CREATIVE EXPERIENCE Santa Fe
OCTOBER 13-15, 2023
The ultimate gathering for visionaries in digital innovation, impact investing, and the cultivation of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.
The ultimate gathering for visionaries in digital innovation, impact investing, and the cultivation of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.
The Wrench &
The Rebuild
CxSF is a transformative gathering hosted by Creative Startups and General Creativity where innovative minds from around the world converge to throw a wrench in the current state of our culture and economy and embark on a collective journey of rebuilding our society. Through the lens of innovations in technology and finance, we will come together as architects of change, wielding our creativity and entrepreneurial spirit as tools to dismantle the outdated structures that hinder progress.
As we explore the potential of new digital technologies, like the Metaverse, we envision a landscape where the boundaries of possibility are expanded and where the power of impact investing fuels the engine of social change.
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
Creative expression is a human right.
We envision a future in which all people are celebrated as creative.
Entrepreneurs drive social change.
We invest in and champion creative entrepreneurs building inclusive, vibrant communities.
The weird and wonderful make the world go round!
We love the joy, compassion, and human connection creatives ignite through their work.
Winslow Porter is an award-winning director, producer and creative technologist specializing in virtual/augmented reality as well as large-scale immersive installations. Winslow formed the pioneering, new media studio the New Reality Company in 2016, creating the critically-acclaimed cinematic VR experiences Giant and Tree. Shortly after, he was named Adweek’s Top 100 creatives as digital innovators and a designer-in-residence at A/D/O. In 2018, Tree won the Lumiere for Best Location Based VR Short as well as 7 other notable awards after being shown at over 100 notable conferences and festivals such as TED, UN General Assembly, Davos and Gardens By The Bay. He is currently a Cultural Leader at the World Economic Forum, a mentor in residence at the New Museum Incubator, an adjunct NYU Tisch professor, a founding member of the Onassis Institute’s ONX art/tech accelerator, as well as a creative director and creative tech consultant at R/GA Global. Winslow’s new immersive AR experience Rainforest, which received an Epic Games MegaGrant, transforms participant’s settings into their own private jungle environment to elucidate pressing concepts and concerns of sustainability and conservation. Winslow is also an artist in residence at the Smallhold Mushroom farm in Brooklyn, creating Forager, an immersive experience of the life-cycle of a mushroom, featuring the first volumetric time-lapse inside a game engine.
Rachel Saunders is a researcher whose insights on consumer behavior and emerging cultural trends inform and inspire the world’s leading companies. Throughout her career at Creative Artists Agency, Cassandra, We’re Magnetic and Futureproof Ventures, her studies of Generation Z and Millennials have helped clients like AB InBev, Airbnb, Amex, Disney, Facebook, General Mills, Instagram, Klarna, LVMH, Lyft, The Nature Conservancy, Netflix, Nike, Nordstrom, Red Bull, Samsung and Snapchat navigate new markets, drive business growth and create awardwinning marketing. Her research findings and interviews have been featured in AdAge, Adweek, Business Insider, The New York Times, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
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.
Aisha Shillingford, (she/her), is the Artistic Director at Intelligent Mischief, and is a multidisciplinary artist, world builder, designer and cultural strategist originally from Trinidad & Tobago. She is an alumna of Laundromat Project’s Creative Change Fellowship, a member of the New Museum Incubator, and an inaugural Fellow at the Race Forward Butterfly Lab for Immigrant Narrative Strategy. Her written work has been published in Black Discourse and Grantmakers In the Arts. Her work has been commissioned by the Movement for Black Lives, Root Rise Pollinate and Creative Wild Fire.
She has a BA in Environmental Analysis & Policy, an MSW in Social Innovation, and an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship. She has been a Lead Community Organizer at the Muslim American Society Boston Chapter, and at Close To Home DV Prevention Agency, Director of Racial & Economic Justice at the New Economy Coalition, Senior Associate at Interaction Institute for Social Change and Deputy Director of Innovation Strategy at Movement Strategy Center.
Always searching for patterns within the complexity of business, art, and life. Curious about collective intelligence, knowledge graphs, and systems science. Inspired by nature.
I cofounded Diamond DAO and together we have a mission to build collective knowledge about communities and connect people to new frontiers.
