- Jamy Ian Swiss
- Sleight-of-hand magician
- Posted: 02/05/10 | Recorded at Gel 2009
There is one key ingredient in all good magic tricks, and Jamy Ian Swiss reveals it before taking the audience through a magic trick as shown from the magician's perspective. This is one of the most thought-provoking and talked-about presentations from Gel 2009 and should be required viewing for anyone in the business of creating good experiences. (Hint: the key ingredient is also the essence of good listening.)
See also:
• Pomegranates and empathy (and another reference in Deception considered helpful)
- Javette Orgain
- Family physician and Chairperson, Illinois State Board of Health
- Posted: 02/04/10 | Recorded at Gel Health '09
Practicing medicine on the south side of Chicago, Dr. Javette Orgain describes her work at a community health center there. The challenges and issues in the patient experience, she says, would be better addressed with improved "health literacy."
- Fred Kent
- Founder and President, Project for Public Spaces
- Posted: 02/03/10 | Recorded at Gel 2009
Rem Koolhaas and Frank Gehry take some licks from Fred Kent in this Gel talk, as he describes what "placemaking" means in creating a better urban experience. Good architecture, Kent says, serves the needs of the community.
See also: Project for Public Spaces
- Bruce Shapiro
- motion control artist
- Posted: 01/21/10 | Recorded at Gel 2005
Choreographing a robotic arm to create art - even dance - is no small feat, but Bruce Shapiro delivers both in this Gel talk. See also Bruce's site, The Art of Motion Control.
- Jim Withers
- Founder, Operation Safety Net
- Posted: 01/20/10 | Recorded at Gel Health '09
Bringing healthcare directly to the homeless, as Dr. Jim Withers describes in this Gel Health talk, is difficult but rewarding. As a founder of the global street medicine movement, and the subject of the documentary "One Bridge to the Next," Dr. Withers has accomplished a great deal - both in his home city of Pittsburgh with Operation Safety Net and throughout the world in dozens of cities now maintaining street medicine practices.
See also:
• Operation Safety Net, Dr. Withers' project in Pittsburgh
• streetmedicine.org, the initiative supporting street medicine practices globally
• One Bridge to the Next, the documentary about Dr. Withers' work.
- Bruce Molsky
- Musician
- Posted: 12/28/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 1 comment
Well-known for performing traditional Appalachian music, Bruce Molsky also blends folk music styles from across the world.
- Scott Heiferman
- Co-founder, Meetup.com
- Posted: 12/28/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
The "silver lining of economic collapse" is visibly apparent when considering the thousands of communities enabled by Meetup.com, the company that Scott Heiferman co-founded and organizes.
- Bill Brownstein
- Founder, Kids RX
- Posted: 12/23/09 | Recorded at Gel Health '09
- 2 comments
A pharmacy can offer friendly and personal service - and thrive. Bill Brownstein, founder of Kids RX, describes the approach he takes in his New York-based pharmacy and the outcomes that he and his customers have enjoyed as a result.
- Charlie Todd
- Urban prankster and founder, Improv Everywhere
- Posted: 12/08/09 | Recorded at Gel 2005
Having run pranks in subways, stores, and many other places, Charlie Todd is well known through his Improv Everywhere missions. In this presentation from way back in 2005, Charlie shows some footage of early missions - including one of the first no-pants subway rides.
- Gel 2009 montage
- Featuring speakers and attendees
- Posted: 12/07/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
Here's a brief look at some moments from the Gel 2009 conference. The next Gel event is Gel 2010 - hope you'll sign up!
See also: Videos of Gel 2009 speakers
- Michael Christensen
- Co-founder, Big Apple Circus; founder, Clown Care
- Posted: 11/22/09 | Recorded at Gel Health '09
Visiting children and their families in the hospital, Clown Care founder Michael Christensen has learned to focus on "what's going right" in the room. Speaking at the first Gel Health conference, Christensen describes how his clown rounds got started, and finishes with an on-stage performance as Dr. Stubs.
