What Are You Afraid Of?

Eden Harman Bernardy

TALK: Everyone is afraid of something. Most of us are afraid of the same four things. Rejection, Loss (of people, control, dignity, work, etc.), Pain, “Fear itself”. Actors face those terrors every day and have to develop tools to fortify them against that “sea of troubles”. Once I was diagnosed with a terminal illness, I realized those same tools that I’ve been teaching for thirty years…were now essential to my own daily survival and have been allowing me to do more than survive…they have transformed this chapter of my life from one filled with fear, into one of over flowing with joy, and discovery. So, I have to ask…what are you afraid of?

BIO: Eden Harman Bernardy is the highly regarded founder of Stanley Street, a company that collaborates in the development of film and television roles with actors, writers and directors. Her clients range from Academy Award winning actors to new media developers.

In 2015 she launched the remarkable, “”House Sessions”” a program designed to fortify both established and emerging artists. When auditioning becomes collaborating,and character development becomes life study — the actor is free to invest fully without fear. House Sessions is devoted to that purpose.

Eden has been coaching actors in Los Angeles and New York for over 30 years, and working as a professional screenwriter and consultant for more than 20 years.

The Unlikely Story

Ralf-Rainer von Albedyhll

TALK: I want to share the development of a project called The Unlikely Story which is based on my meeting William Girven – an English gentleman whom I later found out was actually homeless and sleeping right outside my office. After learning that he was an artist and seeing the kickstarter financed Twinster movie on Netflix, I decided that we should attempt to do the same thing for William where the culmination is an art exhibition for William called William Girven – In the abstract to be held at CrossCampus SM – right across the street from where he sleeps.

A trailer for the art exhibit can be seen at TheUnlikelyStory.us

BIO: Ralf-Rainer von Albedyhll is serial entrepreneur who likes to create startups because there is nothing quite as exciting as creating something out of nothing.

His latest startup is called NextRX and is run from a small office at CrossCampus in Santa Monica which is where The Unlikely Story that he wants to talk about originated.

Creating abstract art as a medium for subconscious communication.

Taylore Bonn

TALK: To help people gain confidence in expressing themselves through abstract art as a way to heal and feel connected to their divine creativity.

BIO: Taylore Bonn Growing up in a household filled with beautiful objects from her interior designing mother and family discussions on the scientific innovations from her scientist father, Taylore Bonn was juxtaposed between two worlds which seemed opposite, yet strangely complementary. Yearning to connect the dots between the spheres of beauty and mathematically explained phenomenon. Taylore’s curiosity sparked a search along the spectrum of knowledge which has taken her on a journey through the health sciences (studying acupuncture, massage, and Chinese pharmacopeia,) the spiritual sciences (meditation, yoga, sacred scripture, and shamanism,) the arts (painting, sculpture, photography, and music,) and the physical sciences (Chemistry and Physics.)

Using the ubiquitous language of visual art, Taylore hopes to inspire subconscious understanding unifying the human exploratory experience which is both uplifting and therapeutic.

Non-Profit Sustainability

Neal Anderberg

TALK: The funding strategies offered to non-profit executives today are misleading. Foundations offering leadership training, as well as non-profit organizational consultants, often lead executives and development directors down a path of frustration, confusion and heavy competition. There’s a better way forward.

BIO: Neal Anderberg is a graduate of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA graduate of Mount Saint Mary’s University Los Angeles, where he now serves as an Adjunct Professor. Having specialized in non-profit management and cross-sector cooperation, Neal now works with organizations large and small, coordinating outreach efforts, strategizing partnerships, evaluating brand effectiveness, and advising on management and fundraising efficiency. He also currently serves as the Chair of the Land-Use Committee for the Palms Neighborhood Council, where he has served three terms across more than a decade of involvement. At Choice Group, an inner-city music/arts non-profit, he sits on the Board of Directors, and he is an alumnus of the CORO Executive Fellows Program and the Riordan Leadership Institute.

Forecasting or How I stopped worrying about the future and starting thinking about the future

Julia Bossmann

TALK: We live in times that see the most rapid technological and societal change in human history. This all-encompassing change is still accelerating. How do we anticipate the future without getting paralyzed by worry or enveloped with utopian optimism? How do we forecast change in a way that is practical? Julia Bossmann, president of Foresight Institute and founder of Synthetic Insights, takes you on the journey of thinking about the future.

This talk would be all-new created for BIL. I have another talk on AI in the Fourth Industrial Revolution that I gave at the World Economic Forum in Davos. If there’s room or desire for more talks, happy to present that somewhere, too.

BIO: Julia Bossmann is the founder of Synthetic Insights, a startup aiming to revolutionize progress in early-stage research with the use of artificial intelligence. With a background in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience, she worked in several research labs in Germany and at USC before she turned to technology and knowledge engineering R&D at Bosch and management consulting and forecasting at McKinsey and Company. She founded Synthetic Insights after being involved in several startups and after completing the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University for exponential technologies. Besides her startup, Julia serves as the president of Foresight Institute, a leading non-profit for transformative technologies such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.

Communicating with Human Beings is Not Logical (It’s Biological)

John Bates

TALK: Communication matters a lot. If you’re communicating with Human Beings it’s not logical, it’s biological.

BIO: John Bates is in business to bring out what is awesome inside every person so it can live in the world and make a real difference.

His group training is world famous and executives from organizations like NASA, Johnson & Johnson, Accenture, IBM, Boston Scientific, and more, recommend him to their colleagues as the best communications and leadership trainer working today.

John’s training is based in human evolutionary biology and human neurophysiology so you learn not only what works, but WHY it works. That gives you principles which allow you to achieve ever increasing success along with the ability to play and create in the areas of communication and leadership.

John has trained hundreds of TED and TEDx speakers all over the world. John also works with C level executives at top companies to make their communications “TED-Worthy.”

John is a co-author of “World Class Speaking in Action” an Amazon best seller.

In his previous positions John was an early stage employee and/or co-founder at influential Internet companies like Virtual Vegas, BigWords.com, MindArk and Goldstar.com. Whatever his official title was he was always the Chief Evangelist. He is passionate about people and loves making a difference for those who make a difference.

Creating a hardware ecosystem in Los Angeles & the hallmarks of a great leader

Noramay Cadena

TALK: Today, we are at the beginning of a boom as hardware and software converge to create objects that are intuitive. Conditions are ripe for development and investment in hardware due to drastically reduced costs of production, shifting consumer demand, and the growing desire for data insights.

This talk will cover our Make in LA experience creating an ecosystem of hardware startups in one of the most diverse cities in the world. But more importantly, will focus on one of our differentiators – our focus on developing leaders. Come hear our take on the hallmarks of a great leader and hardware innovations that matter.

BIO: Noramay Cadena is the Co-founder and General Partner of Make in LA, a hardware-focused accelerator in the San Fernando Valley. At Make in LA, she’s focused on developing principled leaders with solid product and business foundations and on developing partnerships that support Los Angeles’ entrepreneurship ecosystem. Cadena is also leading the Latinas in STEM Foundation, an organization she co-founded in 2013 to inspire and empower Latinas to pursue and thrive in STEM fields and serves as the non-profit organization’s Executive Director.

Cadena holds an MBA, a Master’s in Engineering Systems and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering – all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Over the last several years, Cadena has been a featured speaker in many platforms across the country including TEDx and the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship – her talks and recognitions cover technical achievement, leadership, and overcoming obstacles. She’s also received various awards and recognitions including being named one of the top 20 Latinos in Tech by CNET in 2014 and receiving national awards by the Society of Women Engineers and Great Minds in STEM.

Ulex: An Open Source Legal System

Tom W. Bell

TALK: This talk would introduce Ulex, an open source legal system.

At root, both computers and governments run on code—formal algorithms that make their subjects perform specific functions. Software runs computers whereas law runs governments, but they share certain fundamental features. They differ in this way, though: Computers have evolved much more rapidly than governments. the history of computer systems can thus teach us about the future of legal systems.

Early computers ran a lot like governments do today: developers wrote a unique operating system for each new machine. The first major milestone came in 1970, when Bell Lab’s published UNIX, the first operating system written to run across computing platforms. Soon afterward, the spread of personal computers created a market for operating systems. The result: proprietary operating systems like Microsoft Windows and Apple’s OS X, and open source operating systems like GNU/Linux.

Politicians have long stuck with a development model that computer scientists outgrew back in the days of shag carpets–each government writing and running its own legal code for its own territory. Only recently have a few innovative countries realized that they can reassure investors, and increase local economic growth, by setting aside special jurisdictions operating under law imported from elsewhere. Dubai has attracted investors to its International Financial Centre by borrowing common law principles from England and Wales, for instance, while the Honduran ZEDE program opens the door to adopting a wide variety of rule sets.

Will governments also follow computers in running proprietary operating systems—the legal equivalent of a Windows or Apple OS X? Not likely; those operating systems relied on copyrights for their success, a device ill-suited for constraining governments. Instead, these special jurisdictions will probably seek out something akin to Linux, the open source operating system.

