Theme: Seeds of Change in the City

Leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less centered around the topic of change. This Changes Everything "in the City" is dedicated to those daring enough to dream, to reimagine the way things are as the way they can and should be, and whose ideas promise to disrupt the status-quo and forever change the way we see things.

This season’s salon theme is This Changes Everything and today’s event is themed: “in the CITY”.

The Guild Theater
2828 35th Street
Sacramento, California, 95817
United States

Antwi Akom

Dr. Antwi Akom believes in visualizing a cities well-being using technology and community-driven data. Why? To build a greener, more equitable city. Dr. Akom sees in cities the potential for education equality, increased sustainable design, and coordinated, adaptable ecosystems of opportunities--and he aims to make it a reality. His philosophy of “designing for all” resonates deeply with citizens and has earned him the ear of cities, corporations, and philanthropic foundations across America. Dr. Akom is the Co-Founder of the Institute for Sustainable Economic, Educational, and Environmental Design (I-SEEED), Founder/CEO of Streetwize (visual well-being app), and is regarded as a next-gen cultural leader and eco-visionary.

Beth Rattner

Beth Rattner advocates “circular economy thinking” and “copycatting nature.” As Biomimicry Institute’s executive director, Beth helps breathe life into the modern city, replete with nature-inspired, radically sustainable products and services. She possesses a wellspring of practical experience from Blu Skye Consulting, one of the leading sustainability consultancies in the nation, and Hewlett Packard’s Emerging Market Solutions (EMS) group. The EMS team launched HP’s first multi-user, daisy-chained computer for poorly funded schools and a solar-powered printer, providing microfinance opportunities for women who could bring photographs to remote villages for the very first time. For “a gardener of soil and ideas that balance humanity's place on this spinning rock,” look no further than Beth Rattner.

Dusty Brown

Dusty Brown delivers “brooding electronic blips and bleeps and melodic vocals,” says the Sacramento News & Review. SN&R contributing writer Christian Kiefer adds, “Dusty Brown’s music has a weirdly unstuck-in-time quality that moves it beyond the bounds of ordinary pop music.” Their unique style of electronic folk-pop blends organic textures with dancefloor sensibilities resulting in beautifully crafted melodic soundscapes. Dusty Brown has been a fixture of the Sacramento electronic music scene for over a decade, and influenced many electronic musicians.

George Zisiadis

George Zisiadis wants to make you smile. The San Francisco-based interactive artist and designer creates playful public art that reimagines the built environment. Through both guerrilla interventions and commissioned installations, he encourages citizens to imagine cities--no, to demand cities--designed for joy, a basic human right. His creative projects reinvent the “every day” into inspired new ways of seeing the world. George has collaborated with museums and brands around the world to create spaces that bathe citizens in exploration, play, and fun. To experience his marvelous works -- The Bubbleverse, The Listening Tree, Pulse of the City, or any of the others -- is to know pure, unadulterated joy.

Jacob Golden

Jacob Golden is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Portland, Oregon. After the dissolution of his former band, Birthday, in 2000 he has worked as a solo artist and collaborated with several electronica musicians and producers, Jacob and Dusty have also performed and recorded together as Little Foxes.

Jahari Sai

Jahari Sai celebrates life from the depths of her soul and lifts your spirit along they way. At the heart of her music lives an evocative, soulful voice delivered with poise, purity, and boundless joy. Jahari’s acoustic magic and tenacious grasp on all that’s good in life will reach into you and awaken in you the foot-tapping, hip-swaying essence of being. The San Francisco born and raised singer/songwriter follows in the footsteps of those who have walked some of California’s most artistically fertile ground. Jahari's music is a reflection of wide-ranging influences and a fusion of assorted styles.

Laura Schewel

Laura Schewel made MIT Technology Reviews’ “35 Innovators Under 35” list (2013) at the age of 29. In working at Rocky Mountain Institute, a self-described “think-and-do-tank,” and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Laura recognized the enormous absence of real-world data on how people commute, shop, and travel. She countered by founding a business to solve that problem and ushered in the opportunity for transformations in transportation, urban design, and commercial planning. She may well be the only sustainable transportation expert you’ll ever need.

Pharaoh Ivan

Hip-Hop is more than just a musical genre to Pharaoh Ivan, it is a social political economic movement, a voice for the voiceless. In a time where commercialization reigns king, Pharaoh seeks to capture the true voice of Hip-Hop and direct it to the masses. Pharaoh, most notable for founding Pharaoh House LLC, is a native of Sacramento, who travels to document real life in all that he creates. He uses filmmaking, photography, spoken word, and music, to inform and enlighten. He has performed all over the US, and has worked with Hip-Hop legends like Common, Jay Electronica, Fashawn, Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Zion I, & KRS-One.