See also: Big Apple Circus's Clown Care
- Bridget Duffy
- Former chief experience officer, Cleveland Clinic
- Posted: 11/17/09 | Recorded at Gel Health '09
- 8 comments
After breaking her leg, Bridget Duffy got a close look at the patient experience - by being a patient herself. At the first Gel Health conference, Bridget discusses what she learned - and what has inspired her, throughout her career, to advocate for improved patient experience.
See also: Video of Bridget Duffy at Gel 2008
- Steven Heller
- Author, "Iron Fists"
- Posted: 11/05/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 2 comments
Building a strong visual brand is not always good for the world. Exploring the themes in his book Iron Fists, graphic design legend Steven Heller shows how totalitarian regimes of the 20th century consolidated their power through strong visual imagery.
- Zina Saunders
- Artist
- Posted: 11/05/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 2 comments
Great art can come out of frustration, as Zina Saunders shows. Her portraits of overlooked New Yorkers, and American political figures, reflect Zina's passionate view of the world.
See also:
• Zina's recent work on Drawger
• Overlooked New York: Impassioned New Yorkers from an Artist's Perspective
- Marion Nestle
- NYU professor and author of "Food Politics"
- Posted: 08/18/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 2 comments
What you should eat, and what companies want you to eat, are not necessarily the same thing. Food expert Marion Nestle explains how we got to this point, and what you can do to choose the healthiest food.
See also:
• Marion's quote in The Atlantic
• List of cute organic brands quietly owned by much larger companies
• Nestle's books - Food Politics and What to Eat
• Video of Marion Nestle on the Colbert Report (Aug. 19, 2009)
- Noah Scalin
- Creator, Skull-A-Day
- Posted: 08/12/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 4 comments
To design a different skull every day for a year, it turns out, you need a little help from your friends - and some strangers, too. Noah Scalin talks about one of the boldest creative challenges you'll ever hear about.
- Bill Gurstelle
- Senior Producer, Make:television; author, "Backyard Ballistics"
- Posted: 08/12/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 1 comment
Taking risks is vital to your health, argues Bill Gurstelle. Not a constant stream of life-threatening activities, but just enough to keep you from eating your own brain. (You'll learn what that means when you watch the video.)
- Robin Nagle
- Anthropologist of New York City's sanitation workers
- Posted: 08/04/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 1 comment
Listening to New York City sanitation workers - and working side-by-side with them - NYU professor Robin Nagle uncovered a wealth of knowledge about the job and the people who keep the city clean.
Nagle also talks about our relationship with trash - and why we might want to respect, maybe even love, what we leave behind. This is an anthropological study well worth learning from.
See also:
• Video featuring Robin Nagle on Fresh Kills landfill
• Chris Jordan at Gel 2007, visualizing the amount of trash generated by modern society
- Barry Scheck and Jerry Miller
- The Innocence Project
- Posted: 08/04/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
- 2 comments
Thousands of innocent Americans are in prison for crimes they didn't commit. The Innocence Project, through the use of DNA evidence and legal reform, helps prove these people innocent - so that justice is served, and so the actual perpetrators can be found and imprisoned.
The Innocence Project's cofounder, Barry Scheck, shares the stage here with Jerry Miller, the 200th exoneree of the organization. Miller served 24 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
- Graham Hill
- Founder, Treehugger
- Posted: 07/23/09 | Recorded at Gel 2009
Three easy steps to reduce your carbon footprint: Graham Hill delivers a simple, straightforward, and, yes, achievable path to cutting our impact in half. He also reveals the number of showers equivalent to a pound of beef.
- Erin McKean
- Lexicographer, dictionary editor
- Posted: 05/27/09 | Recorded at Gel 2006
- 1 comment
Words rock. So does this lexicographer. At the time of this talk, Erin was serving as editor-in-chief of The New Oxford American Dictionary - and here she describes the process of making, and editing, the words in the dictionary. Well worth watching.
See also Erin's blog Dress A Day and her online dictionary startup Wordnik. (She also made a brief on-stage appearance at Gel 2007.)
