PopTech 2013 Listen Live Today!

Today marks the second day of PopTech 2013 and again we're streaming live! Check out the schedule and tune in to watch in real-time extraordinary talks from creative leaders and innovators.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and the PopTech blogto stay up to date on conference-related news. Be sure to add your voice to the conversation by using #poptech. We'll see you there.  

PopTech First Speakers Announced!

PopTech is thrilled to announce the first raft of speakers who will be joining us at our annual convening in Camden, Maine in October. They include a revolutionary classical pianist who is radically changing the whole notion of the recital, a duo who designed the world’s first human-powered flapping-wing aircraft, one artist who stages city-scale events and another who creates visual interpretations of sound and speech.



“Sparks of Brilliance,” is this year’s theme; a vivid exploration of the nature of creativity itself.

This year’s conference also features a new twist to the agenda. On Saturday, Oct. 26, PopTech participants will enjoy the opportunity to enrich their experience and choose from a series of intimate, hands-on immersion adventures unique to beautiful Midcoast Maine. Enjoy an antique schooner sail, visit a sustainable island farm, learn how to make traditional Maine chowder! The current adventures offer a taste of what is to come, more immersions will be added as the conference nears. Exercise the creative spirit generated from “Sparks.” See you in Camden.

Join us for a joyful experience of jaw-dropping creativity in all its forms!

After Trauma: Dr. Sandro Galea On Who Might Bounce Back

POP TECH   Bad things are likely to happen to us in our lives. Very bad things. Traumatic things. Sadly, as much as we like to deny it, statistics prove this to be the case. 

The way we will each respond and recover to those tragedies and setbacks, however, will differ dramatically. Some of us will sink into deep depression, even long-term dsyfunction. Some of us will skate through seemingly unscathed. 

That strange phenomenon is what Dr. Sandro Galea (PopTech 2012) studies. He is an epidemiologist who examines why some people mentally bounce back after trauma while others continue to suffer, or even get worse. Among other things, his lab performed significant research into mental problems among witnesses to the 9-11 attacks.

In his 2012 PopTech talk, Galea started by shocking us out of denial. "It is ingrained in our minds that bad things happen to other people and sometimes they happen to good people," Galea said. The data Galea shared, however, shows that 9 out of 10 of us will suffer at least one traumatic event in our lifetime. 

It gets worse: That frightening number seems likely to only go up. "The number of disasters in the world is increasing and it has been increasing for the past 30 years," he added.

Galea's research plumbs the sometimes-murky relationship between our genetic make up, how our parents behaved, and how the number of exposures to traumatic events can all interact. Those factors help determine how likely we are to seem resilient after disasters, or slip into serious mental problems like post-traumatic stress disorder. 

He also explores the slippery nature of our memory when it comes to trauma. "These events happen," he said. "They are large events. We talk about them and then we forget about them, which is of course a problem if we are going to understand the consequences of bad stuff."

Galea's talk is part of a rich vein of PopTech content about recovering from mental trauma. For example, George Bonanno, (PopTech 2012) a psychology professor at Columbia University, also studies data that show how human beings cope with loss and extreme adversity. And Retired Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, MD (PopTech 2012) and clinical trainer Laurie Leitch, Ph.D.(PopTech 2012) work on neurobiological approaches to social resilience. This line of inquiry seems likely to become more and more relevant with each passing year, as much as we like to deny it. 

Photo Credit: Dwoww via Compfight cc

"Sparks Of Brilliance"

We are delighted to unveil the theme for PopTech’s 2013 conference: “Sparks of Brilliance.”

Creativity is the essence of our humanity, the great enricher of our lived experience, and the key to our shared resilience. It is found in every person and in every field and endeavor. But where does our creativity come from? Necessity or daydreams? Ambition or laziness? Purpose or play? Natural genius or rigorous process? All of the above … or some other, nameless place? Can it be taught or amplified? How is the creative instinct expressed differently in business, the sciences, society and the arts? What can these learn from each other? What does science reveal about the inventive mind? How do new platforms of connection and collaboration change the process of innovation? What new imperatives do they create? And how do we meet a world of fierce challenges with a spirit of creative possibility?


October 24-26, 2013, PopTech will convene a group of imaginative visionaries from many different fields in beautiful Camden, Maine, for a joyful, jaw-dropping, urgent, anti-disciplinary exploration of creativity in the 21st century.

We invite you to join us!

All PopTech gatherings feature bold and visionary presentations from some of our world’s most compelling innovators, interwoven with extraordinary live performances and other one-of-a-kind surprises. Our tone is at once intimate and expansive, designed to foster deep relationships and the space and time to think, reflect, connect and collaborate.

At "Sparks of Brilliance," you will meet thinkers, leaders and doers engaged at the forefront of creativity and innovation. You will be able to share your work with an engaged and influential community; you’ll take home powerful, actionable insights; and you will meet some fantastic potential partners, allies and friends.