I am a medical illustrator, public health educator, and the CEO & Founder of Embodied Labs – an immersive caregiver training platform. My vision is to see healthier & connected lives through shared immersive experiences and my mission is to connect humans more deeply and quickly to each other through sharing their lived experiences.
David Bolinsky is an accomplished and award-winning medical illustrator and animator whose ground-breaking career in digital animation spans 31 years. After holding the position of Senior Medical Illustrator at the Yale School of Medicine, David founded the world’s first digital medical animation company, Advanced Imaging, Inc., in 1984.
David is passionate about bringing the power of animation to science education, through both cutting-edge advances in interactive technologies and innovations in publishing.
Bolinsky is behind the project “The Inner Life of a Cell” which visualizes various aspects of cellular mechanics, and has garnered a millions of view online. He works with schools and with medical and scientific firms, turning complex processes into understandable, compelling films.
Sharon Kopp is a strategic business advisor, investor, co-founder and c-suite executive. She has expertise in the operations and management of established companies and start-ups, with an extensive background in content distribution and business development. She has had senior roles at Verizon, Viacom and is a former IP/Media attorney.
Shaina Zafar, 22, is Co-founder and CMO of JUV Consulting, a Generation Z marketing company that works with Fortune 500s, start-ups, non-profits, and brands to authentically engage with Gen Z. She is a recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and wrote her thesis on ESG regulation and the usage of Uyghur labor. She is obsessed with all things music and Spotify playlists and her favorite food is leftovers. If she’s not working or dancing to music, you can find her sending late night tweets on @ShainaZafar!
Kelly Holmes, Mnicoujou Lakota from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, calls herself an inspirational storyteller, in hopes to strengthen connections to culture and identity by inspiring and empowering readers while sharing stories with the world.
Kelly is the founder and President of Native Max New Media, an award-winning global multimedia brand with a constellation of platforms and networks that expands indigenous talent across print, digital, web, mobile, video, events, e-commerce, and partnerships. She is also editor-in-chief of Native Max Magazine, a glossy publication that features the fashion, culture, and lifestyle of Native American and First Nations people.
The idea behind the formation of Native Max Magazine was the brainchild of Kelly. After working as a model, writer, designer, and stylist, Kelly decided to create her own business. Kelly felt that by launching a magazine that features Native talent she can better promote self-esteem, self-respect, and pride in Native communities.
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.
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.
Leila has over 20 years in Entertainment, Technology & Event Production developing digital products across mobile, web, OTT, AR & VR, while launching award-winning marketing campaigns, and producing large scale events & festivals. Her experience includes working with Microsoft, Two Bit Circus, Disney, AREA15, Warner Bros, LBX Immersive, and Universal Studios.
Leila has produced large-scale real and virtual events and festivals, including Burning Man & BRCvr, launched several location-based experiences and was co-creator/producer of the Unreal Garden, the world’s first mixed reality location-based experience. Leila’s career in immersive started in 2007 with a project for Adobe MAX, followed by her first AR project in 2008 with a toy brand..
Leila is co-author of the book “A Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts & Roles of Immersive Media”, founder of XR consultancy MESH, a member of Spatial Activations, and sits on the Board of Advisors for CloudTree Ventures & Enklu. Leila is currently the Head of Live Events & Entertainment for AltspaceVR at Microsoft.
“Building for Social Media” is a recipe for failure… and more thoughts on the futures of experiences and retail in a post pandemic world from the creator of one of the world’s most social mediad experiences. Manish Vora is the Co-CEO and Founder of Museum of Ice Cream. MOIC has opened eight locations In five years, seen over 1.8M visitors and influenced the spread of a new experiential retail (“experium”) industry worldwide. He led the MOIC Dove chocolate integrations and launched global partnerships with American Express, Target and Sephora. He was named Ad Age’s 50 Most creative, Fast Company’s Most innovative and featured in The Happiness Lab at Yale, his alma mater. He was previously CEO of the experience-tech startup, Lightbox and co-founded the contemporary arts platform GREY AREA. He was a regular culture correspondent on NBC and is involved with numerous non-profits including on the founding Board of UNICEF Next Generation and as an Arts Advisor to Times Square.