- Chip Conley
- CEO, Joie de Vivre Hospitality; author, "Peak"
- Posted: 05/27/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 1 comment
As the CEO of a boutique hotel company, Chip Conley knows something about creating good experience - both for guests and employees. In his recent book Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, and in this Gel talk, Chip explains how to understand good experience through Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
See also: Chip's interview in Good Experience
- Seth Godin
- Bestselling author, entrepreneur, and agent of change
- Posted: 04/21/09 | Recorded at Gel 2006
- 11 comments
Why are so many things broken? In this entertaining talk - one of the favorites of Gel 2006 - Seth Godin gives a tour of things poorly designed, the reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them.
See also: Seth's Blog, where Seth writes daily on marketing, business, and other issues
- Clay Shirky
- Author, "Here Comes Everybody"
- Posted: 04/21/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 1 comment
Social networking thinker Clay Shirky talks about the transformations in corporations and society brought about by the spread of networked communications. His book Here Comes Everybody covers similar themes.
- Bridget Duffy
- Chief Experience Officer, Cleveland Clinic
- Posted: 04/14/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 8 comments
Creating a good patient experience is the focus and mandate of the Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the world's top-rated medical facilities. In this talk, Bridget Duffy shows the theory and practice of patient-centered care, including an on-stage demo of an innovative patient gown.
- Danny Meyer
- Restaurateur, author
- Posted: 04/14/09 | Recorded at Gel 2007
Hospitality is the key element of success, argues New York restaurateur Danny Meyer. He should know: his restaurants are consistently the highest-ranked in Zagat's New York survey. Go to Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Shake Shack, or any of Danny's other restaurants and you'll have an opportunity to see how hospitality forms a good experience.
After watching this Gel video, take a look at Danny's book Setting the Table, where he explains his thoughts on hospitality in more detail. Recommended.
See also: Two very different types of good experience (and Cipriani)
- Ted Dewan
- Author, artist, transportation activist
- Posted: 03/31/09 | Recorded at euroGel '06
- 2 comments
Cars drove dangerously fast on Ted's residential street in Oxford, England - until he began installing activist art on the street. It brought the community together (even the mayor got on board), slowed the traffic, and improved the experience for everyone involved.
See also Ted's bio and Road Witch Trial.
- Alison Young
- Singer-songwriter
- Posted: 03/19/09 | Recorded at euroGel '06
Songwriter, singer, and uke player Alison Young was a hit in Copenhagen at euroGel 2006. Here are two of her songs.
- Natasha Schull
- Asst. Prof., MIT
- Posted: 02/24/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 1 comment
Las Vegas casinos increasingly pay attention to their customers - their likes, dislikes, moods and patterns - in order to create an engaging experience. As Natasha Schull explains, the stated goal of these new designs is "customer extinction" - the moment at which the customer is out of money. This talk, essential viewing for anyone in the design or user experience fields, underlines the neutral nature of customer experience methods: like any tool, they can be used for good or ill.
See also: The flip side of customer experience (Good Experience column)
- John Williams
- Founder, Frog's Leap winery
- Posted: 02/24/09 | Recorded at Gel 2007
Frog's Leap creates outstanding wines - but that's just the beginning. For almost 30 years, John Williams has built an organization that creates good outcomes for customers, employees, and the earth. (Frog's Leap was organic from the beginning, well before it became trendy.) Case study in "creating good" in many ways simultaneously.
See also:
• Video of Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery (from Gel 2008)
• In Napa, Some Wineries Choose the Old Route (NYTimes Aug '08)
- Lelavision
- Musicians, sculptors, performers
- Posted: 02/19/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 1 comment
Like many of the best Gel presenters, Lelavision is difficult to describe in a few words. Are they musicians who sculpt? Or dancers who weld? Their performance here blends music, design, nature, sculpture, choreography, play, and a commitment to the simple, handmade item.
