Jessica Banks: Real furniture from unreal visions

Levitating tables and robotic chandeliers seem like the stuff of surrealist visions. In a way, they are. Jessica Banks, founder of RockPaperRobot, discusses how a ‘defect’ in her eyes helps her imagine and create improbable, innovative furniture. For more information, please visit poptech.org.

Jessica Banks is an inventor, roboticist, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of RockPaperRobot, a company specializing in responsive objects that expand the functional and aesthetic versatility of traditional decor. From levitating and transformable tables to robotic chandeliers, RPR aligns time-honored craftsmanship with progressive engineering. She is also a creative and technical consultant on major advertising campaigns, global initiative development for international corporations, and robotic designs for high visibility clients. 

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Erika Hall: Asking "why?"

What is the world like now? What should it be like? Mule Design co-founder Erika Hall makes the case that the design process is simply determining the space between “is” and “should.” She argues that designers must also be philosophers, and that the question “why?” is their most vital tool. For more talks, visit poptech.org.

Erika Hall is the author of Just Enough Research. In 2001, she co-founded Mule Design Studio in San Francisco where she is the Director of Strategy. Erika speaks and writes frequently about cross-disciplinary collaboration and the importance of natural language in user interfaces. In her spare time, she battles empty corporate jargon at Unsuck It.

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Eric Liu: Hybrid and our civic life

Eric Liu, founder and CEO of Citizen University, shares an inspiring vision of what it means to be an innovator and a citizen today. "The heart of innovation is hybridity; this is the heart of America."

Eric Liu is founder and CEO of Citizen University and the executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship & American Identity Program. His books include the national bestsellers The Gardens of Democracy, and The True Patriot, both co-authored with Nick Hanauer. Liu’s first book, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, was a New York Times Notable Book featured in the PBS documentary “Matters of Race." 

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George Arriola: Mashing it up

George is a hybrid with a wide-ranging background that includes roles at Sony and Apple, to name a few. Here he discusses three world-changing products that wouldn't exist without a hybrid approach. Watch and learn about what can happen when we mash things up with this hybrid mentality. For more information, visit poptech.org.

George Arriola is an entrepreneur, craftsman, product guy, (a)rchitect, type designer, nerd, otaku, sous chef, and epiphany engineer. He is currently founder and CEO at a skunk_works product design boutique known as Minimalisms, and is a Founder, President & Chief Product Officer at Monohm Inc. Monohm exists to create New Necessities™ crafted on core values: heirloom, connection, control, ecosystem - Heirloom Electronics™. Previously, as Founder / CXO at zeroº (zero360, inc.) a stealth wearable hardware and platform company. 

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Alexa Clay: It's time for Misfit Entrepreneurs

It's time to “push our scripts around entrepreneurship” and bridge the worlds between the accepted way of doing things and those who do things differently. Watch Alexa Clay discuss the culture hacking, alter-egos and neo-tribes she investigates to discover how more people can participate in entrepreneurship.

Alexa Clay is a leading expert on subculture and innovation from unlikely places. She is the co-author of The Misfit Economy, a book that explores underground and informal innovation. Alexa works to create bridges and opportunities for misfit subcultures within the formal economy. She is the Founder of Wisdom Hackers, an incubator for philosophical inquiry, as well as the Co-Founder of the League of Intrapreneurs, a movement to create change from within incumbent systems and big organizations.

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Ken Banks: Freedom from Money

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PopTech Ecomaterials Lab

Materials matter. Everything we touch, taste, wear, drive, drink, eat — all of it is connected to the use, re-use, and ultimate disposal of materials. The health of the planet and the prosperity of its inhabitants rest largely on how we extract and use materials.

In July 2010 at Harvard Medical School, the first meeting of the Ecomaterials Lab network brought together 40 of these thought leaders and stakeholders for a facilitated dialogue regarding the drivers, constraints, opportunities, and challenges surrounding next-generation sustainable materials (with a particular emphasis on textiles). The gathering unearthed new insights and areas of disagreement, and helped form a network around sustainable ecomaterials.

Alphachimp Studio Inc. was honored to be onsite for graphic facilitation support and graphic capture of the personal insight, passion and urgency expressed by this stellar group of material scientists.

Fast Company has included the results of this event in there list of 8 of the Most Exciting Developments in Material Sustainability!

Download the full report here:

Ecomaterials Lab Report (PDF