Brent Bushnell is an entrepreneur, engineer and Chairman/co-founder of Two Bit Circus, a Los Angeles-based experiential entertainment company. The interdisciplinary team strives to create immersive, social fun and is currently building a network of micro-amusement parks featuring free-roaming VR, robot bartenders, an interactive supper club and more. Previously they created STEAM Carnival, a traveling event to inspire kids about science, technology, engineering, art and math.
Sam is an experience designer, community builder and entrepreneur. Currently he is Co-Founder of Parousia where the imagineers are creating experiences that connect participants to themselves and others. He has been organizing communities for the past 10 years, including leading the entrepreneurship community center at Cornell University, the meditation community in Ithaca and a community of artists and entrepreneurs in Boston through his work at Practice. Sam is also an investor with a focus on transformational experiences, connection and personal growth.
Laika Young O’Brien (they/them/yes/and) is the Lead Experience Designer at Meow Wolf and the founder of No Sleep Studio, a waking dream design company that specializes in custom, transformational experiences for small audiences. For the last 3 years, Laika has worked with an incredible team of multidisciplinary artists at Meow Wolf to create large-scale interactive experiences that are discoverable, delightful, and dimension-bending. They served as a principal designer for the Omega Access Card and QPASS experiences for the Vegas and Denver exhibits respectively, helping deepen the role of tech-enabled storytelling in Meow Wolf’s worlds. They have an immense passion for crafting meaningful interactive experiences that invoke wonder, expand the spectrum of emotion, and invite participants to more fully connect with their inner and outer landscapes.
Sean Di Ianni is a Co-Founder of Meow Wolf and is currently leading the company’s Blue Sky creative practice. After years working on immersive installations (mostly made out of trash) in unheated warehouses, Di Ianni helped Meow Wolf win Creative Startups’ inaugural competition, and oversaw the design and construction of Meow Wolf’s first permanent art experience, House of Eternal Return. Working across creative, operations, business, design and production functions, he has helped build Meow Wolf into an unprecedented organization that brings together art and business for positive social impact. Di Ianni holds a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master’s Degree from St. John’s College.
Raashan Ahmad is an MC/Poet with a thriving career. He has garnered critical acclaim from worldwide press. Raashan’s albums have garnered worldwide attention and earned him the admiration of fans as he has toured feverishly throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and Brazil.
Liz Natal Tonigan is from Tennessee, where she earned her law degree (from the University of Tennessee College of Law) and an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University.
Liz’s practice includes intellectual property law and entertainment law. Liz has experience with copyright and trademark infringement, copyright and trademark registration and protection, contract disputes, royalty disputes, and has assisted with a broad range of issues arising in the entertainment industry.
Prior to joining Blackgarden Law, Liz worked as an entertainment and intellectual property litigator for a law firm in Nashville, Tennessee. She has been involved in high-profile entertainment and intellectual property cases throughout the country. Liz is currently on the Young Lawyer’s Division Board for the State Bar of New Mexico and is the Intellectual Property Law Liaison.
I am a multi-faceted leader of creative and technical innovators with 25 years of experience in advertising, technology and design consulting, startups, Fortune 500/100/50 companies and, most recently, art and themed entertainment.
As a creative and technical person, I find inspiration at the intersection of technology, art, business, and entrepreneurship. I seek to inspire and lead teams of diverse and innovative folks to build next-generation transformative experiences, products, and platforms.
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.
James Wallman is an experience strategist, designer, and thought leader. He is the Founder/CEO of the WXO, the World Experience Organization; an Executive Committee Member of EXPRESSO, the Experience Research Society; and the author of two international best-selling books on experiences and the Experience Economy. His first, Stuffocation (self-published, 2013; Penguin, 2015) introduced the term ‘experientialism’ and forecast the rise of experiences we see today. The Financial Times named his second, Time And How To Spend It (Penguin, 2019) a “Book Of The Year”. He is a Sector Specialist, Experience Economy for the UK’s Department for International Trade. Since 2004, he has been forecasting trends, designing experiences and advising brands on strategy. Clients inc American Express, Avis, Disneyland, IDEO, Ferrero Rocher, HSBC, KFC, KPMG, Kuoni, National Portrait Gallery, Ogilvy. He runs the advisory firm, The Future Is Here. He is a keynote speaker, having given talks from Mountain View to Shanghai, at venues inc TEDxLSE, TEDxManchester, Google HQ, 10 Downing Street, ILTM, and ABTA. He has appeared on the ABC, the BBC, the CBC, MSNBC, and many radio stations. His writing and thinking has appeared in the Economist, the New York Times, Le Monde, and many others. He is an Ambassador for eco charity Global Action Plan, an advisory board member for Carbon 13, a Cambridge, UK-based venture builder for the climate emergency, and an Advisor at the Transformational Travel Council. He has studied Classics, Journalism and Entrepreneurship at the universities of Oxford, London, and Cambridge. He’s also a Dad to two awesome kids.