Anybody can download Linux to run on their computer; anyone can access the source code and alter it to suit their particular needs. Yet no one controls Linux. Instead, a community like-minded users shapes it in a flexible, organic, and consensual process. What would a legal operating system built on the same principles look like? It would look a lot like Ulex, an open source legal system.

BIO: Professor Tom W. Bell earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1993 and then practiced law in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. before serving as a policy director at the Cato Institute. In 1998, he joined the faculty of Chapman University, Fowler School of Law, where he teaches all of the first-year common law courses and electives in high-tech and IP law. Bell has published papers on copyright, Internet law, polycentric law, prediction markets, and the Third Amendment (the one about quartering troops). His books include “Intellectual Privilege: Copyright, Common Law, and the Common Good” (Mercatus, 2014) and “Your Next Government” (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2017). Through Archimediate LLC, Bell advises companies developing special economic zones on the design, installation, and support of legal systems.

The Fountain Of Youth – Come on in, the water’s fine!

Maria Entraigues-Abramson

TALK: For all of time, aging has brought the inevitable and unstoppable decay of health. Until very recently, we’ve accepted aging as a natural process beyond the reach of medical intervention.

Today, a growing movement of organizations around the world are dedicated to understanding and conquering aging. Even though we don’t widely refer to aging as a disease, we now have reason to believe that all the diseases of aging have the same underlying causes, and this has sparked a new industry.

Geriatrics and gerontology barely ameliorate age-related disease, and are incapable of curing them. People are kept alive, but their suffering is prolonged, their health continues its steady decline, and the unsustainable cost of care is escalating to crushing levels.

Today our ever-advancing technology has finally brought us to a time in human history where we have the potential to do something about it.

This talk explores why most of humans still resist the idea of curing aging.

BIO: Maria Entraigues-Abramson is an Argentinian-American singer, actress, composer, and pilot. She is also a science and technology communicator and one of the leading voices in the life extension field.

She is a radical-change believer and spends her multifaceted life working on facilitating radical exponential change to help the world. You can find her giving a scientific talk, singing live for thousands of people, composing and acting for a Hollywood film, doing music journalism, or flying her Cessna.

She believes humans will achieve very long and healthy lives beyond current limitations.

Maria is the Global Outreach Coordinator at SENS Research Foundation, co-founded by Dr Aubrey de Grey.

A Real Man

Jason Bowers

TALK: “Men – It’s time to rewrite the painful and outdated definition of what we’ve been taught it means to be man.

We’ve been hurting ourselves for too long and the time has come for a shift in our consciousness.

We’re taught that it’s not ok to express most of our emotions or to cry, so we learn to suppress.

We’re taught that we shouldn’t need help and that we should know all the answers so we do it alone.

We’re taught that we shouldn’t be weak or vulnerable so we learn to hide behind aggression.

We’re taught that we should be tough and hard and that we should all look like gladiators, be able to kick everyone’s ass, or women won’t want us, we’ll be lesser men. We’re taught that we’re supposed to be gods in bed without ever being taught how or even how to connect with a woman. Porn is the new sex ed.

We’re taught that women are objects and to feel shame at our own feminine energies.

We’re taught that we’re all against each other, and that we’re supposed to win, alone, and when we don’t we are shamed.

We’re shamed for all of it.

As boy’s, many of us are shamed more than we are loved.

It’s taking it’s toll.

Mass shootings, alcoholism, domestic violence, homophobia, bullying, drug addiction, apathy, disempowerment, diabetes, heart disease, all affect men at a disproportionate rate and all, I believe, can be traced back to emotional suppression and shame.

It’s time to get real. It’s on us to fix this. No one else can.

BIO: Jason Bowers is a Real Man. A man who is willing to be real about what it means to be a man. He’s passionate about helping to re-write the definition of what it means to be masculine in America.

He knows that a man’s ability to express his greatest power is in direct relation and proportion to his ability to access and express love.

He has a vision of a reality in which the conscious, loving, kind man is the new definition of a bad ass!

What are you doing with your life?

Veronica Flores

TALK: Coming to terms with the question that “the people who care about you” will inevitably ask you over and over and over again, once you decide to quit your reliable high paying job, get rid of everything you’ve spent years creating and most of what you own, and move in with your dad so that you can go and see the rest of the world.

BIO: Veronica Flores is a passionately curious experimenter, explorer, dissector, and over-analyzer of all things food. Currently employed as a globetrotting personal chef in an attempt to pay my student loans down without losing my mind being chained to a desk job. Contributing cooking and gardening writer for Invironment on Medium. I still don’t know what I’d like to be when I grow up.

Helping the body heal itself: applications of Qi gong and Chinese medicine

Snohomish Brown

TALK: First of all, I want to introduce the idea of the body as a collection of harmonized systems of meridians. I have an interactive exercise to share that we will use to explore some techniques that demonstrate how these systems operate. Then I want to spend some time talking about our definitions of disease based upon our clinical understanding. I will introduce the diagnosis by Eight Principles and will explain specific methods used to make specific changes to these systems which will restore harmony and balance to them and therefore health to the body. Some of the methods will include Qi Gong, Acupuncture, Electro-stimulation, Cupping and Guasha.

BIO: Snohomish Brown is a Physician of Chinese Medicine, Herbalist and Licensed Acupuncturist in Los Angeles. He has also studied Martial Arts, Qi Gong, and Yoga for over twenty years. His interests inspired him initially to understand healing from a massage background and he has successfully applied his learning and treated sports injuries with massage for over 13 years. He completed his Masters of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine three years ago at Yo San University where he now works part time in their clinic as an Assistant Supervisor. Since opening his practice in near Beverly Hills he has expanded his treatment specialties to include all sorts of difficult to treat diseases and disorders. His goal is to educate people about the wonderful applications of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine through interactive exercises designed to teach how this ancient medicine works.

The Future of Food: How to Secure a Healthier Agricultural Food System

Judy Frankel

TALK: How can the “fungus among us” pave the way for food security? Why should we care about genetically modified foods and genetically engineered seeds? What is the relationship between conventional agriculture and modern diseases? In this talk about the “Future of Food” organic Master Gardener and activist Judy Frankel explains what we can do to create a healthier future for ourselves and our children.

BIO: Judy Frankel is a Master Gardener in California and founder of a federal elections website called Writeindependent.org. She developed a strategy for combatting corruption in government, using a “Pledge for Honest Candidates.” Her recently released book, In Search of the Next POTUS: One Woman’s Quest to Fix Washington, a True Story, chronicles the trials and successes of starting a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization.

Concerned about the future of food, Judy writes and speaks about genetically modified foods, Roundup (glyphosate) and “terminator” seeds. She connects the dots between use of agricultural herbicides and the rising incidence of neurological and gastrointestinal disorders in the United States. Her urgent call to action includes electing a President who will stop appointing Monsanto-friendly cronies to the USDA, FDA, and EPA.

B2H: Brands’ Path To Success In Social Media: Finding and Becoming One With Your Tribe – The Value In Humanizing Your Brand Online

D. Cotter

TALK: Why B2C and B2B mentalities are dying and B2H is the way to go in social media for brands who want to successfully create genuine relationships between themselves and consumers. The importance of intelligently engaging with today’s dynamic hyper-connected consumers hinges on coordinating humanistic strategic interactions across all channels and how to change the traditional thought process and begin to facilitate the execution of superior brand experiences that deepen customer loyalty, strengthen brand awareness and cultivate brand influencers through social media.

We’ll also discuss tribes and human needs in social media and their importance as they relate to brands. People derive their sense of validity and uniqueness from their “tribes” – tribes are exclusive subcultures that bring people together brands need to learn how to infiltrate and become one with these tribes to succeed and create optimum social brand experiences in social media.

BIO: D. Cotter: With over a decade in motion picture production, technology and journalism, ShowBizCentral Chief Marketing Officer and The Motion Picture Studio news network Founder D. Cotter knows what it takes to cultivate an online following within the professional entertainment community.

SMPTE member D.Cotter is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Motion Picture Studio entertainment media network. Cotter’s production background in G&E and affinity for technology led to Cotter’s conceptualization, implementation and management of marketing campaigns for motion picture lighting manufacturer Mole-Richardson Co. and wholesale studio expendables supplier Studio Depot as Associate Creative Director, as well as Creative Strategist for motion picture lighting and grip rental chain Cinelease, Inc. in addition to multiple entertainment technology platforms.

In 2014 Cotter founded MotionPictureLightingAndGrip.com, and later expanded into nine additional digital brands in 2015 to launch The Motion Picture Studio entertainment media network and subsequently launched The Motion Picture Studio news app.

The Age of Distraction & the Future of Wearable Tech

Isa Gordon

TALK: How many times a day do you take a device out of your pocket, disrupting the flow of the moment, only to find out that its insistent sounds indicate nothing of immediate relevance? Or perhaps you ignore it, or turn it off for a while, only to miss something that actually is important and time sensitive? How can we stay connected to the information flows that are critical to contemporary success without a constant sense of distraction? How can we Be Here Now when our technology tries so hard to convince us that the place to be in every moment is in inside its tiny little screen? This talk may present more questions than answers, but it’s purpose is to stimulate thinking towards solutions. We’ll start with a solid grounding in the history of wearable tech and overview of some current cutting edge research, before taking off on a flight of fancy into the potential of smarter and more discrete wearable devices.

