Creators Collide

May 22-23, 2020 | Noon-Midnight | Online

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Come join us for hours of connecting and creation through discussions, videos, music, and so much more! We are gathering people from across the world, and bringing them together for a weekend of networking and entertainment events.

ATTEND HERE!Interested in Presenting?

About Creators Collide

Creators Collide, presented by students of WWU’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program, is a TED Talk meets Virtual Festival event. This event will include a lineup of a variety of presenters in a variety of fields and interests. Some presenters will have the option to interact and/or network with viewers and some will be for viewing only. Creators Collide is also working to create the Emerging Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellowship Fund with the goal to help students in need.

Creators Collide Schedule

May 22nd & 23rd, 2020

Noon-Midnight

MAY 22nd, 2020

12:00-1:00 pm
Art Sherwood
Zoom A

Presentation – Happiness, Belonging, & Flourishing

1:00-2:00 pm
Kasey Potzler
Zoom B

Presentation – Waters for the World

2:00-3:00 pm
Sonja Ferkingstad
Zoom B

Painting & Art Studio Tour:

Sonja will be painting and showcasing her art with an art studio tour.

3:00-3:30 pm
Marie & Aaron Spienldenner
Zoom B

Dance & Music Performance:

While maintaining proper social distancing regulations Marie will be dancing to her brother Aaron’s original music.

3:00-4:00 pm
Haley Ruppel
Discord

Makeup Tutorial

4:00-4:30 pm
Andrea Farrell – ModSock
Zoom A

Presentation – Running a Business in the Face of Change

4:30-5:00 pm
Josh Kaplan
Zoom B

Presentation – THC Research at WWU

5:00-6:00 pm
Growing Resilience 
Zoom A

Discussion – Food Justice and Agriculture During COVID-19

6:00-7:00 pm
Guy Keltner interviewd by Serafima Healy 
 Zoom B

Hustling in the Music Business

7:00-7:30 pm
Aaron Spienldenner
Zoom A

Music Performance:

Aaron will be performing some of his original music.

8:00-9:00 pm
DJ Cat Passidy
Discord

Music Performance

9:00-10:00 pm
MakeShift Project
Discord

Presentation

10:00-11:00 pm
Magnolia Baseball
Discord

Music Performance

11:00 pm-12:00 am
The Inturnship
Discord

Music Performance

MAY 23rd, 2020

12:00-12:30 pm
Leo Cohen
Zoom B

Podcast

12:30-1:00 pm
Nelson Cano
Zoom B

Furniture Restoration

12:00-1:00 pm
Abhinav – Bean Voyage
Zoom A

Presentation:

Abhinav will be discussing some of his background in entrepreneurship and his non-profit named Bean Voyage.

1:00-1:30 pm
Jesse Nelson – Overflow Taps
Zoom A

Adapting During A Pandemic:

Jesse Nelson is going to be discussing how he and his team at Overflow Taps have adapted to change during COVID-19.

1:30-2:30 pm
Jenn Mason – Wink Wink Boutique
Zoom B

Workshop – Sex Toys 101

1:30-2:30 pm
Arathi Ramappa
Zoom A

Workshop – Turning Your Passion Into A Business:

This will be an interactive workshop where you will leave having an outline of how to turn your passion into a business. Come ready with a notebook so you can chart out how to get paid for your passion and talent.

2:30-3:30 pm
Come Nzibaraga
Zoom B

Story of a Refugee

2:30-3:30 pm
Christy Johnson
Zoom A

Presentation – Women In Entrepreneurship

3:30-4:00 pm
Yin-Ho Lai
Zoom A

Presentation – Clarimask

4:00-4:30 pm
Madi Meyers
Zoom B

Workshop – Resin Art

4:30-5:00 pm
Mike
Zoom A

Workshop – Vegan Cooking Class

5:00-6:00 pm
Climate Justice Panel
Zoom B

Discussion – Climate Justice Through Sustainable Business

6:00-6:30 pm
Bob Pritchett – Faithlife
Zoom A

Presentation – Innovation with Contempt

6:30-7:30 pm
Before Bed Podcast
Zoom B

Podcast

7:30-8:00 pm
Teresa Taylor
Zoom A

Presentation – Lummi Indian Business Council:

Teresa will be giving an informative talk on the types of projects she is currently working on for the Lummi Indian Business Council with a Q & A.

