Life
is Beautiful Festival announces its 2014 learning programming for the culture
fest’s sophomore year taking place Friday, October 24 – Sunday, October 26 from
2pm – 7pm each day. This year, the Learning Program will be expanded to feature
dozens of influential visionaries from a variety of different fields. Held
inside the space of the former Western Hotel, which will be transformed into an
interactive festival experience, a series of 90-minute sessions with an
unorthodox combination of speakers will address a multitude of topics ranging
from anti-bullying to tech industry disruption and finding your life’s purpose.
“One
of the cornerstones of Life is Beautiful is to give festival goers an
opportunity to be inspired,” said Rehan Choudhry, Life is Beautiful founder.
“Our speaker series is built on that same concept and by bringing together so
many noteworthy speakers, we hope to give people the chance to be moved and
challenged into thinking about the world in a different way.”
As a
new addition to this year’s program, talks will be grouped into themed
sessions. Examples include:
THE
FUTURE: How tech is changing our food, our stores, our music and even the
weather.
POWER:
What happens when we give power and choice directly to those who need it?
LEADERSHIP:
New leadership models that are transforming the workplace.
THE
WORLD: Rethinking the developing world through socially conscious economic
models.
PURPOSE:
Finding it, losing it, and everything in between.
TRUTH:
It’s harder and harder to tell the difference between what’s right and what’s
wrong.
YOU
ARE BEAUTIFUL: Anti-bullying and finding your inner superhero.
IMAGINE
THIS: When technology eliminates the gap
between what you can imagine and what you can do.
Speakers
will present their talks individually but on-topic within their 90-minute
moderated, themed sessions. Current speakers and their themes (subject to
change) include:
THE
FUTURE:
Dr.
Gabor Forgacs is a theoretical physicist- turned-bioengineer who founded
Organovo, Inc. and Modern Meadow, Inc. Both companies use advanced 3-D printing
technologies to engineer organs, leather, and meat in an
environmentally-friendly and ethically-conscious manner. Modern Meadow was
among the first investments of the Thiel Foundation, and has been featured on
TED, TEDMED, and TEDGlobal.
Andrew
Hessel is a microbiologist and cancer researcher at AutoDesk Research, and the
Co-Chair of Bioinformatics and Biotechnolgy of Singularity University. Hessel
is a pioneer in the field of synthetic biology, a form of genetic engineering
done with digital tools. His research at Autodesk, the $11.4 billion software
company best known for AutoCAD (which engineers use to design everything from
sunglasses to skyscrapers) will enable him and Autodesk to potentially expand
into the fields of energy production and water purification. He is also the
co-founder of the Pink Army Cooperative, the world’s first cooperative
biotechnology company, which is aiming to make open source viral therapies for
cancer.
John
Rennie is the co-creator and host of Hacking The Planet, an original series for
The Weather Channel. Each episode looks at whether current or future technology
might allow us to better control, predict, or protect ourselves against some dangerous
force of nature. For 15 years, Rennie served as editor-in-chief of Scientific
American, during which time the magazine was honored with two National Magazine
Awards. Rennie’s numerous television and radio appearances include PBS’s
Newshour, ABC World News, The CBS Early Show, the History Channel special Clash
of the Cavemen, Discovery’s Apocalypse How, NPR’s Science Friday. In 2000
Rennie was the recipient of the Sagan Award for Public Understanding of
Science, bestowed by the Council of Scientific Society Presidents.
POWER:
Ricki
Lake is an actress, TV host, and Emmy award winning producer, whose legacy is
her role as an independent filmmaker. She has won awards for her documentaries
including "The Business of Being Born," "Sweetening the
Pill" and "Weed the People."
Zubin
Damania (a.k.a. ZDoggMD) received the Russell Lee Award for Clinical Teaching
while simultaneously maintaining a shadow career performing stand-up comedy for
medical audiences worldwide. In 2013 he founded Turntable Health in Las Vegas,
on a mission to “fix healthcare” in the U.S.
His novel primary care membership model has attracted national
attention, and has been featured on MSNBC and in Time Magazine, U.S. News and
World Report, the Atlantic, and TEDMED
LEADERSHIP:
Tony
Hsieh joined Zappos as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO. In
2012, Tony moved Zappos headquarters to the old City Hall of Downtown Las
Vegas, and began his privately funded urban revitalization effort, the Downtown
Project.
Fred
Mossler founded the Merchandising Team at Zappos.com. Beyond Zappos, Fred is
also focused on the revitalization efforts of downtown Las Vegas.