BIO: Isa Gordon is an artist, designer and researcher whose work explores themes of technology, transformation, and hybrid identities. She lectures and exhibits internationally and, a bit to her own surprise, is considered a leading expert in wearable technology. Isa is perhaps best known for her cyborg alter-ego performance persona, Psymbiote, and as founder of the SIGGRAPH CyberFashion Show, which she curated and produced from 2002 through 2005. She’s also the inventor of PodBelt, a modular cargo system ideal for carrying personal technology and devices.

How to Build a Better ‘You’ Using Photographs

Justin Dudek

TALK: Four months ago, I went to see a therapist for the first time and was asked a very interesting question.

“When was the last time you saw yourself when you were younger? Do you have any photos of yourself as a child, or of your family?”

No, I didn’t. I realized, it’s been more than a decade since I had looked at photos of myself younger than even 18 years old. As I hunted for these old photos, I realized the shift from physical to digital photography not only changed the way we took photos, but also how we practiced looking at them later.

After mulling over hundreds of photos of myself and family, something changed in me. Beliefs about who I was, who my parents were, and my brothers, began to dissolve and rebuild themselves into healthier and more motivating thoughts.

This talk is about how you can use your own photos to inspire personal growth, cultivate a more resilient identity, and change your behaviors rapidly.

BIO: Justin Dudek is a lifelong student of psychology and a purveyor of self-awareness.

You have not seen him published in the New York Times, or The Washington Post. In fact, he doesn’t even write on Medium.com. But one day, he’ll be there.

Justin relentlessly pursues the knowledge and teachings of world renown psychologists, in hopes of identifying the most effective mental techniques to improve his empirical thinking, problem solving, emotional stability, and self-regulation.

When Justin is not reading books about the brain or working on theories for radical behavior change and personal growth, he spends his time meditating, dancing, and testing the limits of his mind by taking 25 minute ice baths.

How to Use Your Difference to Make a Difference

Pamela Hawley

TALK: How people can tap into their uniqueness and use that to make global impacts. There are over 7 billion people in the world and now more than ever, there are more tools than ever to accentuate our differences in a world changing way. I’ll go over these steps.

BIO: Pamela Hawley lifelong commitment social entrepreneurship grew out of a visit to Mexico at age 12, where she saw extreme poverty firsthand. Since then she has volunteered in more than 10 countries. Pamela’s global experience includes volunteering in micro finance in remote villages of India; crisis relief work in the 2000 El Salvador earthquake; sustainable farming in Guatemala; digital divide training in Cambodia; and indigenous community preservation in Ecuador.

Pamela founded and launched VolunteerMatch Corporate in 1996, bringing in more than $1 million revenue and 20 Fortune 500 companies. In November 2001, she decided to leave VolunteerMatch. Her true calling was to move her social entrepreneurship to an international stage. She recognized that certain resources in the United States were entirely unavailable internationally. This motivated her to found UniversalGiving in 2002.

UniversalGiving is an award-winning online platform that allows people to donate and volunteer with vetted organizations all over the world. It allows users to donate and volunteer with vetted organizations all over the world, connecting people with opportunities to give back at the local level. In addition to quality NGO partners, UniversalGiving is unique in its revenue generation. UniversalGiving is a free service, and 100% of each donation made through the site go directly to the cause.

UniversalGiving remains financially sustainable by providing consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, helping them scale their Philanthropy and Volunteering programs all over the world.

Empty heavens: societies, beliefs, and droughts

Julien Emile-Geay

TALK: The archeological and paleoclimatic records make a cogent case for drought as an important driver of societal collapse. In this talk I will review the role of drought in the fall of the Anasazi, the current Syrian crisis, and our unraveling California present, and draw lessons from the past to dream a less dreary future.

BIO: Julien Emile-Geay, Gonzo climate scientist, bicyclist, world citizen, DJ, dad.

I am interested in the history of climate and how it intersects human history.

Interpersonal Relationships, Communication, Personal Growth

Evo Heyning

TALK: An interactive 10 minute experience where we walk through mapping love with five minutes on the exploration and study of love as it relates to human relationship dynamics. Trust, care, empathy, changes in relationship and how to communicate connection over time are explored on paper with drawing materials.

BIO: Evo Heyning is a producer, maker, advisor, strategist, creative and technical problem-solver who loves big global challenges. I love facilitating collaboration across fields, sectors and borders with a networked systems approach to new venture development.

People hire me to run their events and experiences from design to implementation or advise their startups through early stage development. Improvisational graphic analysis with large groups, writing, design and creative play with teams helps us see the social impact ripple through communities in the stories and changes in our daily lives. I spent a decade producing mixed reality experiences, livestreaming major events and connecting new apps, tools and technologies to meet people’s needs. Now I love showing up with chocolate and building new interactive play at events, hackathons and incubators.

Successful Dating for Introverts and Intellectuals in the Technocentric era

Darren Fujimoto

TALK: Successful Dating for Introverts and Intellectuals in the Technocentric era

BIO: Darren Fujimoto is an award-winning motivational speaker and social skills/confidence coach. He’s been featured in popular media including the New York Times, VH1, The Dr. Phil Show, and cable network MYX TV.

Darren brings with him the structured, disciplined background both as a United States Marine Corps Sergeant and as a black belt with over a decade of martial arts training. He combines this “tough love” approach with professional experience in counseling, mentorship, and leadership coaching to provide his clients with actionable solutions, success-driven principles, and most importantly, real-world results.

He is currently the CEO/President of BecomeSharp.com

And Along Comes Another Blog: How to Make Your Efforts Stand Out

Mary Lansing

TALK: Blogging has enriched Mary’s life to levels she only dreamed about, and opened the door for discovering her passion (social media) and ignited the flame within her to start her own business. She is eager to show how any, and everyone can benefit from starting a blog to help them get to their goals!

BIO: Mary Lansing is a Los Angeles based Social Media Manager and Editor of the popular Travel and Lifestyle blog, Along Comes Mary. Eating, drinking and sleeping social media, Mary loves to help get start up’s and brands she believes in off the ground and gain their presence in the online world.

Social Media Storytelling

Emmett Furey

TALK: Using social media platforms like Twitter for storytelling is just the latest in a proud history of artists subverting non-fiction platforms to narrative ends. From Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, to found-footage horror films, alternate reality games, and the modern crop of vlog-style transmedia web series, such pioneers have been providing audiences with entirely original narrative experiences. The discussion will include what makes this type of storytelling unique as a narrative form, and the cognitive narratological underpinnings of why it works the way it does.

BIO: Emmett Furey is a writer and award-winning transmedia producer. His specialty is serialized drama, with a focus on television, graphic novels, and transmedia experiences with social media storytelling components. He’s also branching into tabletop game design, and is looking to produce immersive theater in the Los Angeles area. Recent speaking engagements include the B3 Biennale in Frankfurt, Germany, and the Conducttr conference in London, and guest lectures at VU University in Amsterdam and the Los Angeles campus of the New York Film Academy. He’s also currently engaged in pioneering research into the evolution of narrative from a cognitive narratological perspective.

UX Your Life

Sonya Lee

TALK: I believe that businesses, if well designed, are living, breathing, sustainable entities that can add value to its’ customers. Through User Experience, we can systematically and strategically build trust, increase engagement, provide value and better service to its’ customers, while adhering to business core values.

If UX can systematically design better businesses that thrive and grow, shouldn’t we be able to apply the same concepts to our personal lives?

BIO: Sonya Lee Sonya has 17 years experience as a Creative Director and User Experience/Product Designer in the Entertainment, Startup and Tech industries. She also has a strong passion for business strategy, product development and branding. Having worked with companies such as Warner Bros and Disney, Sonya has successfully and represented properties by developing strategically interactive experiences through compelling interactive design and storytelling.

Sonya is currently the President of Mowie Media where she consults with startups and interactive agencies to help them develop web, mobile and web products. She provides high level, holistic direction across design, technology, marketing and business perspectives which strategically translate into profitable and engaging interactive end-products that consumers want and need. She has worked with a variety of brands such as Adobe, AT&T, Cisco, TrueCar, PopSugar, iStockphoto, StarLight Foundation, USC, SweetyHigh, Ribbon.Me, WestComb and more.

Sonya also serves on the steering committee for TechSparks and Innovate Pasadena, organizations designed to foster innovation and entrepreneurship within the greater Pasadena area. She is also the co-founder of Santé D’Or Foundation, a 501(c)3 no-kill animal rescue group.

10 Simple Ways for Better Coffee (aka. you are probably brewing coffee all wrong…)

Troy Gardner

TALK: In this talk we’ll be covering how to get the best tasting, performing, easiest coffee, as well as getting to try some of the best coffee (first come first served).