- Linda Stone
- Writer and consultant
- Posted: 02/19/09 | Recorded at Gel 2006
Having coined the phrase "continuous partial attention," Linda has many thoughts about the effects of pervasive digital technology. She was previously an executive at Microsoft and Apple and has seen the technology landscape develop for over two decades.
- Garrett Oliver
- Brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery
- Posted: 02/10/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 5 comments
Authenticity plays a central role in brewing good beer. Garrett Oliver, world-renowned brewmaster, explains how beer is like bread - there's a big difference between the real and the fake - and how it's possible to create a great product while growing a responsible, sustainable business.
See also Garrett's book: The Brewmaster's Table
- ES
- Sister, The Order of St. Helena
- Posted: 02/10/09 | Recorded at Gel 2007
- 3 comments
Sister Ellen Stephen, or ES as she's also known, talks about "food and spirit" from her perspective as an Anglican nun. Her wide-ranging exploration of community (also shown in her books Vessel of Peace and Together and Apart) make this a talk well worth watching.
- George Vaillant
- Author, Spiritual Evolution
- Posted: 02/03/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
A psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School, George Vaillant shares thoughts on "spiritual evolution" (the title of his recent book). A compelling, and rare, argument for the intersection of science and faith.
See also: George Vaillant on what makes us happy
- Ji Lee
- Founder, The Bubble Project
- Posted: 01/29/09 | Recorded at Gel 2006
- 5 comments
(With subtitles now!.. -mh) Not long ago in New York City, cartoon "thought bubbles" began appearing on print advertisements in the subway. Interested passersby wrote in text, beginning a dialogue about the ad, its message, the city, American culture, and with each other. Ji Lee's low-tech, decentralized Bubble Project needed no instructions, no moving parts, no planning, and almost no investment - and yet it yielded a rich set of commentary from and about the people of New York (and now other cities, as the project has spread to four other cities). A brilliant example of good experience in the city.
See also the Good Experience interview of Ji Lee from 2006.
- Andrew
- Composer, performer
- Posted: 01/21/09 | Recorded at Gel 2007
- 2 comments
Andrew is a composer with a twist: he creates songs by request. Readers of his website (songstowearpantsto.com) email him ideas - often silly, random, or ridiculous - which he dutifully turns into full-fledged songs. They're often surprisingly catchy and witty, and Andrew's range of musical styles is amazing. He's an outstanding Gel presenter who, like others we've seen, takes "throwaway" material and creates something great.
See also - Sam Brown from Gel 2008, who draws cartoons from reader-submitted ideas
- Chris Jordan
- Photographer
- Posted: 01/13/09 | Recorded at Gel 2007
America's scale of consumption is beyond the reach of any camera... unless Chris Jordan is standing behind it. His work combines photography, information visualization, and wry commentary on the culture and environment. One of the all-time most popular Gel talks.
See more at Chris Jordan's website, or via the Seadragon iPhone app.
- Bobby C. Martin Jr.
- Design Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center
- Posted: 01/13/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 2 comments
New York City's famous Abyssinian Baptist Church is central to this design case study by Bobby Martin. In it, he tells how the rebranding effort he led for the church (he's also worked at Ogilvy + Mather) expanded to involve the surrounding community in Harlem. An example of how design can lead to change.
- Marissa Mayer
- VP of Search Product and User Experience, Google
- Posted: 01/06/09 | Recorded at Gel 2008
Five years after her first Gel appearance (at the inaugural event in 2003), Marissa discusses what new experiences she has helped create - in particular, the new iGoogle service.
See also the Good Experience interview of Marissa from 2002.
- Marie Lorenz
- Sculptor, boat builder, Tide and Current Taxi
- Posted: 12/16/08 | Recorded at Gel 2007
- 1 comment
Marie runs the Tide and Current Taxi, which takes passengers on a boat (that she hand-built) on voyages on New York City's East River ... with no planned destination. Her work touches on design, art, and community, which helped make it one of the most popular presentations at Gel '07.
See also the Tide and Current Taxi website.
