Thursday-Friday, April 28-29, 2005
The Equitable Theater
New York City
• Attendee comments
• Attendee list
• Photos: Kareem Mayan, Jenn Warren
Dee Breger at Gel 2005
Jenn Warren
Director, New Netherland Institute; researcher and translator, The Island at the Center of the World
co-director, co-producer, Born into Brothels, winner of the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary
Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art
Contributing writer, The New York Times Magazine; author, The Island at the Center of the World
Creator of the best-selling Day in the Life photography series; founder, Against All Odds Productions
Making a special video appearance...
...and making another special appearance...
Each host below led a group of 20 to 70 attendees through some experience in New York City: a tour, seminar, workshop, or (in one case) a mobile urban game on the streets around Times Square.
Doug Balder, Industrial Design Award gold medalist for his work on the Dinosaur Halls at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, gave a tour of his architectural work on the Dinosaur Halls. Doug also showed how this world-famous exhibit tells the story of dinosaur evolution at the American Museum of Natural History.
Phil Terry, CEO of Creative Good, conducted a seminar on customer experience and how the holistic discipline is to business in the 21st century what advertising was in the 20th century. The seminar included a live look at attendees' websites and conversations around catalogs, retail, and other channels. 2005 Copernican Award winners were also present (finalists include Amazon, ING Direct, JetBlue, NetFlix, Staples, Westin Hotels, and others).
Ann Prewitt, Director of the Discovery Room at the American Museum of Natural History, New York along with Lisa Dombrow who run the museum's Discovery Room, gave attendees a tour through this nationally recognized interactive learning space and showed how it embodies environmental design and learning theory.
Cathy Salit, president and CEO of Performance of a Lifetime, hosted an interactive, improvisational session where attendees learned some of the "tricks of the trade" of the improviser and performer - in service of creating a great experience for you, your team, and your customers. (No acting experience required.)
Editor Jen Chung, along with publisher Jake Dobkin of Gothamist, took attendees on a tour of two of the best-known Manhattan landmarks, the two major train stations: Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. Attendees experienced the stark differences in these two environments, and learned the history of how the differences came to be.
Bob Knowling, CEO of the New York City Leadership Academy, and former CEO of Covad Communications along with Phil Mirvis, organizational psychologist, author of To the Desert and Back, took attendees for an inside look at how New York is using new methods to train the next generation of public school principals. Attendees were introduced to Leadership Academy-trained principals, who then showed the effects of this unique educational experience.
Myra Alperson, founder of NoshNews, took attendees to Sunnyside in Queens, one of the most polyglot neighborhoods in NYC. Attendees sampled Colombian, Romanian, Salvadoran, Lebanese, Turkish, Irish and other specialties on this route where they also learned about one of New York City's most intriguing communities. This experience included a visit to Sunnyside Gardens, the first planned garden community in the US.
Monica Hernandez is a designer from NYC design firm Studio Gaia, whose firm designed popular NYC restaurants like Cafeteria, Republic, and Bond Street. Monica gave a tour around various locations that Studio Gaia designed.
Michael Counts, CEO of Counts Media, along with the Counts Media team (see yellowarrow), created an interactive experience which took place in Manhattan where they used their creative blend of multimedia tools and tricks.
Logo Design by Sam Brown, explodingdog.com