We’ll cover the differences between good coffee and bad coffee, scheduling, dosing, and little known tips and tricks, to you get more performance and a better tasting, sweeter, fresher, less acidic, more caffeinated cup, with significantly less expense and way less hassle than you’re probably currently doing. Knowing these simple secrets can help produce a near religious drinking experience, a clean crash free energy, to rock your morning or afternoon performance or enjoyment, and that’s better for you, your coffee, your community and the world.

BIO: Troy Gardner is a coffee lover and hacker, who is combining science, robotics, art and industrial design to producing the best coffee cup in most convenient fashion possible.

He’s behind the new contrarian coffee company, CloudBrewed, which focuses on elevating the 2 most important people of the coffee equation you can’t do without: you the coffee consumer and that of the farmer, and greatly simplifying great coffee, as really nobody should be expected to tare a scale at 6am.

CloudBrewed produces the first cold brewed espresso you can take with you for 100% all natural all day energy, called OMGEspresso (omgespresso.co). Per serving, it offers more caffeine than an energy shot, in 1/5 the size, 67% less acid, 10x more flavor than drip, no added sugar, or milk, so you can add your own. Made with love in Los Angles, it is handcrafted using only 2 pure things: single origin, direct trade coffee, ultra pure water, in a proprietary patent-pending process that captures aromatics lost in conventional brewing and eliminates oxidation, allowing you to put in a bag for convenient access anywhere. 50 lucky BILders will be able to try this at the event, served via Bill the cute Coffee Bot, and in the auction on Sunday take home some, where proceeds go to help support Bil.

He’s also behind the “Better Coffee with Power Tools” YouTube channel, and Cold Brew Reviews, which reviews the many cold brews available on the shelves.

A long time addict of TED talks, this is his second BIL presentation.

The Future of Energy is Cybersecurity

Linda Maepa

TALK: The energy industry is rapidly evolving, adopting new technologies on what was essentially an analog technology base. The smart grid, electric vehicles, self-driving vehicles, and technologies yet to be developed all depend on energy access and flexibility. Today and tomorrow look very different when cybersecurity is an add-on rather than a design feature. Learn about the dastardly deeds and constructive progress surrounding energy cybersecurity and how we can create an abundant future.

BIO: Linda Maepa brings over two decades of information systems, cybersecurity, and systems science experience to the energy storage sector. She is a multidisciplinary scientist, inventor, and serial entrepreneur that heads ElectronVault’s energy advisory practice from the US and in South Africa. She is an active advisor to academia, government, and industry worldwide regarding energy and economic security, energy sector cyber-physical security and risk management, and energy storage and project finance. She holds a B.S. degree in Geobiology from the California Institute of Technology where she currently serves on the Chair’s Advisory Council for the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences.

Her company ElectronVault develops energy storage systems and provides energy advisory and consulting services addressing utility-scale energy solutions and the electrification of transportation. Ms. Maepa is currently writing a book, Cyber-physical Security and Battery System Design, and blogs at Electroferocious.com on energy storage and project finance topics.

The need to dispel longevity sticker shock

Dr. Aubrey de Grey

TALK: People within and beyond the biology research community are increasingly understanding that aging is a condition that is potentially amenable to medical intervention, including bona fide rejuvenation via regenerative medicine. However, the longevity side-benefit of preserving health irrespective of age is the source of immense, though completely irrational, fear of the unknown – and in the case of biologists, fear of the political fallout in terms of bringing such research into disrepute. I will explain how this is holding back the field to a massive degree, why it must be brought to an end, and how we might do so.

BIO: Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Cambridge, UK and Mountain View, California, USA, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based 501(c)(3) biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the world’s highest-impact peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in aging. He received his BA in computer science and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Cambridge. His research interests encompass the characterization of all the accumulating and eventually pathogenic molecular and cellular side-effects of metabolism (“damage”) that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association, and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organizations. He is a highly sought-after speaker who gives 40-50 invited talks per year at scientific conferences, universities, companies in areas ranging from pharma to life insurance, and to the public.

Long-term Relationships & Hookup Culture: Maximizing Human Happiness

Christine Peterson

TALK: The stereotype about today’s hookup culture is that men are often quite happy with very short-term relationships, while women dislike this pattern and prefer a deep emotional bond lasting a long time. But is this true? This session will first explore some hypotheses on how human pair bonding works, and then do a deep dive with the BIL audience to explore preferences, longings, and pursuits of Brilliant Instant Lust vs. Breathtaking Intentional Love.

BIO: Christine Peterson writes, lectures, and briefs the media, policymakers, and companies on coming powerful technologies, especially nanotechnology and longevity. She is Co-Founder of Foresight Institute, the leading nanotech public interest group. She is an Advisor to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and National Space Society and is credited with coining the term “open source software.” In her spare time, Christine coaches women and men on how to find the right long-term relationship. Her next book is titled “Find Him Fast: Use Science & Technology to Find Your Life Partner.”

Powering Tomorrow

Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson

TALK: The world keeps getting warmer and warmer. While the causes and course of action needed to stop it is still being debated on the political stage, most scientists are comfortable with the explanation that the primary cause if from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission.

Other sources of energy are available, including solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear. When it comes to nuclear, many people cringe. The scary legacy of Chernobyl and Fukushima, has pushed nations and public opinion away from nuclear power. This talk will put all options on the playing field and look at the physics of where our energy might come from in the next century and beyond.

BIO: Kevin Peter Hickerson is a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech, experimental physicist, inventor and standup comedian (because, why not?). His work currently focuses on using nuclear physics to study the fundamental symmetries of nature.He has also worked for more than a decade in the solar power industry and has several patents in the field. Kevin has work extensively in other areas of technology too, from founding a table computer company years before the first iPad,low cost 3D printing, robotics, and optics.

Kevin tries to make hard science accessible with work in both comedy, podcasting, public lectures on his research, and as a science consultant for movies and TV shows, most notably, Marvel’s blockbuster, Thor.

Trust your intuition and face your fear

Simmone Park

TALK: How to expedite growth by being uncomfortable. How to trust your female intuition to get out of dangerous situations. A look into my 2015 and how by facing my fears head on, I was able to live the most incredible year of my life to date.

BIO: Simmone Park is a cultural chameleon. Lived/worked/studied in 10 countries, traveled to ~40. I will make that ~50 countries by mid-May when I compete to be “”World’s greatest traveler””. I manage to fit in to any place I travel to by creating a sense of relatedness to any one I meet.

As a woman, traveling the world can sometimes present danger. Last year, I was violently assaulted at gunpoint and was able to get out of the situation alive. Now I want to help other women to recognize real signs of danger and trust your intuition to get you out of precarious situations.

Art Monks and Remarriage to Science

Kenneth Hughes

TALK: My talk is about the value of doing art free as a monk with the intent to gift it to the community only, egolessly and how that changes the creations. Running a nonprofit I have seen many types of reactions to this. I have seen people realign with their true aspirations and inspirations. I have further tales of what it is to bring mentorship into collaborations under this Art Monk premise. Finally, I have found the marriage of art and science compartmentalized as tragically as most of the arts and the loss from this compartmentalization. Art can uplift, inspire and spiritually alter when held in a pure un-commoditized manner. When not compartmentalization and held to “professional” commercialized myopic choke-holds. Artists will need to make money and should…but the also must hold a place in themselves and others that do not follow any commerce practices and only are called from the fires of inspirations.

BIO: Kenneth Hughes runs an arts nonprofit, is the lead of a medical marijuana company and has worked with the Coen Brothers, Michael Bay, Jim Carrey, Madonna, Meryle Streep, Val Kilmer, Matthew Ralston, Tracy Ullman, Christopher Columbus, Julie Taymor, ISO Dance, Bee Gee’s, Amy Brenneman, Diavalo Dance, and Mika Kaurismaki, to name a…a bunch. Kenneth has appeared in numerous films, tv and commercials. He has also been screened in film festivals including Canne and Sundance, taught and lectured at Film Festivals, Universities (Including CalArts) and High Schools on Micro and Big Budget Film Making, Dance and Acting. He has 3 features completed and is currently in post production on three Documentaries and a feature based on Tony DuShanes book: Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. He has a Cinema Degree, Equine Science Degree, Law Degree, Pilots License and teaches Meditation and Yoga certified from Loyola University. He has directed and produced music videos, commercials and live stage events and is a Professional Dodgeballer (no…really).

Sexual objectification of the female nipple

Belle Phénomène

TALK: A performance art piece inspired by the “Free the Nipple” movement, which stands against “female oppression and censorship in the US, and across the globe”. This piece not only critically comments on the sexualization and censorship of female nipples, but also pushes the boundaries of what is legally and culturally acceptable.

In the US it is effectively illegal for a woman to be topless (breastfeeding included) in public in 35 states, yet public male toplessness has been legal since 1936! The Free the Nipple campaign aims to highlight and eliminate the sexual objectification of the female breast and to allow women to have as much free control over their own bodies as men enjoy.