- Phoebe Damrosch
- Author, "Service Included"
- Posted: 12/16/08 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 2 comments
Phoebe was the first female head captain at Thomas Keller's prestigious New York restaurant Per Se. Here she describes the experience of entering the dining-and-hospitality field, then learning to deliver world-class service to some of the world's most discerning customers. Her book Service Included also describes her experience at Per Se.
- Geoffrey Canada
- President, Harlem Children's Zone
- Posted: 12/09/08 | Recorded at Gel 2006
- 2 comments
In one of the all-time most popular Gel talks, Geoffrey Canada describes how his nonprofit, the Harlem Children's Zone, works to help young people in inner-city Harlem. Canada issues a sober indictment of failing schools, then describes the solution he has created.
Canada was recently profiled in the book Whatever It Takes, on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and two years ago on 60 Minutes. If you don't know about Geoffrey Canada, you should. This video is a good place to start.
- Sam Brown
- Artist, explodingdog.com
- Posted: 12/09/08 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 1 comment
For years now, Sam has drawn cartoons at explodingdog.com based on reader-submitted captions. The simple-yet-rich feel of his art is a great fit with Gel, so Sam has drawn the Gel conference logo every year.
Sam was also one of the speakers at the very first Gel, back in 2003; here he describes what he's been up to in the five years since.
- Terry Border
- Artist, Bent Objects
- Posted: 12/03/08 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 89 comments
Everyday objects take on surprising and often hilarious roles in Terry Border's hard-to-describe project. For years now, this unassuming photographer-sculptor-bargain-bin-shopper has worked with snack foods, office supplies, toys, and other items to create evocative and bizarre scenes. Making something great out of "throwaway" objects is a recurring Gel theme, and Terry's work is a perfect match.
To really get it, just watch the presentation - one of the most entertaining Gel talks ever.
- Marc Salem
- Mentalist
- Posted: 12/02/08 | Recorded at Gel 2006
- 9 comments
Marc focuses on "how the mind creates reality and meaning," according to his site, and this presentation shows how. Chiefly by observing non-verbal communication, Marc is able to distinguish truth from falsehood in a very engaging exercise with audience members.
- Kelly Dobson
- Artist and technologist
- Posted: 11/21/08 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 5 comments
After communicating with Blendie, her custom-built voice-activated blender, Kelly starts with a great first line - "I work with machines" - and goes on to describes her unique vision for human-machine interaction. Kelly's genius is building machines to respond to natural cues, like the frazzled screams in ScreamBody (this footage is also in her Gel talk) or normal breathing, as with the empathic Omo device. User interfaces this elegant are incredibly rare; it's worth considering how these patterns - natural cues, radical empathy - could be applied to other experiences.
Kelly's website shows more of her work.
- Alex Lee
- President, Oxo International
- Posted: 11/20/08 | Recorded at Gel 2008
- 4 comments
If you spend any time in the kitchen, you're likely to use an Oxo product regularly - an apple corer, vegetable peeler, whisk, or the ever-popular salad spinner. Oxo is practically the definition of "good experience" in cooking utensils - from grips to weight distribution to the aesthetics of each device - and so president Alex Lee was a natural candidate for the Gel stage.
While Oxo typically develops its own products, here Alex talks about the rare Oxo products that have come outside inventors. (In each case, the inventors themselves sound just as interesting as the devices they create.)
- Henning Rübsam
- Choreographer, dancer, Sensedance
- Posted: 11/20/08 | Recorded at Gel 2007
Henning describes the important place that dance occupies in culture today, and shows some of the elements that go into creating a choreographed dance - both for ballet and modern dancers.
See also Henning's interview in Good Experience.
- Jim Bumgardner
- Hacker, krazydad.com
- Posted: 11/19/08 | Recorded at Gel 2007
- 1 comment
- Jim discusses screensavers, information theory, and (with crowd participation) the Whitney music box, which sets an algorithm to music. Blending visual, musical, technical, mathematical, and intentionally useless elements, Jim gives a notable Gel talk.
A few months later, Jim posted a recap of his Gel experience.
