Speaker Rehearsal Blast!
Last week, ten of our 2016 speakers assembled at Google to share the latest versions of their talks with an enthusiastic audience of Speaker Catalysts and Sparkplugs. Some the amazing speakers we heard from included NASA engineer Nagin Cox, entrepreneur Charles Fracchia, infertility activist Lee Collins, computer scientist and co-creator of VisiCalc Bob Frankston, and homeless activist and co-founder of Artlifting, Liz Powers. As a Speaker Catalyst and member of our speaker support network, I attended the first session of our rehearsal, where five of the ten speakers presented their talks.
First, we heard from Kip Hollister, founder of the recruiting firm Hollister Staffing, who spoke about connecting with our passions, listening to our inner voices, and finding work that we find meaningful and fulfilling. Even as the CEO of a company dedicated to connecting people with work they love, Kip discovered eight years ago that she had hit a wall and wasn’t feeling fulfilled, inspiring her to create an institute dedicated to helping others find their true calling — after all, if she had felt this way, what if there were others who felt the same? Kip shared three steps we can take to help us re-energize in our everyday lives.
Nagin Cox, an engineer working at NASA, proudly proclaimed that was she was a Martian! Sharing her experiences of working on the Mars Rover, we learnt that a Martian day is in fact forty minutes longer than a day on Earth! This means that by the end of one week, Earth is four hours and forty minutes ahead of Mars, and, by the end of one month, Earth and Mars are nearly a full day apart. In order to support the Rover in real-time, the team at NASA actually lives on “Mars time”, all the while maintaining family obligations, appointments, and schedules here on Earth. Could you imagine life as a Martian?
Liz Powers, co-founder of Artlifting, spoke about her experiences working with the homeless, sharing her vision of using art to showcase the talent and creativity of the homeless and inspire newfound confidence in them. Liz created Artlifting, an art marketplace where the homeless can sell their artwork, providing a public avenue for the homeless to be seen as something much more than their situation.
Arek Stopczynski, a data scientist at Google, shared his vision of “Living Labs”, the idea that data detailing human behavior can be used to the benefit of society. Do you think of your smartphone only as a way to stay connected? What about your WiFi or Bluetooth networks? Our smartphones are actually powerful sensing devices, says Arek, providing data about where we are, who we contact, how active we are, and even how long we sleep. He discussed how we can use this data to help prevent infection or improve interpersonal relationships.
Sebastian Lourido, a biologist at the Whitehead Institute, taught us two of the concepts that make biologists tick: the idea that the blueprints of life are contained within every living organism, and the idea that every living organism is interrelated. Sebastian’s lab recently discovered the gene responsible for the parasite Toxoplasma’s ability to enter human cells, utilizing CRISPR technology. He hopes that this discovery will lead to improved treatments for malaria and cryptosporidiosis — both diseases caused by parasites, responsible for millions of deaths per year.
It was so exciting attending our latest speaker rehearsal at Google, witnessing our speakers’ talks getting better and better as they prepare for our November event. We hope you join us at our next run-through!