BIO: Belle Phénomène is a performance artist specializing in the art of Burlesque. Hailing from the other side of the pond, the now San Francisco Bay Area based performer Belle Phénomène lives up to her name, which is French for “Beautiful Freak”!

Her performances are always character-led and take you on an exciting adventure which will leave you on the edge of your seat …. or hiding under it!​. Sometimes funny, sometimes absurd, sometimes shocking; she highlights the many different aspects of women’s lives and their relationships.

She has performed on stages in the US and Europe. Currently based in Oakland she performs regularly throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Her stage credits include performances at Tease-O -Rama, Masquerotica, Tourettes without Regrets, Hubba Hubba Revue, Red Hots Burlesque, and Diva or Die Burlesque.

Your Bleeding Heart is Not Enough: The Purpose and Pragmatics of Social Impact

Kevin Lew

TALK: Ever wanted to change the world for the better? Join the crowd! There is a great hunger amongst us all to solve our human and planetary problems faster with less bureaucracy. We also live in a time where technology, access to capital, and flexible business and organizational structures allow us to pursue our ambitions, dreams and ideas with an agility and level of independence like never before. But how can we channel our lofty visions of a better world into our work, our organizations and businesses?

BIO: Kevin Lew is the Director for the Bixel Exchange SBDC at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, delivering the center’s Startup Development Program, educational programming, and corporate development programming to the Greater Los Angeles community. Prior to becoming Director, Kevin worked as a consultant to develop the community engagement strategy and implementation that helped launch the Chamber’s Innovation & Technology programming.

Before working at the Chamber, Kevin ran his own digital marketing and event production consultancy and worked on a custom CRM application built for the events industry. Kevin also directed partnerships, digital marketing and production for Eventologie, a sustainability focused event production company. He also was the first employee and Director of Operations & Strategic Partnerships for Opportunity Green, a startup endeavor that produced high-level conferences, business to business networks and community programming to support sustainable and profitable enterprise. Kevin holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in Anthropology and Chinese.

Kevin is passionate about sustainability, design, music, technology, social impact and exploring economy of human motion. HIs primary objective is to promote and foster a pragmatic and sustainable business economy at a global scale through strategic partnerships between businesses, government organizations, non-profits and the educational sector.

Be a Scientist

Tami Reiss

TALK: With the popularity of the Lean Startup everyone talks about lean experiments. Tami will explore what values scientist (who live to experiment) have. Then we’ll explore how scientific practices can be adopted throughout organizations and everyday life, and how we can all be scientists.

BIO: Tami Reiss is an experienced product person who has worked with dozens of companies of all sizes to bring their products and services to market. Over the past 10 years, Tami has worked with teams to develop technology solutions on platforms ranging from mainframe systems to modern microservice architectures and iOS. She is a public advocate for Agile development, Lean strategies, and cross team collaboration to accomplish business goals. Prior to joining Cyrus, Tami was a Sr. Product Manager at Pivotal Labs where she consulted with companies on employing best practices to turn good ideas into great products.

Tami introduced the Female Founder initiative to Cyrus. She provides pro-bono product strategy guidance to help women led and community profit organizations. As part of that, she launched Just Not Sorry, a gmail plugin which encourages effective email communication.

In her free time she chairs a charity bike ride, volunteers for different women in tech organizations, and is trying to visit 50 countries and all 50 states by the time she’s 40.

Medical VR is VR’s Killer App

Alex Lightman

TALK: Virtual Reality is receiving massive attention and interest. Which areas of VR are unhyped and deserving of more attention? This talk by a pioneer in Internet VR and other areas makes the case the VR and AR for physical and mental health will enable us to increase our lifespan, healthspan, and fitspan in very specific ways, by enabling us to better apply the very fresh science in eight different areas that spell out the acronym AMOK ANTS. The parable of ants that become self-aware and realizes their colony is living in a toxic waste dump is used to illustrate the dilemma we humans face. VR as a tool for collective intelligence is explored, and illustrations of numerous current and possible future applications are provided.

BIO: Alex Lightman is a two-time keynote speaker of BIL LA, the author of the first book on 4G wireless (Brave New Unwired World) and the recipient of the first Economist magazine Reader’s Award for “the innovation most likely to radically change the world” 2011-2020, on behalf of 4G wireless, after voting by people around the world. His next book is Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane, co-authored with Brett King and two colleagues. He is a pioneer in VR and AR, with over 100 completed projects, including “best avatar” and both the entertainment and grand prize category for SGI’s Internet VR contest, out of over 800 entries.

Tinkering with Education: Teaching Kids How to Learn Like a Maker

Mya Stark

TALK: Not only are the shop classes and home ec long gone from public schools, along with the arts, but now even experiments in science labs have been pushed aside to make more time to teach to standardized tests. Kids are not being given the opportunity to solve problems, use their creativity, and most importantly, to experiment and fail in order to learn. The impact of this deprivation is seen particularly in our dismal national performance in STEM education and therefore the STEM jobs pipeline.

There is a workaround that can bring kids all this and more, without waiting for change to come to the schools via national and state politics. It’s simple, it leverages existing infrastructure, and it does not require an army of STEM subject-matter experts to implement it. It’s LA Makerspace’s impact model – training librarians and others who already work with kids to facilitate STEM learning Maker-style.

BIO: Mya Stark is the Director of LA Makerspace, an innovative STEM education nonprofit which expands opportunities for hands-on, project-based science and tech learning for low-income kids. Working on a train-the-trainers model, LAM is the Los Angeles Public Library’s primary partner for STEM education. Previously, Mya has worked with Paramount, Warner Bros and Disney Touchstone as a live-action screenwriter and director; edited a magazine; and curated an art gallery. She began her social benefit sector career by founding the development department at nonprofit cinematheque The Cinefamily.

Millennials: The Libertarian Generation

Alexander McCobin

TALK: What is the defining feature of the Millennial generation? A dedication to liberty and desire for self-empowerment. Learn what this means both personally and politically for Millennials and what that means for the future of politics, business, and society.

BIO: Alexander McCobin is the president of Students For Liberty, a US-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate, develop, and empower the next generation of leaders of liberty. Since SFL’s founding in 2008, the organization has grown to include over 2,000 student groups, 1,000 trained student leaders, helping over 90,000 students each year. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of The Atlas Society and an honorary board member of the Our America Initiative. In his spare time, he likes to read, write, cook, climb, and visit a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania.

How to Be A Fucking Boss

Miryam Strautkalns

TALK: We all want to be the next Gates or Jobs, but instead of trying to find the leadership potential that lies within us most try to emulate the great leaders. Because of this most never get to realize their own potential and greatness. The reason is because the success Steve Jobs had was because he chose to be a leader that suited his personality, people will fail when they force themselves to mimic other’s styles rather than hone their own. Much like forcing a size 8 foot into a size 7 shoe.

This talk will highlight several major personality types, possible motivations behind them in seeking leadership positions, and help finding the most successful approach for each in leading.

BIO: Miryam Strautkalns spent 4 years as a contracted computer scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. She specialized in Web-based Data Acquisition for Mission Operations.

For fun Miryam runs marathons, practices Bikram yoga, and engages in the never-ending struggle of training a tervuren puppy with intermittent bites on the butt.

Curing Death with Data

Clinton Mielke

TALK: Metabolic syndrome and Alzheimers, two leading causes of death in our modern world, and the underlying mechanisms that link the diseases. We’ll delve deep into the claim that Alzheimer’s is like “Type 3 Diabetes”. We’ll explore example data that dementia researchers work with in diagnosing neuropsychological problems, using software developed by Clinton to help visualize the results.

BIO: Clinton Mielke is a bioinformatician and aging researcher, focused on the biology of the most common diseases that kill the most people. During the day, Clinton is a “head data” scientist at the UCSF Memory and Aging center, where he is responsible for the management and processing of the brain scans for over 20 thousand patients. During the night, he runs a nonprofit experiment to cure aging by analyzing consumer health data from genetic testing services and quantified self apps.

Neurophysiology and Point Zero, How we can Access Higher Levels of Consciousness with Sound and Acupuncture

Ashley Tomasino

TALK: Ashley discusses the correlation between our brain, traditional medicine and accessing levels of consciousness similar to what shamans experience in their ceremonial practices.

Through her research and personal experience, she is able to correlate the various tools necessary to achieve a shamanic state with current research and case studies!

BIO: Ashley Tomasino is a Doctoral Fellow at Emperor’s College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where she is completing her Doctorate in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and completing a capstone on her research about the neurophysiological function of acupuncture on the brain using an fMRI. She holds a Bachelors in Biomedical Science from National University of Health Sciences, and a Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine.

She is the founder of several Chicagoland and San Diego grassroots companies geared towards healing others and offering educational services such as workshops about shamanic journeying, intuition, and healing.

She is the author of the soon to be published, ‘An Introduction to Shamanic Journeying,’ and is currently working on two other books relating to the topic of spiritual exploration and consciousness.

She works as a shamanic life coach, healer in her wellness center in Southern California, and will be a Licensed Acupuncturist in the state of California this year in 2016.