8:00-8:30 pm
Akrasia
Discord

Music Performance

8:30-9:00 pm
Sidechain Music Festival
Discord

Music Performance

9:00-10:00 pm
Samuel Allen
Discord

Music Performance

10:00-11:00 pm
TREY
Discord

Music Performance

Speakers

Meet Our Speakers

Guy Keltner Interviewed By Serafima Healy
Guy Keltner Interviewed By Serafima Healy

Hustling In the Music Business

Guy Keltner is an established member of the Seattle and greater West Coast music scene. A leader of the American-bred garage band, Acid Tongue, co-founder of Freakout Records, founder of Freakout Music Festival, and commercial audio and soundtrack creator. In this session, Guy will be interviewed by Serafima Healy, Local Music coordinator at KUGS 89.3, co-founder of Concerts at the Castle, and local musician. Join them to learn about changes in the music industry and what the new future of live music may look like.

DJ Cat Passidy
DJ Cat Passidy

Music Performance

The Cat’s purrpose is to reverberate kinetic energy that’ll make you dance, sweat, smile and feel the love. Weaving house, techno, disco, funk and most other things, he creates a landscape of subtly provocative funk and romantic vibrations to purge your inhibitions and help you vibe on the truth of the here and meow.

Magnolia Baseball
Magnolia Baseball

Music Performance

Magnolia Baseball is a three piece Bellingham based Rock and Roll group consisting of Nathan Roe, Johnny Rowley, and Aron Wilson. After having spent two years aimlessly making noise in various garages, the three band members started taking song writing and recording seriously in the summer of 2018. They have since self produced one EP and one full length LP featuring songs mostly about bugs, dreams, farmyard animals, and space exploration. Due to their widely varying tastes in music, the writing process is a collaborative push and pull, and the resulting songs often fall into different genres and tones. Magnolia Baseball has been playing around Bellingham for about a year now and has no plans to stop making music. The musical bond that has fused these three boys is strong and vascular, pumping their musical juices into one another and producing a mixture that is as savory as it is viscous. Check them out on Spotify!

Jesse Nelson - Overflow Taps
Jesse Nelson - Overflow Taps

Discussion - Adapting During A Pandemic

In 2014, Jesse left his IT Executive career path in pursuit of entrepreneurship. While his new web design business was moving along as expected, he didn’t feel fulfilled by it. He felt called to give but just didn’t know where to start. After long conversations with his wife, family, friends, and co-founders Adam and Josh, Overflow Taps was born.

Sonja Ferskingstad
Sonja Ferskingstad

Painting & Art Studio Tour

Sonja Ferkingstad is a designer currently based in Chicago. Recently graduating with a BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in the spring of 2020 her practice mainly consists of Interior and graphic design. Utilizing both digital and analog processes she aims to create work and spaces composed of simplified elements that are both bold and energetic. Her pieces often draw influence from her studies of 20th century design without specifically catering to one movement or decade resulting in contemporary works with a strong retro flair.

Andrea Farrell - ModSock
Andrea Farrell - ModSock

Discussion - Running a Business in the Face of Change

Hi, I’m Andrea Farrell. I am a WWU grad from Washington who works as a buyer and brand specialist for ModSock, a novelty sock company in Bellingham, Wash. I will host a discussion about the ways this 9-year-old Bellingham business has adapted and evolved in changing times, all without losing its sense of fun! We’ll talk about how the business got started, the launch of our original sock line, our evolution from just brick-and-mortar sales to the current online-only model that has arisen due to COVID-19, plus the importance of staying on top of trends and current events. For more information about ModSock, check out @ModSock on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest or visit our retail website, ModSock.com.

