiration that led to their creation through these mediums.
The Exodus Ensemble creates explosive, original adaptations of classics where live theater, cinema and audience interaction collide. Audiences say an Exodus experience feels like the “HBO of theater.”
Exodus pioneers a new mixture of next-level immersion, unorthodox performance spaces, multimedia and exceptional acting to bring audiences closer than ever to epic stories.
Every Exodus experience guarantees a mind-bending adventure that leaves audiences feeling connected, transformed and deeply alive. An unforgettable experience for introverts and extroverts alike.
The Exodus ensemble will be performing their newest show, Zero, at CxSF ’23!
Hakim Bellamy recently served as the Deputy Director for the City of Albuquerque Department of Arts & Culture (2018-2022). The inaugural poet laureate of Albuquerque (2012-2014), Bellamy is a national and regional Poetry Slam Champion who holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles at UNM. He is the author of seven books including the children’s book, Samuel’s Story (Community Publishing 2015), as well as his award-winning poetry collection SWEAR (West End Press/UNM Press). He is the co-creator of the multimedia Hip Hop theater production Urban Verbs: Hip-Hop Conservatory & Theater that has been staged throughout the country. A Kennedy Citizen Artist Fellow, he has facilitated youth writing workshops for schools, jails, churches, prisons and community organizations in New Mexico and beyond. He is also the founding president of Beyond Poetry LLC.
The Nomadic School of Wonder is a joyous, spontaneous adventure into the unknown to experience what it means to be fully alive, open and rich with the childlike wonder inside all of us.
Each Nomadic School of Wonder experience is site specific and explores a theme through the senses. Founder Barbara Groth leads a traveling troupe of artists, experience designers and adventurers to bring these experiences to life including week-long adventures, weekend retreats, day long field trips, wondermaker playshops and at home wonder adventure kits for individuals, groups, and organizations.
Last year’s theme:
Welcome to the Rebuild
Our 2023 theme, the Welcome to the Rebuild, invites participants to imagine a new world by reshaping the existing norms of Capitalism. Through the exploration of new technologies (think digital twinning, smart cities, the AI frontier) and investment innovation, we will dismantle outdated structures and rebuild our social, economic, political and physical surroundings.
We will navigate the intersection of digital innovation and social impact, illuminating the immense opportunities for positive change. Together, we will reimagine a world where creativity knows no bounds, where equity prevails, and where the potential of humanity is fully realized.
GET READY FOR
CxSF 2024
Join the waitlist for CxSF 2024 and we will let you know as soon as we announce dates for the next gathering!
What is CxSF?
CxSF is the ultimate gathering for visionaries leading creative tech and community resilience, innovations in venture investing, and the cultivation of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.
What’s included in my ticket? Hotel, food, travel?
Your CxSF ticket covers more than your average conference— In addition to access to all events at our Santa Fe campus, your ticket purchase includes a hotel room at the Hotel Santa Fe , the city’s only Native owned hotel and spa.
Meals are also included. We have planned an exciting curated food and drink menu with local partners. After registering, you will receive an email to let us know about any dietary restrictions.
The only thing not included? Travel to Santa Fe will not be reimbursed.
How do I choose my experiences? How do I get to them?
You will be able to sign up in advance for your selection of workshops, masterclasses and interactive hands-on experiences. We will provide shuttles to and from certain experiences.
Who can I contact for assistance?
If you have any questions or need assistance before or during the conference, please contact us or stop by the info desk if on site.
Embark on a journey into the cutting-edge realms of technology and science as we delve into the captivating worlds of generative artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous systems, and beyond.
What will I discover?
Learn more about Digital Twinning with our free paper here:
Learn more
Embracing a future beyond unicorns and Big Tech exhaustion, our purpose is to reshape the consumer economy with optimism, fostering innovative economic models that uplift all individuals, eliminate wealth disparities, and thrive without compromising people or the planet.
Featured Speaker
Brown Venture Group
At the forefront of transformative capital allocation, Brown Venture Group, co-founded and led by Dr. Chris Brooks, is committed to revolutionizing access to resources for underrepresented talent, championing an inclusive economic landscape that breaks generational poverty cycles. As a featured speaker, Dr. Brooks brings his wealth of expertise and visionary insights to inspire change and empower individuals and communities.
Discover tools for diverse futures, delving beneath success stories to explore the mechanics of digital experiences, immersive 3D media, and the interplay between technology and creative expression, unlocking untapped possibilities that redefine the landscape of creative potential.
Rachel Joy Victor
Featured speaker Rachel Joy Victor is an independent designer, strategist and worldbuilder, working with emergent technologies and mediums (XR/AI/web3) to create cohesive narrative, brand, and product experiences. She designs for a range of applications: from multiplatform narratives and immersive experiences, to tools and platforms, to spaces and cities.
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