Freewill Act Indeed

Nathan Miller, house of Parnofiello

TALK: I have recently been delivered the opportunity to explore the legal “kingdoms” set upon, and entwined within our daily lives. Upon conception, we, being “natural born” citizens of the United States of America are “certified,” as precisely as one would certify the arrival of a refrigerator to a dock in New York; size, colors, model type, travel manifest (birth record). I make this point for a reason, as there is no need to certify the creation of a living thing, unless that is the whole point. We are made “surety” to the “legal fiction” that is our all CAPS name denoted from our birth certificate until our literal death certificate, being the “person” in commerce, or “entity.”

This separation of self is, and has been the avenue by which men have traded in the souls of men, ex: IMF, IRS, THE FEDERAL RESERVE, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. It may seem a nuisance to delineate between “all caps” vs regular type, but these slight differences are detrimental. Being that I was born on 11-11-1985 as Nathan Miller, and my “Birth Certificate” was denoting the creation of “NATHAN MILLER PARNOFIELLO” on 17 March 1986, what in fact, and in deed had been created. Obviously, I did not give any consent to a contract, nor did my parents. Originally there is a Live Birth Record that is kept in the hospital records, which is then sent to the Bureau of Vital Statistics to “produce” a Birth Certificate. This, in turn with the application for a SS Card, sets the cogs in motion for a long and productive life of the numerical, and legal “Public Person,” to whom a physical vessel, or “Natural Person” becomes trustee unto; boiled down, trust law.

The matter, and facts, that I will be discussing reveals “hidden in plain sight” fortifications put in place to subjugate, or otherwise coerce the “American People” into unintentionally giving up their true rights based in equity, or in hebrew, “righteousness.” This is all tied to jurisdictional impositions pre-1933 war times acts, maritime/admiralty laws, ignorance, and the overall lack of understanding consent, and the absence of rebuttals being taken as consent. Being that one can not proclaim powers they do not know that they have, others make easy prey of them due to their lack of knowledge.

Aside from providing the entirety of my sources, as well as my speech notes, case files, and other documents, I wish to only share that I have been representing my “legal fiction,” a private man, in esse and sui juris, as third party intervener through 5 court cases by this point, I have created a check-mate with the situation in Utah, which I would love to explain, I have filed my own complaints to seek “righteous” justice, with future goals of holding the physical United States of America as collateral against “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” Co., and want to share with everyone the power that is instilled in every one of us who can truly understand what “we” are as “human beings.”

Bottom line, there is a jurisdiction/court above all courts, that is just in all its’ ways, and I have found the inlet. If you would so feel inclined, please do feel free to contact me anytime.

BIO: Nathan Miller was born in Houston, TX, 11-11-1985, and since have lived in New York, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and now resides in Montana. Educated in Michigan, I attended 3 semesters of pre-med studies at MSU, dropped out to design cabinetry for the family business continuing today, relieved myself from the office to attend Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida for a BA Science in 3D Animation (4 yr degree in 21 months), continued freelancing interior/cabinet design as well as graphic/3d work, married and divorced, ended up in jail for approximately 20 hours in Utah on the 31 January 2015, and since have been sent engaging an enveloping fount of serendipity that has brought me here, to whomever may read this, to share what I have come upon.

My earliest memory is pushing my tongue against the back of one and one half teeth, being one lower left and the half upper left, when wondering, perceiving, and learning came in tandem with the spoken word. Feeling and having to exude statements like “”You shouldn’t do that!,”” instead of being aided, or limited by, the spoken word. To say the least, this is a paragraph or two about who I am, but there are no credentials to speak of, aside from the fact that I am in deed a private natural citizen of the United States of America, which is what I’d like to share with my fellow citizens.

Marriage evolved: High-income women seek caregiving husbands

Katherine Valentine

TALK: Between 1970 and today, the typical two-parent household has transitioned from male breadwinner/female homemaker to two full-time workers who share housework and childcare. While some researchers contend that women have evolved to prefer high-status men regardless of women’s own status, I argue that women’s mate preferences fluctuate with their ability to accumulate resources. Despite excellent work establishing human behavior within the context of non-human animal behavior, evolutionary psychologists have not adequately addressed the diversity and flexibility of human mating strategies. My talk reveals that men and women have evolved to adjust what they want in a long-term partner based on their current ability to provide for a family.

BIO: Katherine Valentine is an expert in attraction and mate selection. She uses what we know about non-human primates and people in foraging societies to better understand our motivations in industrial societies. Katherine is a feminist evolutionary psychologist seeking to understand the ecological conditions that spur egalitarianism and inegalitarianism in human romantic relationships.

From Rocks to Humans: What it really means to be alive!

Dr. Hamed Mirzaei

TALK: The Big Bang theory explains how atoms came into existence and the theory of evolution explains how a simple cell can evolve into complex human beings. But how do you go from the stuff that makes up rocks to the stuff that makes up living things? I will explain the mechanisms, forces, and intermediary steps that connect atoms to rocks and rocks to humans in order to fill in the blanks of what it really means to be alive.

BIO: Dr. Hamed Mirzaei is a scientist and educator at the University of Southern California studying the genetics and biology of aging, including aging-related diseases like diabetes and heart failure. He developed a course titled, “The Public Understanding of Science,” which he teaches at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Hamed has made science and evidence-based education a priority in his life, and subsequently founded the Hamed Mirzaei Foundation for Arts & Sciences, a 501(c)3 public charity that aims to promote a more science aware community. HMF hosts monthly science talks for the local community under the banner Byte of Science.

Top Ten Ways to Ally for Women in Tech

Heather VanCura

TALK: Maybe you are a woman. Maybe you love women. Maybe you hate women. Maybe you work with women. Maybe you have, or one day will have, a daughter. Women make up 52% of the population, and yet for the last 5 years, hold only 20% of all technology positions in the work force. In order to create technologies that serve the society as a whole, we need more women in technology. In this session you will learn 10 ways to be an ally for women in technology. Learn simple ways to support women in the workplace and the community – in the office, at conferences, and online. Become more confident in speaking up to support women and be more aware of the challenges facing women.

BIO: Heather VanCura leads the Java Community standardization efforts at Oracle, and is a leader of the global community driven adoption and user group programs. Heather drives the efforts to transform the JCP program and broaden participation and diversity in the community. She is passionate about Java, women in technology and developer communities, serving as an International speaker and community organizer of developer hack days around the world. Heather enjoys speaking at conferences, such as OSCON, Devoxx, Java Zone, and the JavaOne Conferences. She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California USA and enjoys trying new sports and fitness activities in her free time.

Trump and Miley: Creating Cultural Conversations

Devin O’Neill

TALK: Our politicians have started behaving an awful lot like pop stars. Let’s talk briefly about why, how this way of engaging with culture works, and how we can use these methods to create our own hurricanes of buzz.

BIO: Devin O’Neill is a performance artist, branding practitioner, and creative coach who’s basically winging it. He helps people get comfortable with how weird they are so they can use that weirdness to change the world.

Minding the Invisible: Paying Attention to the Dark Matter of Organizations

Gayle Karen Young

TALK: Consider that for leader, working with culture is like understanding the role of dark matter of the universe. One cannot understand the dynamics of the universe without taking into account that which we cannot see but that we are aware exists and holds a disproportionate weight, without which all our models and understanding of reality would be flawed.

Working in the field of leadership for the past two decades, it has become abundantly clear to me that there are the visible, tangible, practical, and pragmatic aspects of leadership that need to be executed on a day-by-day basis, and that these are the aspects that have been written about ad infinitum in books that fill the shelves of executives and entrepreneurs, those aspiring to understand why there is so much written on great leadership and yet we experience a scarcity of great leadership in our political and corporate sectors – certainly fewer accessible examples than we need in this world. Then there is what is “the invisible work”, the “minding the invisible”, of leadership – intangible and enigmatic, though no less practical. This is the work of caring for the the spaces between people, of seeing complexity and interdependencies, of understanding relationships and power and all the ephemeral things that still exise tremendous influence on the day-to-day behaviors of people. Thus it is the invisible work of leadership, the work of showing up, setting culture, and creating spaces for others to thrive is the focus of my work. Namely, it is some of the specific practices and competencies people who want to do work changing the world need to be willing to take on.

BIO: Gayle Karen Young is a cultural architect and a catalyst for human and organizational development. She comes from a rich organizational consulting background with both corporate and nonprofit clients. She was in process of becoming a Zen monk when she became an executive instead, taking on the role of Chief Culture and Talent Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia and its sister free-knowledge projects) until early 2015, when she decided to return to private practice as a rogue provocateur. Born in the Philippines to Chinese parents and raised in the United States, she has a multicultural perspective, an adventurous spirit, and a deep commitment to expanding human freedom.

Gayle works to support leaders in creating dynamic organizational cultures in which people can thrive and thus make greater contributions. She acts as the interface between individuals and the systems within which they work, and fosters the development of both. Gayle often acts advisor and mentor to new executives who are intelligent and working for the rights of people. Possessing both executive experience and organizational psychology expertise, she helps to develop the truly integrated leader in order to make lasting change.