Jenn Mason - Wink Wink
Jenn Mason - Wink Wink

Workshop - Sex Toys 101

Jenn Mason is the owner and founder of WinkWink: an identity-inclusive, all-ages, and decidedly “not creepy” sex shop in downtown Bellingham. With Pleasure is our Revolution emblazoned across the storefront, WinkWink is unapologetically political, focusing on sexual pleasure as a social justice issue. Prior to being an “orgasm savior” (in one customer’s words), Jenn worked for a variety of nonprofits as an event planning and communications consultant. She is the former Development and Education Director for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services, where she worked with over 10,000 students, creating and delivering violence prevention workshops and trauma counseling in every public middle and high school in Whatcom County. Jenn hold a master’s degree in public administration from Seattle University and is certified as a Community Sexual Health Resource by the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health. She is also anticipating the completion her Sex Coach Certification in Summer 2020. Outside the shop, Jenn is the parent of a sweet 5-year-old with special needs and has served on the Bellingham Public Schools board of directors since 2017.

Yin-Ho Lai
Yin-Ho Lai

Small Business - Clarimask

My name is Yin, and I own several businesses in Bellingham, WA. I graduated from WWU in 2011 with a degree in accounting and also a MBA in 2012. I started my career at a public accounting firm in Redmond and earned a CPA license (which I still maintain to this day), but realized that I had to follow my dream and passion for starting my own business. I left my job and never looked back.

It all started for me when cannabis became legal in Washington State and I was lucky enough to be awarded a marijuana retail license. With this, came an opportunity to learn about commercial real estate development as we had to construct our retail campus from the ground up. After a very labor-intensive year and a half of engineering, planning, and construction, we were finally able to open the doors to Trove Cannabis and a couple years later, Trove Coffee.

In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, my team and I were presented with an opportunity to help make a positive difference. Throughout the years, I was able to develop a lot of different business relationships including one that recently converted their large manufacturing facility in China to produce disposable face masks to help combat the crisis. Over the past 2 months, my team and I have been working around the clock to build up an infrastructure where we can help solve a major supply chain problem here in the US. As of 2 weeks ago, we recently went live with our new company, Clarimask and I’m really excited to share with you today on what it took to get here, what this means for us, and where we’re hoping to go next.

MakeShift Project
MakeShift Project

Music Performance

Katie has been an active member of the Bellingham music scene since she moved here in 2011. She’s a singer-songwriter and currently fronts The Katie Gray Band. Her career in radio began in 2013 as the maintenance engineer for KUGS at WWU. After earning her BA in Music and minor in Audio Technology she went on to commercial radio at KAFE 104.1 & KGMI AM790. Katie worked with Make.Shift for 3 years to put on her miniature music festival, MiniHam, before joining the official Make.Shift family in March 2017.
Samuel Allen
Samuel Allen

Music Performance

Samuel learned guitar at the age of 8 and started writing music at 10. Since then music has been the dream, but he never expected it to be what got him through life. It’s his brain and heart coming together to tell his story, but also to help him process and speak to the struggles of himself and others. Music is a universal language, and he’s honored to be able to communicate with it. Check him out on Spotify!

Haley Ruppel
Haley Ruppel

Tutorial - Makeup Artist

Hello there! My name is Haley Ruppel and I am a 20-year-old makeup artist located in the Bellingham area. I specialize in bridal and theatrical makeup. I’ve been freelancing for three years but have been active in the beauty community for six. My artist approach for more theatrical looks derives from my favorite style; creepy with a hint of glam. Check her out on Instagram!

Aaron Spieldenner
Aaron Spieldenner

Music Performance

Aaron Spieldenner is a singer-songwriter whose musical influences include Sufjan Stevens, Wilco, Damien Jurado and Paul Simon. Raised in Seattle, Aaron tends to be particularly inspired by overcast skies, historical events and uncomfortable day-to-day interactions. Check him out on Soundcloud!

TREY
TREY

Music Performance

TREY (pronounced, “all caps trey”) is a progressive alt-pop outfit based in Bellingham, WA. Self-aware, pop-focused songwriting about relationships and insecurity lends itself to a blend of programmed electronic-driven music and dozens of tight live shows spanning the nation, bringing the band alongside equally energetic, equally-indie bands such as THE WLDLFE and Hardcastle, Vacation Manor and Jet Black Alley Cat. The band, centered on frontman Ernest (Trey) Brockman, has garnered almost 2 million streams in their first two years and released OFFDAY, their most polished collective work to date, on May 8. Check them out on Spotify!