Marie
Forleo is an award winning life coach, best-selling author, and CEO of
"The B-School," a virtual, women-owned and run, socially-conscious
company that focuses on small business and personal development training for
female entrepreneurs. She’s been featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, and has
developed programs with and for motivational guru Tony Robbins and Virgin mogul
Richard Branson.
Mel
and Patricia Ziegler are both former
journalists in San Francisco who, with $1,500 and without any business
experience, turned a wild idea into a company that would become the
international retail colossus, Banana Republic. They also co-founded The
Republic of Tea, and are the co-authors of the 2012 book Wild Company.
THE
WORLD:
José
Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator, passionate advocate
for food and hunger issues, author, educator, television personality, chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup, and founder of
the World Central Kitchen.
Kavita
Shukla is the inventor and Founder/CEO of Fenugreen, a pioneer in the movement
towards sustainable, active, natural food packaging. According to a study
conducted by the Swedish Institute for food and biotechnology (upon request
from the food and agriculture organization of the united nations), roughly
one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally,
amounting to a staggering 1.3 billion tons (and $450 billion in losses)
annually. The paper Kavita developed was a awarded her second U.S. Patent in
2002, when she was 17. Her first patent came at age 13. Forbes Magazine named
her one of its “30 under 30 Social Entrepreneurs” in 2014.
Adam
Braun, Founder of Pencils of Promise , an award-winning "for-purpose"
organization that has built more than 150 schools across Africa, Asia, and
Latin America since 2008. His experiences have intriguing "reverse
innovation" implications for the U.S. education system. Braun left a lucrative
career on Wall Street to pursue founding Pencils of Promise, a prototype
organization that makes money while solving difficult social problems. He
believes that the Wall Street profit making engines are "dinosaurs"
of the past and that the future of the global economy is all about purpose
driven organizations with heart -- and a robust social media engine. In 2012,
he was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30 List.”
PURPOSE:
Isaiah
Austin is an American basketball player who was considered a first-round
prospect in the 2014 NBA draft until he was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome. He
has since partnered with the Marfan Foundation, launching a #DreamAgain
campaign to raise funds and awareness.
Amelia
Rose Earhart is a young pilot who just
completed her namesake's flight around the world in a single-engine airplane,
making her the youngest female to ever to circumnavigate the globe in this type
of plane.
Giles
Duley spent 10 years as an editorial photographer in the fashion and music
industries in both the US and Europe. In 2011, whilst on patrol with the United
States Army in Afghanistan, Duley stepped on an improvised explosive device
(IED). He was severely injured, losing both legs and an arm. He is still
working and now focuses his work on humanitarian projects.
THE
TRUTH:
Oscar
Goodman is the former mayor of Las Vegas and defense attorney who spent more
than 35 years representing some of the most notorious alleged mob figures, as
recounted in his book, Being Oscar. More recently he has been heralded as a
champion of downtown revitalization.
Ed
Gavagan, is a sculptor, architect, storyteller and designer who has built
furniture on four continents. Once the victim of random gang violence and left
for dead, his stories have been featured on TED.com and NPR’s The Moth. Earlier
this year, his first short story “Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me,” was published in
The Moth and climbed to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. Ed
currently lives in NYC and is the owner of Praxis, NYC.
Sekeena
Gavagan is the wife of Ed Gavagan, and also a speaker. After the attack on her
husband she became a public defender, currently practicing law at the Legal Aid
Society in one of the busiest and most challenging jurisdictions in the
country: New York County.
YOU
ARE BEAUTIFUL:
Sue
Bryce is an award-winning Australian portrait photographer. She aims to help
women find their inner confidence through the power of photography. In 2014,
she teamed up with Oil of Olay to create their "Best Beautiful"
campaign.
Rehan
Choudhry is the Founder of Life is Beautiful and a highly sought-after
inspirational speaker. He began his career as a programmer in Homeland
Security, and after suffering a heart attack at age 23 rethought his career.
Formerly the Director of Entertainment & Special Events for the
Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, he founded Life is Beautiful in 2013 as a social
platform dedicated to helping people conquer their fears and chase their
dreams.
Lizzie
Velasquez has a medical condition that
is so rare that there are only two other known cases of it in the world. She
became a motivational speaker, and developed a passion for redefining beauty
after she discovered at 16 years old a video of herself labeled "World's
Ugliest Woman." She is the author of three books, Lizzie Beautiful, Be
Beautiful, Be You and Choosing Happiness as well creator of her upcoming
documentary, The Lizzie Project.