Valerie is an entrepreneur who is passionate about technology and human interaction. In 2007, she started her first business, Imagitheque, before founding 4elements—an innovative studio that produces interactive multimedia adventures, games, and installations that put players at the heart of the experience. Here, she works tirelessly to create projects with her team, helping clients to create unique experiences filled with fun and excitement. She and her team have produced such shows as Agwata, the Machine Appelé Progrès interactive installation, the SÉPAQ: Explo mobile game, as well as a multimedia installation for Mosaïcultures internationales de Montréal. Valerie is currently working on Timber!—an interactive and immersive adventure that combines video games and multimedia shows. Thanks to her leadership, 4elements has been selected to work in collaboration with various incubators: MTLab (culture, tourism, and entertainment) and Centech (powering technology companies). She was also chosen to join the DeepDive program, which helps power businesses to the next level. In 2018, Valerie won Nueva’s Prix Coup de cœur du jury category, and in 2018 and 2019 she was nominated for the RFAQ’s New Business of the Year award and inducted as future RGA Templar as a young entrepreneur emeritus.
Trevor Loy is a general partner at Flywheel Ventures. He has over 20 years of venture investing, entrepreneurial and operating experience in technology ventures. He is also a past director of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a co-founder of the New Mexico Venture Capital Association, and helped create the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association.
At Flywheel, Trevor has made over two dozen investments, including those that led to the IPO of Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE), the acquisition of MicroProbe by FormFactor (NASDAQ: FORM), the acquisition of Tuscany Design Automation by Dassault Systèmes (NYSE Euronext: DSY), the acquisition of Sambasafety by Cerca Group (privately held), and several other confidential liquidity events.
Prior to Flywheel Ventures, Trevor held entrepreneurial, executive and technical roles at companies including Gigabeat (backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and acquired by Napster); Brooktree (acquired by Rockwell Semiconductor, now Conexant Systems); ParkingNet, Teradyne,
and Intel Corporation.
Trevor lectures frequently on entrepreneurship and is a Fenwick & West Entrepreneurship Educator (Adjunct Faculty) in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering that he helped build over 15 years ago. He holds a BS Electrical Engineering, MS Electrical Engineering, and MS Management Science & Engineering,
all from Stanford University.
Brooklyn Shanti, is an American artist, producer, and songwriter.
Best known for his work in pioneering South Asian hip-hop between the late 90’s to present as well as his contributions to the evolution of Tropical and Global Bass, Shanti is a DJ and vocalist on stage, and a producer/director/cinematographer/composer off the stage who has released his work via Sony, Universal, Rawkus, Soulspazm and Someplace Called Brooklyn. He has had his work chart on Billboard and been part of Grammy nominated efforts.
As a digital producer and project manager, he was involved in the initial rollout effort for Def Jam Thailand while living in Bangkok (2019), and has helped found digital labels and agencies between the US and Asia. In 1999, he co-founded Soulspazm, which is currently the world’s largest independent hip-hop music distribution company.
Currently, Shanti works with artists and agencies globally to help bring inspired messages to the world via multi-disciplinary creative mediums.
Sophia has 8+ years of experience in partnerships, operations and program management across the private, public and non-profit sectors in the US and abroad. She is currently working as a Senior Business Development Associate at Niantic, the original creators of Google Earth and Pokémon GO, where she manages key strategic partners and works on new business development initiatives.
Prior to Niantic, she founded a social enterprise, Five One Labs, which supports refugees and conflict affected entrepreneurs to start businesses in the Middle East. She has also worked extensively to improve women’s access to reproductive services in the US and East Africa.