Akrasia
Akrasia

Music Performance

Akrasia is a Bellingham based rock band. Loud. Trippy. Heavy. Emotionally charged. Come get lost in our world. Check them out on Spotify!

Mike
Mike

Vegan Cooking Class

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio; moved to Bellingham in 2005. Graduated from Alfred University a “long, long time ago” with a BFA in Studio Art. Mike has lived and worked in numerous locations throughout the US including New York, California, Idaho, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona and Montana. For about the past ten years he’s followed a plant-based diet. He currently teaches Family & Consumer Sciences at Sehome High School.

Nelson Cano
Nelson Cano

Furniture Restoration

As a child Nelson was always busy with his hands. He would spend hours building bridges and forts, creating extensive scenes for his action figures and cars. Later, that same ingenuity helped him build BMX and skateboard ramps for him and his friends. Always a lover of the arts in any form, Nelson drew and painted, created his own comic books and short stories.  In the end, the art form that he fell in love with was anything he could make with wood. While in his second year of college, studying Environmental Science and trying his hand at being a “starving artist”, he started a job with a furniture maker and restoration company. It was there that all the skills and practice throughout the years came into focus and helped him decide the career path he continues today.

Before Bed

Podcast

Before Bed embodies the late-night conversations we’ve all experienced around a camp-fire, at sleep overs, or just hanging out with friends. We two college kids seem to think we have the credibility to delve into the depths of niche topics and world events, and do so with gusto on this shenanigan-riddled podcast. Sam Riesling is a Senior at Colorado State University on an ROTC Airforce scholarship. He is majoring in Business Accounting and dabbles in Finance and Investing, and a Co-Host on the podcast. Drew Vidano is a Junior at Western Washington University, majoring in Business Marketing, and a Co-Host and Editor for the podcast.

Come Nzibaraga
Come Nzibaraga

Presentation - Story of a Refugee

When Côme Nzibaraga became a translator for the United Nations peacekeeping force in his native Burundi, he also became a target for vicious rebel groups. One night, Côme, then 20, was kidnapped, beaten, tortured and interrogated about UN operations. In his riveting talk, Côme inspires his audience to find their life purpose and express their gifts and talents, as he notes the parallels between being trapped in a refugee camp and trapped by fear that prevents us from living life to the fullest. If your audience is facing challenges such as forgiveness, discouragement, procrastination, disappointment or betrayal, this talk provides help and hope. 

Christy Johnson
Christy Johnson

Women In Entreprenurship

Christy Johnson is an entrepreneur and educator. She is currently building her fourth start-up, Artemis Connection and facilitating courses at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She also is adjunct faculty at the University of Washington where she teaches entrepreneurship. Ultimately, she believes people are an organization’s most important asset and by having a diverse workforce, organizations will have the most innovative solutions and best strategies. She has seven years of experience working in corporate strategy, including 3 ½ years at McKinsey & Co. Before this, Christy was an award-winning economics and mathematics teacher. In 2005, Junior Achievement recognized Christy as its National Teacher of the Year.

Josh Kaplan
Josh Kaplan

Discussion - THC Research at WWU

Arathi Ramappa
Arathi Ramappa

Turing Your Passion Into A Business

Arathi Ramappa is a certified executive coach, spiritual life coach, speaker, and management consultant who helps individuals thrive in life and business. Using the concepts of emotional intelligence, self-compassion, and conflict management, Arathi has helped clients reduce stress and increase productivity, execute business strategy, develop leadership skills, diminish conflict in relationships, implement positive behaviors, increase confidence, or apply spirituality to their daily life. She created the EASE Experience™ to help others Explore, Analyze, Strengthen, and Empower their thinking to identify and conquer obstacles to success and change their lives and businesses. Arathi offers one-on-one coaching to executives, c-suite, entrepreneurs, and independent professionals. She also works with organizations to help their leaders and teams enhance their emotional intelligence and become better problem-solvers in order to develop their company culture and increase collaboration, productivity, leadership skills, and learn conflict management. With twenty years of experience in technology and business management coupled with certifications in coaching and emotional intelligence, Arathi’s background as a serial entrepreneur and a veteran in the start-up space has provided her with extensive cross-functional knowledge that she can apply to any situation or client. She has managed teams globally in places such as India, Japan, China, Germany, Canada, Taiwan, Eastern Europe, as well as the U.S., and has worked with a wide range of clients from the financial, technology, healthcare, cybersecurity, and fashion industries, among others.

