Moved by the devastating natural disasters that have hit many parts of the world recently, we have invited Rosary Coloma for this month’s Monthly Design Review meeting, to explore the ways in which the fields of architecture and design may pro-actively be used for the greater good, in these tragic scenarios.
Rosary Coloma wears many creative and entrepreneurial hats. Rosary is currently the director of Coloma Projects – a new creative enterprise based in Sydney, Australia, that carries out “project management for The Arts and creative industries” (Rosary’s “elevator pitch” to sum up activities ranging from curating to producing and then some). She is also currently undertaking a Masters of Business Administration with a major in Arts Management. Rosary has a background in the Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Design.
Rosary’s other passion is raising awareness on social issues. She has been involved with community volunteer work, for example, participating in a service project in a developing nation (The Philippines) as a 19 year old. In 2010 she spoke about the devastating typhoons that struck the Philippines, at the “Global Pecha Kucha for Haiti” fundraising event at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. She is interested in exploring the possibilities of melding creative enterprise with social enterprise.
On April 21st at Monthly Design Review, we’ll be discussing how to “trash talk” brands into transforming their garbage into eco-products. And who better than to lead the trashy subject, than Joanna Opot, Global Vice President of Business Development, TerraCycle Inc.
After a seven-month trip around the world, Jo returned to the US in 2010 to join TerraCycle as the Global Vice President of Business Development. Named the coolest start-up by Inc. Magazine, TerraCycle is the world’s pioneer in upcycling and recycling waste. Jo oversees business development in 11 countries on 4 continents and loves spending her days “trash talking” brands into transforming their garbage into eco-products.
Jo was born in Nairobi and at fifteen she was selected to join the Kenyan national field hockey team. She got started in social change at sixteen by forging peace between teenage refugees through an after-school program she developed. Her program model was picked up by the UN and in college she worked for the UN in Russia, Kenya, and the US. Shortly after graduating from Middlebury College in 2005 she joined StartingBloc as the Director of Programs and grew in two years to become the Executive Director. In recognition of this work she was named one of the youngest members of the Social Venture Network in 2007. StartingBloc educates, empowers and connects emerging leaders and Jo’s efforts directly supported over 1100 social innovators in forty countries by linking them to the education opportunities, funding sources and networks they needed to realize their goals. Jo currently lives in Chelsea and greatly enjoys figuring out how to positively impact the world by collaborating on ventures and leveraging her network.
This month at Monthly Design Review, we’ll be picking up our conversation from last month on Facebook. This month we’ll dive deeper into how Facebook has changed the way we relate to communities. Online tools, especially Facebook has allow easier flow of information between the organizers to members, but how affective are these tools in building communities?
- RSVP on Facebook - Come and share a story, examples, and thoughts. (5 minutes or less)
- And together we will try to make sense of our collective experience.
Location / Date / Time
Thursday, February 17th 8pm.
The Salt Space
1158 Broadway 5th Floor
Entrance on W 27th St.
We are excited to have Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, at this month’s meeting. He will be speaking on how Leaders Inspire Action and discussing the importance of starting with Why.
We’re pleased to announce that Viktoria Harrison, Director of Design & Branding at charity: water, will be presenting the inspirational story of this organization. Charity: water has a brand on par with some of the greatest consumer brands in the world. Learn how the design of this impactful brand has brought clean water to over 1 million people in just a short four years.
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Viktoria Harrison
Director of Design and Branding
Vik attended the School of Visual Arts and began her career at Fad, an NYC design house. For two years she worked on ad campaigns for Honda, Coke, AmEx and many other brands. She left the for-profit world in 2007 to come on full time as charity: water brand manager and designer.
Monthly Design Review had a great meeting yesterday with several core members to talk about the direction of the Get Together. We have been meeting for 7 months in New York City, and had some amazing conversation. However much we love to talk about design, deep down we are itching to make change. We have successfully brought together some of the most talented designers and creatives in the city, but now what?
Today, we announced the theme for this month and the direction for the rest of the year – “Action speaks louder than words”
As a gathering of great minds, our goal has always been is to turn our brilliant conversations into positive action. Our goal for the rest of 2010 at Monthly Design Review is work towards an action oriented event to cap off the year.
We had a great turn out for this month’s meeting at the SALT Space in Flatiron, with over 30 people showing up, this is one of the biggest meetings we have had since we began. The wonderful thing about these meetings is the mix of causal and intimate conversations about our passions as artists, designers and creatives.
This month’s theme is re-evaluating our passions and career. Not very often we get a chance to pause, look back and reassess what we are doing and why we are doing it. This was one of those times where we remove ourselves from our work and connect with others who have similar passions at a more profound level. We did an exercise where everyone was asked to write down their passions and how they are fulfilling them. Here are some examples for the gathering.
Next month’s meeting will be on July 15, join us then.