Sophia holds a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Sewanee. She is an outdoor enthusiast, who spends her free time white water rafting, hiking, fishing and camping with her nine year old New Mexican mutt pup.
Terry Marshall, (he/him), Founder/Creative Director, is an artist, strategist and cultural studies scholar living in Brooklyn by way of Barbados and Boston. He has 20-plus years of experience as a labor and cultural organizer and previously founded the Hip Hop Media Lab and Streets is Watching. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab Civic Media Fellowship and an alumni of the Laundromat Project Creative Change Fellowship. Terry loves movies and comics and is a #WalkingDead superfan.
Gabe is the 23-year-young Senior Director of People, Inclusion, & Accounts at JUV, a Gen Z marketing agency helping partners connect with and empower diverse young voices. They are a graduate of Northeastern University with a B.S. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics & a B.A. in Communication Studies, with a minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and a concentration in Public and Economic Policy. Hailing from Long Beach, California (which they quickly abbreviate as LA for non-natives), they, too, question the move to chilly Boston, and now New York, but have grown to love the seasons (and yes – the snow too). As an Aries sun, Capricorn moon, and Gemini rising, their fiery spirit is tamed by their need to do things like color code all the apps on their iPhone home screen pages.
In college, Gabe wore a lot of hats as an involved student: they were a Senior Resident Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Club President, and Philosophy Department office-frequenter. Most recently before running JUV’s EDI+B vertical and serving as a Senior Account Director, they were working at Boston Consulting Group on the North America Diversity and Inclusion Team, helping drive their inclusion, equity, and belonging agenda amongst staff. Prior, Gabe was a Millenium Fellow, working with the United Nations in Academic Impact to advance LGBTQ+ health outcomes, promoting and centering queer wellness and inclusive care. Their first college job as a Starbucks Barista turned Manager was the first place they worked in training, EDI+B, and team success, launching their interest and passion for the work, a through-thread in all they’ve done.
In their free time, Gabe is a writer of mostly poetry, a washed-up dancer who occasionally can still do the splits at parties or for the Company TikTok account, and a social justice advocate who is open about being a queer, trans, Latinx person working to navigate their intersectional identities. You can probably catch them playing Pokémon, styling the perfect outfit, or listening to their vinyl copy of “Good News” by Megan Thee Stallion.
30+ years as an IRL Artist, Firestone chooses medium to “best render and resolve message.”
Collected worldwide, clients include Grammy winners, global visionaries, family offices, athletes, tech titans, and crypto babies.
NFT Exhibitions include SXSW: FortGalleryNFT, Domelandia for AR & Proof of Presence.
WOCA/Women of Crypto Art, Doingud: Meta Morphine Self CrytpoVoxels.
NFT Guest speaker ACTAI Global, San Moritz Jan. 2022.
Art Basel Miami 2021 SearchLight: IllustSpace & Domeance.
Current Projects: Olympic Gold Medalist Julia Dujmovitz NFTs for Verbund Austria & Swappable.
Participatory NFT build for NMSA & Creative Startups.
NFT visual assets for Nashville band @Mayhem Lane
Features: NYTimes, Worth Magazine, LA Travel, Huffington Post and more.
Firestone received international attention an artwork which premiered at the United Nations.
Awards: “Iconic Leaders Bettering the World: by Women’s Economic Forum 2017.
She attended Parsons, Fashion Institute of Technology AA, Pasadena Art Center, and University of Washington BA.
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.
Jiabao Li creates new ways for humans to perceive the world. She works across nature, humans’ designed environment, and belief structures and creates works addressing climate change, humane technology, and a just, sustainable future. Her mediums include wearable, robot, AR/VR, projection, performance, software, installation. She is a current member of NEW INC incubator at the New Museum. In Jiabao’s TED Talk, she uncovered how technology mediates the way we perceive reality. Jiabao is an Assistant Professor at UT Austin. Her lab focuses on the intersection of art, technology, and biology.
Dr. Glass is a physician, bionic interfacing researcher, and founder of a medtech startup. He completed his medical degree at University of Oklahoma, performed a two year research fellowship in the Departments of Plastic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins, and founded Phantom, a human-machine interfacing company commercializing technology created and patented within the lab at Johns Hopkins. His passion is augmenting biology with technology for the purposes of function restoration, human augmentation, life extension, and beyond.
