Recent Highlights, Plans & Opportunities in 2020
Witnessing the brilliance of Michelangelo's "David" in person at the Accademia.
Florence, Italy. May 2019.
I'm always caught off guard by moments when I am moved by works of art that I've seen countless times before. Michelangelo's "David" is so ubiquitous, I feel like I've been seeing it my entire life. When I bought my ticket to the Accademia to see David in person, I assumed it would be a necessary but ultimately underwhelming experience. "When in Florence..." Yet, when I cleared security, rounded the corner, and saw David at the end of the hallway, I had a surprisingly emotional response. The size, detail, and character of the marble were much more impressive than I had imagined. The difference was obviously witnessing David in person, and being fully present to take in its brilliance.
For most of my career, I've been focused on connecting people, content, and ideas digitally. But over the past year, I've made a concerted effort to bridge the gap between the online and in-person realms. Below are a few highlights from my recent work that illustrate this focus.
Through my continued partnership with Bill Johnston at Structure3C, I have had the pleasure of advising clients such as Salesforce, the Center for Health Care Strategies, and IBM on their online and offline content, collaboration, and community strategies. I recently helped the IBM Data Science and AI Technical Marketing Team launch a new podcast to promote industry events and share compelling conversations about data science with a broader community of current and aspiring data scientists. I produced this episode featuring Karen Matthys, Co-Director of the Women in Data Science Conference (WiDS) at Stanford University.
My ongoing consulting relationship with the great folks at Training Resources Group has led to some incredibly rewarding projects for USAID's Office of Education. I presented on my human-centered content strategy work for the EPIC project at the 2019 Nonprofit Technology Conference. Recently I've been helping design and pilot a new process for more efficiently and effectively providing in-person and virtual support to missions around the world. Also, for the second consecutive year, I planned and facilitated the annual Mobiles for Education Alliance Steering Committee Meeting (first photo).
In 2019, I hosted a series of events as organizer of the DC Community Managers Meetup, including a standing-room-only session on communities of practice at The World Bank. I'm currently planning events for 2020, so contact me if you would like to present, host, or sponsor. I also helped plan and moderate panel discussions for Structure3C's September 2019 summit on community advocacy programs at the Salesforce Tower (second photo). We are currently organizing an AI and Communities Summit in San Francisco on March 31 for senior leaders actively engaged in community / (human) network development. This event is invitation only, and is free for those invited. Message me for more details if interested!
Lastly, many of you know that I've also been a professional musician for most of my adult life. As a rule, I tend to avoid mixing strategy consulting with my musical endeavors, but I wanted to take this one opportunity to share a few exciting developments. My song "The Key," which I wrote for my band The Beanstalk Library, was featured as the lead track in Relix Magazine's Spotify Sampler. Currently, The Beanstalk Library is a semi-finalist in a contest to perform at a major music festival this summer, which would be our greatest achievement to date. We perform on February 28 at Pearl Street Warehouse in Washington, DC for a chance to advance. The show is sold out, but contact me if you are interested in attending and supporting us.