Art Sherwood
Art Sherwood

Presentation - Happiness, Belonging, & Flourishing

Ignite and Fuel Lifelong, Flourishing Changemakers! Art Sherwood is the David Cole Professor of Entrepreneurship chair, Director of Western Washington University’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programs and an instruction team affiliate for the Centre for Executive Education at the United Nations Established University for Peace. As a professor, he teaches and researches entrepreneurial happiness and well-being and what it takes to build grit with a special focus on flourishing practices for lifelong changemaking. He calls on the dynamic co-creation concepts and tools of strategy, design thinking, human-centered design, business and venture modeling, evidence-based entrepreneurship & innovation, liberating structures, creative problem solving, cooperation and self-leadership to facilitate and support emerging and existing changemakers, leaders, teams and organizations. He is the co-founder of multiple ventures including his current start-up, Re-Imagine by Design and an active member-owner of Columinate.coop.

Laura Plaut - Common Threads
Laura Plaut - Common Threads

Discussion - Growing Resilience; Food and Agriculture During COVID-19

Laura Plaut is the founder and director of Common Threads Farm, a seed-to-table education program in Bellingham, WA. Laura describes Common Threads as the food education program she wishes someone had offered her when she was a kid, and believes that joyfully connecting kids with healthy food is one of the easiest “upstream” interventions in our efforts to clean up our health and the health of our planet. Common Threads is a SNAP Ed provider, and gets things done largely thanks to the contributions of a team of 18 AmeriCorps service members. Laura is one of the current co-conveners of the WSDA Farm to School School Gardeners Community of Practice and has served on the Bellingham School District’s Good Food Values committee since that group’s inception in 2010.

Marie Spieldenner
Marie Spieldenner

Dance Performance

Marie began dancing at the age of seven at Allegro Performing Arts Academy in Kent, WA. Being a part of the Allegro team, throughout her ten years there, helped her accelerate into the industry early on when she was scouted by Clear Talent Group at The PULSE On Tour just shortly before being named an Elite Protege. Since then she has been working with choreographers such as Tessandra Chavez, Brian Friedman, Mia Michaels, Andrew Winghart, Cameron Lee, Jason Janas, Michelle Elkin and Ian Eastwood, performing with companies such as Young Lions, C.O.M.I.T.T. and Unity LA. During her senior year of high school, Marie was given the opportunity to play the role ‘Stephanie’ in the movie ‘HeartBeats’ choreographed by Tessandra Chavez and directed and written by Duane Adler, who is more commonly known for writing the original ‘Step Up’ movie. She has also performed with Camila Cabello on Ellen, Little Big Town at the ACMAs, as well as with Janelle Monae in the opening number for the 92nd Annual Oscars. You might have recently seen Marie performing with Tessandra Chavez’s company Unity LA on NBC’s World of Dance Season 3! Marie continues her training in Los Angeles as she pursues her professional dance career.

Bob Pritchett - Faithlife
Bob Pritchett - Faithlife

Discussion - Innovation with Contempt

Bob Pritchett co-founded Faithlife Corporation (makers of Logos Bible Software) and serves as President/CEO. Bob speaks regularly at industry conferences and to academic groups on entrepreneurship, electronic publishing and digital libraries. He is a 2005 winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, one of Glassdoor’s Highest Rated CEOs 2015, and was included in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. Bob lives with his wife Audra in Bellingham, Washington; they have two adult children. Bob’s latest book, Start Next Now: How to Get the Life You’ve Always Wanted was released in October, 2015. Fire Someone Today, And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success, was released in April, 2006, and has been translated into Russian and Korean.