Sahil Lavingia is the founder and CEO of Gumroad, a web platform where creators can sell products directly to consumers. Prior to founding Gumroad, Lavingia worked as a designer and engineer at virtual DJ website Turntable.fm and was an early employee at personal curation site Pinterest with a focus on both front-end and back-end development. He attended the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering.
Matty Mo is a New Mexico-based artist and entrepreneur. He is CEO of Open3, a suite of web3 products that connect digital communities and brands through NFT-based experiences. He is best known for “The Most Famous Artist,” an art collective that creates large-scale headline generating spectacles.
Seth is a New Mexico native, who grew up in his family’s retail business. His legal specialties include trademarks, contracts, payment systems, e-commerce, digital media, and general business management. In addition to practicing law, he’s co-developer of a tech-flex office building in downtown Albuquerque and Co-owner of Surefi.com, an ad-tech company that combines proximity marketing with media targeting. Seth has represented and advised entrepreneurs on branding-related legal issues for over 20 years. When not practicing law, developing marketing, or gathering specimens from his brewery clients, Seth can be found roaming the trails of the mountain west on skis, bikes, or running shoes.
Is there someone you’d like to hear, meet and collaborate with at CxSF? Would you like to join us as a speaker, panelist or exhibitor?
Don’t miss this opportunity to inspire and be inspired at the forefront of innovation!
This year’s theme:
The Wrench & The Rebuild
Our 2023 theme, the Wrench & the Rebuild, invites participants to throw a wrench in the current state 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.
TIME | EVENT | LOCATION |
3 – 7pm | Registration & Welcome | New Mexico School for the Arts |
5 – 7pm | Santa Fe Railyard Art Walk | Various locations |
7 – 9pm | Welcome Dinner | Hotel Santa Fe |
9:15 – 11pm | Meow Wolf VIP Party | Bus departs from Hotel Santa Fe to Meow Wolf at 9:15 |
TIME | EVENT | SPEAKERS | LOCATION |
8:30 – 9:30am | NMSA Music Performance | Musical Guests: NMSA Students Coffee and Taco Truck |
SITE Santa Fe |
9:35 – 9:45am | Welcome | Alan Webber | SITE Santa Fe |
9:45 – 10:30am | Keynote and Q&A: Will We Be Subjects or Citizens of the Metaverse | Robert Tercek | SITE Santa Fe |
10:30 – 10:45am | Break | – | SITE Santa Fe |
10:45 – 11:15am | Masterclass: The Experience Economy | James Wallman | SITE Santa Fe |
10:45 – 11:15am | Workshop: Creative/Engineering: Magic That Works | Jordan Snyder | SITE Santa Fe |
11:15 – 11:45am | Masterclass: Cultivating Creativitiy and Clowns | Brent Bushnell | SITE Santa Fe |
11:15 – 11:45am | Workshop: Demystifying Investment in Immersive Experiences | Sharon Kopp | SITE Santa Fe |
TIME | EVENT | SPEAKERS | LOCATION |
11:50am – 1pm | Lunch | Violet Crown | |
1:10 – 1:30pm | Masterclass: Interspecies World Sharing | Jiabao Li | NMSA Big Room |
1:30 – 1:50pm | Masterclass: SUPER SELF: The psychedelics boom and its impact on how we create, socialize and shop | Rachel Saunders | NMSA Big Room |
1:50 – 2:10pm | Masterclass: Become an Entrepreneur in a Month | Sahil Lavingia | NMSA Big Room |
TIME | EVENT | SPEAKERS | LOCATION |
2:10 – 2:30pm | Afternoon Break, Snacks, Networking | – | NMSA Hallway |
2 – 6pm | Creative Experience Demos | Embodied Labs, Laika No Sleep, Winslow’s Tree, Timber | NMSA Classroom |
2:30 – 3:10pm | Workshop 1: Understanding Gen Z: The Future of Technology and Inclusion | Shaina Zafar, Gabe Garcia | NMSA Classroom |
2:30 – 3:10pm | Workshop 2: When Art is your Asset | Seth Gardenswartz, Liz Natal Tonigan | NMSA Classroom |
2:30 – 3:10pm | Workshop 3: An introduction to Web 3.0, NFTs, Defi, DAOs, and the Metaverse (and Why it Matters) | Jenjoy Roybal, Robbi Firestone | NMSA Classroom |
3:10 – 3:50pm | Panel 1: Storytelling | Hakim Bellamy, David Bolinksy, April Cleveland, Kelly Holmes | NMSA Big Room |
3:50 – 4:30pm | Panel 2: Location-based Entertainment | Sophia Burton, Sean DiIanni, Valerie St-Jean, John Connors | NMSA Big Room |
4:30 – 5:10pm | Panel 3: AR/VR | Lauren Cason, Connor Glass, Louise Murray, Winslow Porter | NMSA Big Room |