Jill
Vialet is the CEO and founder of Playworks. Playworks creates safe, inclusive
school environments that allow kids to thrive and discover their own
superpowers. They currently serve more than 380 schools in 23 cities, reaching
nearly 425,000 students annually. For
the results she achieved for improving scholastic performance and reducing
bullying incidents through play, Jill was named to the Forbes “Impact 30” as
one of the 30 leading social entrepreneurs worldwide. She was also honored with
a 2013 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for her contributions to
advancing proven, innovative solutions to some of California’s most difficult
problems
IMAGINE
THIS:
Dave
Audé is a Grammy-nominated producer, house DJ, and remixer with 97 #1 hits on
the Billboard charts. He has produced for artists including U2, KoЯn, Coldplay,
will.i.am, One Direction, t.A.T.u., Katy Perry, Barenaked Ladies, Faith No
More, Sting, Juanes, Rihanna, Yoko Ono, Amy Grant, The Pussycat Dolls, Lady
Gaga, Lunascape, Madonna, Wanessa, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion
and Beyoncé, to name a few.
Adam
Pesapane (a.k.a. PES) is an award-winning director and stop-motion animator of
numerous short films and commercials. His film Fresh Guacamole is the shortest
film ever nominated for an Academy Award.
David
J. Peterson is a writer and language creator who created the Dothraki and
Valyrian languages for HBO's Game of Thrones, and helped to found the Language
Creation Society. He has also been the alien language consultant for the Syfy
since 2011. Living Language Dothraki, the first compendium and language
instruction course, will be released in October this year, and he is working on
his second book, The Art of Language Invention, to be published in 2015.
Louie
Schwarzberg has long been considered the world’s foremost time-lapse
cinematographer. His documentary work has been featured on Oprah, TED, and has
even inspired military engineering designs. Schwartzberg has earned a myriad of
awards and honors including two Clio Awards for Best Environmental PSAs and an
Emmy nomination for Best Cinematography ( for “Oceans of Air” on the Discovery
Channel). He has also been recognized as one of the “Top 70 Cinematographers”
for the On Film Kodak Salute Series.
*Additional
speakers may be announced at a later date.
Life
is Beautiful’s Learning Program and Speaker Series is included in the price of
the festival ticket, and complements the already impressive music and culinary
offerings. Previously announced musical acts include Kanye West, Foo Fighters,
OutKast, Arctic Monkeys, Skrillex, Lionel Richie, The Flaming Lips, The Weeknd,
Girl Talk, Alt-J, The Roots, Kacey Musgraves, Fitz & The Tantrums and many
more, plus a special performance from The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil with
members of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Back for another year of culinary
copiousness are chefs Bruce Bromberg and Eric Bromberg (Blue Ribbon, Brooklyn
Bowl - Board Co-chairs), Scott Conant (Scarpetta - Board Member), Hubert Keller
(Fleur by Hubert Keller - Board Member), José Andrés (minibar by José Andrés),
Cat Cora (Co-Founder of Chefs for Humanity - Board Member), Nancy Silverton
(Mozza Restaurant Group), and dozens more.
“Life
is Beautiful delivers a completely unique experience that isn’t offered
elsewhere,” said Lisa Shufro, Speaker Series Curator for Life is Beautiful.
“There isn’t another single event where people can see the biggest names in the
music world, savor dishes created by highly-acclaimed chefs, take in a
sprawling art program and – now with the expanded learning program—also get to
attend talks with world-class technologists, creatives, social entrepreneurs
and business leaders.”
Tickets
for the 2014 Life is Beautiful Festival are on sale now atwww.lifeisbeautiful.com.
About
Life is Beautiful
Life
is Beautiful is an inspirational company dedicated to helping people conquer
their fears and chase their dreams. Its signature project, the Life is
Beautiful Festival was founded in 2013 and launched in October of that same
year as a highly successful lifestyle event featuring marquee musicians, chefs,
artists and speakers. Held in the heart of Downtown Las Vegas, Life is
Beautiful Festival attracted more than 60,000 patrons in its first year, and is
now branching out to an international online forum for social change. For more
information on the company’s projects and the latest festival news, visit
www.lifeisbeautiful.com, or connect with Life is Beautiful socially atFacebook.com/LIBFestival, Twitter.com/lifeisbeautiful,
Instagram.com/lifeisbeautiful and YouTube.com/user/LifeIsBeauitful.
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