Learn more at: https://poptech.org/camden_2013

Amazing Accessible Music Through Technology

Born without a right hand, Adrian Anantawan began the violin at nine and has since established himself as a rising star in classical music. He helped to create the Virtual Chamber Music Initiative at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Centre — a cross-collaborative project that develops adaptive musical instruments for use by young persons with disabilities within a chamber music setting.

Watch this amazing video...   

PeaceTXT Bolts Into Action In Kenya To Maintain Peace

PeaceTXT, the collaborative initiative of PopTech and a squad of leading technology and peacekeeping experts, is now active in Kenya working to prevent a repeat of the violence that raged there after the 2007 elections. The power and land disputes that followed those elections resulted in more than 1,000 deaths and the displacement of many thousands more.

PeaceTXT exemplifies PopTech’s commitment to fostering unconventional collaborations that might actually change the world.

The initiative is designed to reach out to Kenyans through mobile messages and create a social narrative to counter violence and foster peace. Our capacity to achieve this is made possible by the work of our Nairobi-based partner, Sisi ni Amani, which was founded by PopTech 2012 Social Innovation Fellow Rachel Brown.

Nearly 100,000 Kenyans have opted in to receive Sisi ni Amani’s messages, which are made possible through a 50-million-message donation by Safaricom, one of Africa’s leading communications companies.

PeaceTXT is a true team effort. It was launched in partnership with Cure Violence, Sisi ni Amani, Medic Mobile, QCRI , the Praekelt Foundation and Ushahidi, which was co-founded by PopTech 2008 Social Innovation Fellow Erik Hersman and 2009 Social Innovation Fellow Ory Okolloh.

PeaceTXT collaborator Patrick Meier provides an amazing overview, and PeaceTXT has been noted by The New York Times and CNN.

Learn more at: http://poptech.org/peacetxt

Teaching Kids To Be Resilient

Icelanders are a famously hearty lot. Norwegian Vikings trying to escape the rule and taxation of Norway’s king first inhabited the land that is now Iceland in the 9th century. So they had pluck from the start. But you simply have to be resilient to survive in such frozen, forbidding territory.

Margrét Pála (PopTech 2012) is a groundbreaking educator from that rugged country. Starting back in 1989 she was first somewhat infamous, and later more famous, for developing her own rigorous pedagogical model for educating young Icelandic kids. Pála emphasizes resilience, in part, because it is a key component to surviving and thriving in a challenging world.

It's all very Icelandic, and her ideas can seem a bit rugged to the uninitiated. But that makes sense, given that since the Vikings arrived on that isolated island in the North Atlantic, Iceland's history has been marked by wrenching poverty, volcanic eruptions, poor farming conditions, avalanches that wiped out entire villages, and repeated economic collapses.

"We are hard-wired in our resilience," Pála said in her 2012 PopTech talk, which is now available online. "'We have seen it worse,' we always say."

In practice, this means emphasizing decision-making and creativity. Rather than traditional toys, classrooms are populated with open-ended, natural materials that require children to improvise. Exercises include instructions about breaking norms and rules: "Go through the window," Pála exclaims. "Why are you always using the door?" And her kids get a bit of tough love. "Go out with your bare feet," she says to them. "Maybe it hurts a little bit. That's great."

Classrooms are also segregated by sex, children are required to wear uniforms to encourage discipline, and the curriculum includes exercises in jumping off cushions to help very young children learn the value of a little courage in life. That's something every Icelander has needed since at least the 9th century.

Four Unconventional Lessons For Making Real Impact

Bill Shore's four unconventional lessons for making real impact
Mark Benjamin

Bill Shore (PopTech 2012) is a legend among professionals striving to make positive social change. In 1984, Shore was shocked by the famine in Ethiopia and used a $2,000 credit card advance to help found the anti-hunger organization, Share Our Strength. Since then, Share Our Strength has raised and spent $360 million to help end childhood hunger.

At PopTech 2012, Shore discussed the "strategic necessity and the moral imperative of breaking the rules." Success in social innovation can save lives, Shore says, and organizations involved in these kinds of efforts can and should employ unconventional strategies to maximize their impact.

Shore's talk is now available online:

Shore shared four tenets of this approach:

Lesson #1: Earn money. Rather than rely only on traditional non-profit fund-raising methods, Share Our Strength puts much of its focus on building multi-faceted partnerships with corporations and corporate foundations, while also offering innovative ways of engagement through well-known culinary events and grassroots platforms. Shore says that the term nonprofit should be "a tax status and not a management philosophy."

Lesson #2: Measure impact. Set specific, measurable goals. Work toward ending childhood hunger, for example, rather than just feeding the hungry.

Lesson #3: Engage on public policy. Working effectively in this space means not just serving those in need, but also actively working to change and improve public policies in pursuit of that goal. "Public policy is a critical component," Shore says. What policies might help end childhood hunger?

Lesson #4: Be competitive. Shore advocates a philosophy of improving performance on all fronts, like hiring and retaining the very best personnel.

Shore is passionate about these ideas for good reason. Poverty is at record levels. There are 46 million Americans on food stamps and half are children. More than 22 percent of U.S. children live below the poverty line. For Shore, it is easy to understand why maximizing impact is a moral necessity.