Will Barror - NET Impact
Will Barror - NET Impact

Discussion - Sustainable Businesses

Will Barror (he/him/his) is a junior studying Business & Sustainability. He a founding member and the current President of Net Impact, a club that focuses on the intersection of business and sustainability. In the past, the club has discussed fast fashion and sustainable food systems. They have also brought in a number of companies to educate and recruit students. In addition to Net Impact, Will is a brother in Alpha Kappa Psi, a campus tour guide, and the Community Engagement Intern at Sustainable Connections. He plans to spend the summer as a Sustainability Intern for The Spaceship Company based out of Mojave, California. In his free time, Will enjoys backpacking, cooking, and Star Wars movie nights with his roommates.

Kasey Potzler
Kasey Potzler

Presentation/Q&A - Waters for the World

Kasey Potzler is the Honduras Network Moderator for Living Waters for the World, a non-profit organization which trains volunteers to partner with local communities in 25 countries around the world. The world water crisis may seem insurmountable—663 million people in the world do not have clean water.Living Waters for the World and our partners are working to change that, one community at a time. LWW takes teams of volunteers, regular folks like you and me, and trains them to become partners with a community that has available water, but it’s contaminated. Working together, a local water committee is formed to oversee the partnership. The partners work together to install a simple water filtration system that can serve a small village of people. The community owns it, operates it, and maintains it. Local health educators are trained to teach everyone the importance of hand washing and how to prioritize the use of the clean water. This isn’t a mission project we do for the community. We are partners. Relationship building is important! We work together with them, walking right alongside each other over a number of years with the goal of providing pure water to improve health.

The Inturnship
The Inturnship

Music Performance

The Inturn facilitates the Funk… and occasionally a photo-copy. Upper management accidently left the mailroom unlocked, so anticipate a sharp decline in employee productivity. Those office chairs are going to be empty. His combination of bouncy underground beats, throw-back vocals and futuristic synths will leave you thirsting for more; expect long lines at the water cooler. Since being hired to the Inturnship he has been putting in those overtime hours, which is evident by the diversity he consistently brings to his sets. Maybe he should of spent more time on those annual reports. Even though he is fresh to the Bellingham scene, he is slowly building traction in the breakroom. We advise not to take a sick day on the 22nd because everyone is getting a raise. Please let the Inturn know how you take your coffee.

Abhinav Khanal
Abhinav Khanal

Presentation - Non-Profit Bean Voyage

Abhinav is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of Bean Voyage, a non-profit social enterprise that provides training and market access to smallholder women coffee producers in Costa Rica. He is also the Co-Founder & Chief Thought Officer of Little Big Fund, which provides knowledge, networks, and micro-grants to early-stage non-profit leaders around the world. He is a Re;co Fellow ’20, Cordes Fellow ’18, Trust Scholar ’18, Watson Scholar ’17, One Young World Ambassador ’16, Resolution Fellow ’14, and Davis Scholar ’12. Abhinav has a B.A in Political Science from Earlham College.

Leo Cohen
Leo Cohen

Podcast

Teresa Taylor
Teresa Taylor

Lummi Indian Business Council

Madi Meyers

Resin Art

Sidechain Music and Arts Collective

Music Performance

Interested In Speaking?

Creators

Meet Our Team

Amelia Green
Amelia Green

Marketing and Design

Zosia Sherwood
Zosia Sherwood

Outreach

Alysa Gallant
Alysa Gallant

Lead, Outreach

Saul Morales
Saul Morales

Financials

Schantell Hummel
Schantell Hummel

Outreach

Sarah Seeberger
Sarah Seeberger

Lead, Marketing and Design

Evarosa Perry
Evarosa Perry

Outreach

Megan Shomaker
Megan Shomaker

Marketing and Design

Victoria Corkum
Victoria Corkum

Outreach

Drew Vidano
Drew Vidano

Financials

Healani Nendel
Healani Nendel

Lead, Financials

Platform Links

 

This Event is Free, But We Welcome All Donations!

Please help us with our Emerging Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellowship Fund to give to the students in need of support in our community.

Get in Touch

Leave your questions and comments here. We’d love to hear from you!