She is also very much a geek that loves attending Comic-Con and reading science fiction, which inspires a passion for technology and its leverage for societal change, and has worked with a number of technology organizations and mentors for accelerator programs such as the Unreasonable Institute, Singularity University Labs, and the Thiel 20Under20 program with a focus on co-founder dynamics, start-up cultures, and leadership team dynamics. She is keenly interested in the intersection of technology and human rights and supports futurist humanitarian causes.

Optimism is our Responsibility

Kevin Russell

TALK: Optimism is a mechanism, as is fear. The difference in the two is the prerequisite that optimism holds; hope. Fear will protect one from loss and pain but has little power to inspire and evolve. Hope overrides fear and has lead our species from the caves to the stars. We all have a responsibility to use optimism when looking into our collective futures.

Recently scientists have identified a part in the brain that processes optimism. This network of cells is located right behind your eyes. The Orbitofrontal cortex will literally shrink if you are unfortunate enough to be caught in a disastrous situation or a victim of PTSD. What does this mean? What can we do with this new understanding of the brain?

To me, there is no optimist or pessimist. There is only a human that uses a part of their brain or not. Much like a person with the ability to walk but choosing not to. We all must exercise and activate this part of the brain. But how do we do this with our current “”If it bleeds it leads”” perpetual news cycle?

BIO: Kevin Russell is a philosopher, futurist, researcher, lecturer and Executive Director @SeriousWonder CDO @Foresight Company

How Emotional Marketing Is Impacting Business

Glenn Sagon

TALK: The power of emotion is considerable. Emotions give meaning to events. People often associate emotional events with brands. The fact is, research over the last decade has pointed to an overwhelming influence of emotion on our decision-making process. People buy based on emotion not logic. Logic justifies the decision, but emotions always come first. Therefore, the better you understand the decision-making process of your customers, the better it will be for your ROI.

Emotional marketing is about taking the focus off of what you do as a business and communicates why you do it. It’s backing away from the features and benefits of the brand and connecting it to your customer’s feelings. Emotional Marketing is changing the way brands communicate to their audiences.

BIO: Glenn Sagon is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sagon-Phior, a 29 year old Branding and integrated marketing agency headquartered in Los Angeles which serves the technology, health care, CPG, entertainment, lifestyle, real estate and non-profit organizations.

Glenn drives strategy, planning and marketing to build revenue for clients. His keen business acumen for producing measurable results is evidenced in our case studies. Brand successes have included Microsoft, 20th Century Fox, McCormick Distilling, Pininfarina, Nestlé, Pioneer Electronics, Sony, Honda, Ford, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Cablevision and DirecTV just to name a few.

Glenn began as an art director for Foote, Cone & Belding and soon after became Columbia Pictures’ award-winning creative director. During his tenure in the entertainment industry, he has produced over 300 motion picture marketing campaigns including Ghostbusters, The Big Chill, Against All Odds, The Karate Kid, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Big Lebowski and Dances With Wolves.

Glenn lectures at USC, UCLA and Cal State University Northridge and Art Center and his unique marketing approach is published in university textbooks and required reading at graduate level.

Glenn has received numerous awards including The Beldings, Graphis, New York Art Director’s Club and Creativity. Sagon’s work is also in the permanent collection of The United States Library of Congress.

Stuart Sherman

TALK: Humans are deeply flawed, one of our biggest flaws is the fact we don’t believe that our perceptions are flawed! When we design software systems, we bring our flawed perceptions to the design and requirements processes and mediocrity comes out the other end.

There are examples of amazing software, that truly change the ways people interact with their worlds – but they are few and far between, and for every success there are legions of failures.

Stuart’s talk will highlight some of the issues, and get you thinking in new, and more successful ways.

BIO: Stuart Sherman is the CEO of IMC. With over 100 staff on three continents, IMC is focused on the Psychology of Software Design and Build. With Clients as diverse as the NHS in England, to three of Canada’s biggest banks, IMC addresses the problems that today’s large organizations have with the design and adoption of software systems critical to organizational success.

Prior to starting IMC, Stuart founded one of Canada’s first “Digital Agencies” in the early 1990’s, which was ultimately sold to WPP, the world’s largest Media Company.

What AI Actually Means For You

Raj Singh

TALK: What happens when AI encounters something new? As creators and BILders, we have to consider how we build a future where our technologicial minions handle new situations in the way that serves humanity well.

BIO: Raj Singh is a Product Design expert, and CEO at Go Moment, a company dedicated to making customer service instant. Go Moment’s Ivy is already the world’s leading automated customer service platform for hotels.

Raj brings cross-discipline design, technology, and marketing experience from hundreds of large scale technology projects for leading brands like Virgin, Lady Gaga, and HEB Grocery Company. Blending his deep expertise in UX and market research, Raj works alongside leaders in hospitality to address the industry’s needs using next-generation technologies like Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and labor automation. In partnership with IBM Watson, Go Moment’s Ivy platform automates up to 90% of guest communication and is currently available to millions of hotel guests.

Your Personal Sim: The Brave New World of Smart Agents

John Smart

TALK: The biggest advance in computing technology that humanity has yet seen is beginning under our noses, right now. In just the last five years, conversational interfaces on our leading software and hardware platforms, involving speech recognition, natural language understanding, deep machine learning and big data collections of our online email, social networks, ecommerce histories, and other databases, are allowing the emergence of intelligent assistive personal software agents, or “smart agents” for short. Platforms like Google Now, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Facebook’s M, Soundhound’s Hound, Next IT (a company I advise), the email assistant Crystal, and the Siri founder’s startup Viv are all current leading examples. Smart agents are beginning to anticipate some of our contextual needs, and do simple actions for us in the world, across all our digital devices.

As is already happening, many different companies will offer us smart agents, for a dizzying number of uses, and we’ll use our most trusted agents to advise us, and even to act on our behalf out in the world. The most personalized of these agents will be conversationally trained by us, becoming our “personal simulations”, or “sims”. They will have private personal data about us that we don’t share with the outside world, and they’ll help us make choices that better reflect our personal interests, goals, and values. Some sims will even lobby for us, making it easy for us to get involved in initiative politics and mass actions.

This talk will look at eight areas, roughly ordered by the degree of impact I presently expect, either positive or negative, coming from smart agents:

• Personal – Entertainment, Dating, Personal Growth, Education
• Social – Nav/Transportation, Friendship/Collaboration, Symbionts
• Engrg – Professionalism/Productivity/Innovation, Coding, Science
• Econ – Purchasing, Budgeting, Mgmt, Funding, Startups
• Envir – Resource Use, Sustainability, Population, Biodiversity, Pollution, Climate
• Health – Health, Wellness, Dying, Grieving
• Security – Security, Transparency, & Privacy
• Politics – Lobbying, Voting, Representation, Taxation, Basic Income

For each area, we’ll look at two scenarios for how smart agent adoption might play out. The first will be a dystopia, a set of outcomes we’d like to avoid, and the second a protopia, a measurably better world, in three key ways — more personal freedom, more individual average wealth, and more evidence-based thinking and acting — than the world we live in today. In the long run, I’m optimistic that agents will take us to a protopia in those three social variables. But in the short run, lots of bad things could easily happen on the way. So let’s look at both sides of the issue, and in our Q&A please let me know what I’ve missed or am getting wrong. Together we can create much better foresight than any of us can alone.

BIO: John Smart is an academically-trained futurist and foresight development consultant. He is CEO of Foresight U (Los Gatos, CA), a source for best-in-class strategic foresight and entrepreneurship training. He is also founder of the Acceleration Studies Foundation, a research organization improving understanding and management of accelerating technological change, and co-founder of the Brain Preservation Foundation, an organization working to validate and improve access to reliable and affordable human memory and identity preservation protocols.

John’s expertise is in foresight development. His mission is to help leaders and their organizations develop best-in-class foresight process, and wake up to their incredible potential to foresee and create their preferred future, ahead of everyone else.

Autonomous Cars and the Coming Transportation Cloud

Rahul Sonand

TALK: The Transportation Cloud: Zero to Driverless in 1.9 years.

How electrification and autonomy will rapidly disrupt the economics of driving & transform society from the ground up

BIO: Rahul Sonand CEO & Co-founder, TESLOOP, Playa Vista, CA

Tesloop’s mission is to expand access to and increase the utilization of sustainable transportation. Tesloop offers City-to-City transportation in the World’s Most Advanced Electric Vehicles.

Rahul founded his first startup, thePlatform, in 2000. It offers an industrial-strength online video management system. This became the backend for services by Verizon, Microsoft, Hulu, Qualcomm and Comcast, who acquired the company in 2006 for over $100m. Rahul’s next company, Geodelic, offered a location based content discovery and mobile commerce service that was adopted by Verizon, Universal Studios Theme Parks, and Korea Telecom. Before startups, Rahul worked as an engineering manager at Adobe and at Microsoft, first as a product designer for MS Word, and later as the R&D Manager for all of MS Office’s Asian versions – which had over $1B annual sales.

