Elevating Impact 2017

Ancient Mythology to Future Technology

From ancient mythology to future technology, the 2017 Summit considered how social entrepreneurs are shaping emerging industries and technologies with a lens on equity and lessons from the past.

Location: The Portland Armory

Date: February 13, 2017

Number of Attendees: 530

Weather: 50 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny

Videos

Opening Remarks

Angela Jackson, David Sawyer

At Portland State University's Elevating Impact Summit, speakers, performers, and interactive experiences celebrate entrepreneurship and innovation for positive social, environmental, and economic impact.

Mythology + Connection

Carolyn McKnight

Carolyn McKnight is a leadership development expert, the co-founder of Impact Entrepreneurs, and a PhD in Mythological Studies, with an emphasis in depth psychology.

International Social Entrepreneurship

Cindy Cooper, Kazi Huque, Todd Ferry, Evan Thomas

A conversation about methods and measures in international social entrepreneurship, this panel will highlight approaches, shared ann divergent, to navigating global social impact.

Featured Speaker

Riva-Melissa Tez

Riva is Managing Partner at Permutation Ventures, a VC fund focused on early-stage applied machine learning companies. She writes about artificial intelligence, finance and philosophy and represented AI in a 2016 Microsoft campaign for The Economist.

Performance

Anis Mojgani

Anis is a two time National Poetry Slam Champion, winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, and multiple-time TEDx Speaker.

Featured Speaker

Vidya Spandana

Vidya is co-founder of New Knowledge, a DARPA-funded machine intelligence company, a former Presidential Innovation Fellow for the White House, a renowned speaker at forums such as The American Council for Technology & Industry Advisory Council, TEDx Portland, and TechFest North West.

Impact Invention Award

The 2017 Impact Invention Award celebrates an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial team working to address a social, environmental, or economic problem through an invention-based enterprise. InStove, the winner for the year, are inspiring in their pursuit to improve human and environmental health through renewable energy technology and education.

Impact Invention Discussion

Carol Dahl, Ross Baird, Jocelyn Brown, Jay Harman

This panel brings together inventors, investors, and a biomimicry expert to explore the role of invention in positive social and environmental impact.

Performance

Ricardo Brambila

Ricardo Brambila arrived in Portland in January 2017 to begin cello studies with Hamilton Cheifetz at Portland State University.

Featured Speaker

Vishnu Swaminathan

Vishnu leads Global Planning and Management for Ashoka in its efforts to create an "Everyone a Changemaker" world - one where each person has the skills, drive, and resources to push forward solutions to pressing social and environmental problems, and each organization works to maximize the changemaking potential of its members.