5:10 – 5:50pm | Panel 4: Investment & Entrepreneurship | Sam Langer, Manish Vora, Carrie Shaw, Trevor Loy | NMSA Big Room |
5:50 – 6:10pm | Farewell activities: Minting CXSF NFT | Nathan Laskar | NMSA Big Room |
7 – 10pm | Dinner, dance, artistic debauchery | Explore exhibits and performances, find activities, connect over drinks, and party | Farmers Market Grand Hall |
TIME | EVENT | SPEAKERS | LOCATION |
9:30 – 11:30am | Brunch and Networking | – | Opuntia Cafe |
10 – 11am | Fireside Chat: About Endings | James Wallman | Opuntia Cafe |
TIME LEFT UNTIL CXSF
We are looking for new collaborators — volunteers, strategic partners, and press members. Come join us for a lovely fall weekend in Santa Fe!
What is CXSF?
CXSF is the world’s leading gathering of creators, entrepreneurs, investors, designers, and leaders in the experience and immersive economy.
What is the COVID policy for attendance?
All attendees must provide proof of vaccination and booster prior to attending the event. Masks will need to be worn inside when not eating or drinking. Thank you for your understanding and keeping our communities safe.
Creativity is better together— do you have special rates for creative cliques?
You’re in luck! Groups of 3 or more are special and therefore deserve special rates. We are offering special rates for groups 3 people and over. Please email us at cxsf@creativestartups.org for details.
Where can I stay? How do I get to and from the conference?
CXSF will not cover travel expenses. Affordable hotels in the area of the conference include the Old Santa Fe Inn and the The Sage Hotel. Both are walking distance to our Hub at the New Mexico School of the Arts. If you need transport, please let us know once registered.
What kind of meals will be provided?
We have planned an exciting curated food and drink menu with local partners. In addition, vouchers to various restaurants will be available within our Santa Fe campus. After registering, you will receive an email to let us know about any dietary restrictions.
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.
Where do I check in for the conference?
Our information desk and registration area will be at the New Mexico School for the Arts.
Who can I contact for assistance?
if you have any questions or need assistance before or during the conference, please email cxsf@creativestartups.org or stop by the info desk if on site.
Emily is a writer, communicator and educator living in Western Massachusetts. They specialize in designing and managing digital media plans for creative organizations, centering their approach on the narrative behind the brand. Emily is the author of two books, the first of which was awarded a Poetry Society of America fellowship. Their writing has also been featured by the Academy of American Poets, Bustle, and Columbia Journal, among others. They hold a BS in Audio Engineering from Belmont University and a MFA from the Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In addition to serving as Creative Startup’s Director of Marketing, Emily crafts letterpress-printed books and organizes accessible writing workshops.
Shuangyi Li was born and raised in rural China, dropped out of school at age 13 and learned English through Shakespeare. Through an incredible intervention of fate, she was able to continue her education in the United States after 6 years of home isolation due to Chinese compulsory education law. She holds a BA in Liberal Arts and Science from St. John’s College, she is also a Batten Scholar, awarded by Batten Institute of Darden Business School. She is a three times TEDx speaker and musician. She is passionate about equity, diversity, particularly through entrepreneurship.
Nickey is the executive producer and founder of Preview Events and co-creator of Founders Lab. She has been the Executive Producer of the Adobe/99U conference, from 2013 – 2020 and EP for the Future of Storytelling Summit. Her work has spanned over fifteen years creating and leading productions in theater, film, industrial and virtual projects. She is very excited to be joining the CXSF conference and Creative Startups.
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