Speaker Series 2024
Foster new relationships and find new perspectives
Join us for our second annual Speaker Series! This community experience invites you to step into curiosity, shift your thinking, and discover new perspectives through a series of three dynamic sessions. Each session, we’ll be joined by three different speakers representing a wide range of backgrounds and lived experiences. In this series, we will explore the topics of trust, time, and space, each through a specific lens designed to challenge and grow our thinking.
All sessions are from 4:30 - 6:30 PM at the Iterative Space in North Denver. We’ll provide light food, as well alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages for you to enjoy as we engage in conversation together.
Thursday, May 16
Transforming Trust:
A New Vision for Relationships
Thursday, June 20
Clockwork Rebellion:
Designing a Personal Time Philosophy
Thursday, July 18
The Architecture of Ideals:
Creating Space that Speaks
About Our Speaker Series
What makes our Speaker Series truly unique is not only the breadth, depth, and diversity of our featured speakers, but also the way in which we engage in these conversations together as a community. This isn’t a rigid panel or a structured sit-and-get. This is an interactive experience that integrates our speakers directly into conversation with the community.
Our intention is for these sessions to be inherently reciprocal by nature; you are encouraged to actively engage directly with the speakers, and one another, throughout each session. Your voice, your perspectives, and your experiences are crucial to fruitful and transformative conversations!
Our invitation is to arrive curious to learn something new and receptive to a shift in your thinking.
Our hope is that by holding space for challenging and spirited conversations, we will be empowered to learn from different perspectives and leave with new perspectives of our own.
Thursday, May 16 | 4:30 - 6:30 PM
Transforming Trust: A New Vision for Relationships
“Trust is gained in teaspoons and lost in buckets.” - Peter Hancock
The first session of our Speaker Series is an invitation to inquisitively explore our idea of trust. Our featured quote from Peter Hancock provides a worldview that sparked us to wonder: what if we flipped this worldview upside down? How would society look, and feel, different if trust was gained in buckets and lost in teaspoons? What’s holding us back from transforming our relationships with trust?
We’ll be joined by the three incredible speakers below for this engaging community conversation. Don't miss it!
Miguel Gonzalez
Human. Thinker. Trier.
Executive Director, Embark Education
Sarah Steiner
Dreamer. Schemer. A Pretty Good Egg.
Founder, The Denver Tool Library
Armando Somoza
Father. Innovator. Riff-Raff.
Co-founder & Coach, Alma Mia
Miguel is a lifelong educator born and raised in Colorado who has taught and led school communities in Colorado and internationally. Miguel has a passion for uncovering impactful learning experiences that have helped guide his educational path as an adult learner and educator. Along his educational journey, Miguel has found comfort at the intersection of community, relationships, context, and believing in the power of adolescents.
Sarah founded the Denver Tool Library in 2015, and has been Tom Sawyer-ing cool people into helping her with it ever since. She also enjoys lol-ing with friends, wandering around in nature, and sleep.
Armando is a four-time founder, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit executive, ICF-certified healing-centered executive coach, artist, and MBA in Design Strategy graduate. His experience in design strategy, business development, responsive pedagogy, and innovation has fueled his 20+ year career of building, launching, and scaling products, programs, and initiatives inside of organizations, as well as business ventures that express his vision for impact in the world.
Thursday, June 20 | 4:30 - 6:30 PM
Clockwork Rebellion: Designing a Personal Time Philosophy
“The more we synchronize ourselves with the time in clocks, the more we fall out of sync with our own bodies and the world around us.” - Joe Zadeh
The second session of our Speaker Series invites us to courageously rethink our orientation with time. Together, we’ll examine different elements of time - how we measure it, relate to it, understand it, and even how we stress over it - to unearth a new perspective.
Join us, and our three dynamic speakers, as we explore what is possible if we change our relationship with and our understanding of time. It won’t be the same without you!
Speaker line-up TBA. Join our mailing list to stay informed!
Thursday, July 18 | 4:30 - 6:30 PM
The Architecture of Ideals: Creating Space that Speaks
"Space, like a canvas, reflects our deepest values; it can confine or expand, stifle or inspire. When we envision space as a dynamic partner in experience, we unlock its potential to enrich, engage, and elevate the human spirit in ways that transcend the boundaries of walls and extend into the realm of possibility."
The third and final session of our 2024 Speaker Series invites us to take inventory on our relationship with space. We’ll explore how space can be used as a reflection of our values, and how we can creatively harness space to enrich an experience.
Together with our three insightful speakers, we will discover how space can be utilized in more expansive ways than we might think. Join us!