He attended the Harvard Business School’s MBA program, received a Masters in Computer Science and Japanese from the University of Washington, and studied anthropology at UPenn. In his spare time, Rahul plays comedic songs on the only ukulele ever autographed by Elon Musk.

Upside-down, inside-out Solar Systems

Chris Spalding

TALK: For millennia, the human race has marveled at the planets (or “wanderers”) in the night sky. What bizarre worlds are hidden just beyond view? Now, we have the technology to study not just the planets of our solar system that were known to the ancients, but thousands of planets around other stars, light years from us. In this talk, I will reveal some of the most mind-boggling aspects of planetary systems thus found that have not been properly appreciated by the broader public. We have been looking for ET, but in a Galactic context, perhaps we are the aliens.

BIO: Chris Spalding is a PhD student at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He carries out research within a wide range of specialities, ranging from the theoretical astrophysics governing planet formation, to the environmental consequences of ocean acidification. Hailing from the tiny country of Northern Ireland, he dreams of explaining the most complicated mysteries of the universe using simple principles that anyone can enjoy learning about.

A Shamanic Nexus for Cancer Treatment

Paul A. Spiegel

TALK: I will be speaking on the nexus of Western medicine and shamanic practice in the treatment of cancer. The talk will be based on my recent experience in this regard, with particular regard to identifying and working plant spirits related to chemotherapy to achieve optimal therapeutic results.

BIO: Paul A. Spiegel is a Transhumanist lawyer active in the fields of technology, biotechnology, intellectual property, trademarks, copyright and the arts. He is active in longevity issues, sitting on the boards of the International Longevity Alliance and the American Longevity Alliance. In his spare time, he is working on a constitution for an immortal humanity, promoting a legal structure delineating the rights and responsibilities of minds uploaded to non-biological substrates. Since 2009, he has followed a course of Ayahuasca shamanism, including the use of plant medicines for physical and spiritual healing.

Whose MOVIE are you LIVING in?

Gary Stuart

TALK: Everyone comes from a long line of dead people. Those dramas and traumas live on in us. They left us their DNA and a Blueprint for survival. Most often we get trapped in their Family Home Movie and cannot seem to escape the same old, same old patterns both negative and positive that we acquired by being born. There is a way out. I can inspire you and show you how to expand your consciousness and horizons beyond your current reality into a grander Picture of your life that you can be the Star in and Direct too!

BIO: Gary Stuart has been internationally recognized, exploring invisible family dynamics as a spirited Constellation Facilitator for more than 16 years. He’s facilitated well over 8,000 processes, he is now on the cutting edge and providing training for CHI facilitators and other professionals. His latest Constellation book “MASTER your UNIVERSE: How to Direct and Star in your own Life” and “Many Hearts, ONE SOUL” available on Amazon.com and the host of “Consciousness Connection” on Blog-Talk Internet Radio Network.

Stress Intelligence

Jeffrey Szilagyi

TALK: Stress is widely viewed as harmful and toxic to the health of individuals and society. This popular view is rooted in an influential model which is built upon the enduring mistrust of our material nature.

What if the pervasive problem of stress has been deeply misunderstood?

The Human Stress Response is one of the most ancient of all evolutionary embedded resources, which is more vitalizing and adaptive than we’ve been told. What are the implications for our individual and collective futures if we could see the Intelligence in Stress and become more Stress Intelligent?

BIO: Jeffrey Szilagyi L.Ac., a seasoned integrative acupuncture provider, has spent over two decades in direct patient care, tending not only physical ailments but diseases of perception. He’s observed the widespread cultural illness in our health mindsets: Hidden within our health goals is a subtle war on our human nature.

For the past 5 years Jeffrey has been reshaping the narrative of health and vitality with audiences in North America and beyond. By empowering people and organizations with models, mindsets and tools which honor our evolutionary inheritances and create a greater sense of health freedom, the future of healthy human societies is as exciting as ever.

Hyperloop – 21st Century Transportation vs. The Future of Transportation

Chris Vasquez

TALK: What is Hyperloop, why we need it and the Hyperloop Tech team that’s bringing it to you. If all goes well, this talk will be informative, enlightening and maybe even a little inspiring.

BIO: Chris Vasquez is Director of Product Engineering at Hyperloop Technologies Inc. He is an aerospace engineer with 15 years of professional experience and holds degrees from Texas A&M and the University of Boulder Colorado. Chris began his career as a mechanical engineer at The Boeing Company supporting Mission Control at NASA-JSC. Prior to Hyperloop Tech, Chris headed Materials and Processes Engineering for Space Exploration Technologies. During his tenure at SpaceX, Chris developed new molecular contamination analyses, served as responsible engineer for the Dragon berthing mechanism and architected a custom online materials database that will soon be deployed at Tesla Motors. While at SpaceX, Chris was awarded a special commendation for resolving customer payload concerns after an aborted launch.

As Director of Product Engineering for Hyperloop Tech, Chris is defining the Hyperloop product family and is the technical interface for customers. He is excited to work for an innovative company that is redefining boundaries and improving the quality of life.

Biohacked Wine : Kill Your Hangover

Todd White

TALK: What is biohacking? How do you biohack wine and why. How wine has changed over the last 50 years, including the 76 FDA approved chemical additives that are commonly used in winemaking today. Why the explosive “natural” winemaking trend is growing so fast. How wines are being poisoned to make wine faster and cheaper. Sugar in wine, the hidden white devil. Why organic and dry farming produce a wine at lower alcohol. Why alcohol dosage matters so much in drinking and how to accurately measure alcohol in a drink. Why micro-dosing alcohol is essential for health. The health benefits of wines and why too high a dose of alcohol erases the health benefits of moderate doses. How alcohol acts as a domino drug and how to manage that. Why getting drunk is overrated and the best way to avoid it. Why drinking benefits your sex life, and your friendships. How to select wine, the phycology of the pour size and why it is important to control your bottle and pour size. How to avoid hangovers and how to manage big night out. What are the compounds in wine that cause you to feel bad and how to avoid them. In summary, most of us drink, we need to think about how to drink smarter, cleaner and healthier. We need a national discussion about healthy drinking.

BIO: Todd White has been serial entrepreneur and creator since he was age 17.

Today, after 15 years in the wine business his life is dedicated to educating and helping people make better choices about food, nutrition, and how they think about consuming alcohol. He is the founder of Dry Farm Wines and a writer, speaker, and a leading authority on healthy organic/natural wines and the importance of micro-dosing alcohol for health, longevity, and vitality.

Alcohol is present in every part of our culture and has been a part of the social and health narrative for over 8,000 years. Todd’s passion is unlocking the best way to enjoy alcohol, how to enjoy the benefits of moderate consumption while avoiding the negative outcomes.

Dry Farm Wines is the only health quantified wine merchant in the world that biohacks wine; quantifying organic and natural farming practices, as well as low intervention natural winemaking practices. Dry Farm Wines curates wines from all over the world, working with small family farms that are committed to producing pure natural wines in ancient winemaking rituals.

Todd is a self described Bio-Hacker who practices mediation, Wim Hof breathing, cold thermogenesis, a ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting and he is a fitness enthusiast. He lives in Oakville, California in the heart of the Napa Valley Wine Country.

Technology & The Fight Against Climate Change

Josh Whiton

TALK: Climate change may be the greatest challenge now facing humanity and requires all hands on deck. Accordingly, Josh will break from his BIL tradition of speaking on consciousness or biohacking to illustrate how technology exists today that could easily double public-transit ridership and make a serious dent in civilization’s carbon footprint.

BIO: Josh Whiton is the founder of TransLoc, the world’s most innovative tech company in mass-transit, which is actively cutting pollution and greenhouse gases by enhancing transit with the tech. Josh has also learned about food systems by starting a community garden and urban farm, and has a crazy idea about natural ecosystems once again supplying our food. He writes and speaks often on topics at the intersection of technology, ecology, and consciousness.

Data Saves Lives

Alex Wormuth

TALK: My talk revolves around the need for patient-generated data in healthcare. I gave a smaller BIL talk over a year ago discussing how wearables can transform the future of healthcare. It was more theoretical and future-telling, but this talk will be more practical. In this talk, I would like to go deeper and tell multiple, personal, real-life stories of how data can help reduce the risk of heart attack and prevent people from going to the ER and ICU. My grandma is the centerpiece of this story. She was recently admitted to the ICU and is currently on life support. I am convinced that if doctors and her care team had access to her symptoms and weight day-to-day, she would not be in the ICU and my family would not be suffering.

BIO: Alex Wormuth is the founder and CEO of HexCare, a company that is working to improve patient health by making patient-generated data more accessible. He recently completed his Computer Science degree at USC and has worked at NASA and Google developing data-driven technologies. While at Google, Alex developed machine learning algorithms that are able to predict machine utilization across Google’s entire fleet. Aside from technology, Alex loves to read, travel, and play piano, soccer, chess, and go.