Creativity, Intent, and the Future of AI // A TEDxSeattle Salon at Seattle Tech Week
When machines can generate art, text, and music in seconds, what does it truly mean to be a creator?
Join us for a brilliant, multi-disciplinary panel discussion that moves past the usual AI hype to explore the deeper intersection of human intention and artificial intelligence. We are bringing together leading minds across music, contemporary art, neuroscience, digital authenticity, and ideas-led curation to unpack how we preserve our creative voices in a rapidly shifting landscape.
We’ll dive deep into the questions that matter most to the future of culture and innovation:
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The Definition of Creation: How do we define creativity when machines can "create"?
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The Root of Originality: In a world of infinite synthesis, what actually makes an idea original?
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Guarding the Voice: How do creators leverage AI as a tool without losing their unique perspective?
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Amplication vs. Intention: How can AI help ideas travel further while humans remain the core source of truth and intent?
Whether you are an artist, a builder, a researcher, or simply curious about the future of human ingenuity, this conversation will change how you view the tools of tomorrow.
The Panelists
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Medearis Dixon – Grammy-Award Winning Musician
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Barry Johnson – Renowned Contemporary Artist
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Eric Scouten – Principal Scientist & Identity Architect, Adobe Content Authenticity Initiative
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Dr. Chantel Prat – UW Neuroscientist & Author
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huggingface & more (To be announced!)
Run of Show
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6:00 PM – 6:15 PM: Doors Open & Welcome
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6:15 PM – 6:35 PM: Panel Introductions & Creative Intersections
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6:35 PM – 7:15 PM: Moderated Panel Discussion
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7:15 PM – 7:35 PM: Audience Q&A (Submit your burning questions live during the chat!)
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7:35 PM – 8:00 PM: Mix & Mingle
TEDxSeattle Salon: Trust in Action: Influence, Persuasion, and Wicked Problems
Overview
A TEDxSeattle Salon about Social Marketing and Shaping Behavior for the Common Good
Trust in Action: Social Marketing and Shaping Behavior for the Common Good
Join TEDxSeattle and the Northwest Social Marketing Association for an interactive TEDxSeattle event exploring how trust, information, and community shape behavior for social good—and what “influence done right” looks like in practice.
This TEDxSeattle event is intentionally designed to shorten the distance between you and our expert speakers. Three idea-driven talks are paired with facilitated small-group conversation and audience-generated questions, creating space not just to listen, but to actively engage with the ideas, the speakers, and one another..
Here's how it works: 20/20/20 - Present/Process/Power
Each speaker shares a different aspect of social marketing (about 20 minutes). Then you’ll have time at your table (about 20 minutes) to process what you heard and shape questions together. Finally, your questions power a live Q&A (about 20 minutes) with the speaker you just heard—so the conversation reflects what the room is genuinely curious about.
After the three speaker segments and lunch, the speakers and a guest facilitator will take your questions even further in a lively panel discussion about what’s next for social marketing.
Your Curious Mind
This event is for people like you: curious, impact-minded, and not afraid of complex problems—community members, nonprofit and public-sector professionals, and students. You’ll leave ready to influence responsibly and think critically in a world shaped by persuasion, power, and complex systems.
What You’ll Learn
By joining us, you can expect:
- Wicked problems, clarified — why complex challenges resist simple fixes.
- Trust, decoded — how trust shapes behavior across communities and systems.
- Everyday persuasion awareness — how campaigns, media, tech, and policy affect choices (and how to think about it).
- A set of guiding ideas — practical lenses from social marketing, systems thinking, and behavioral science—designed to deepen understanding and point toward further learning or use in your context.
- That TEDx Spark — new insights sparked through guided reflection and conversation with a community of curious TEDxSeattle attendees.
The Ideas behind the Event
Wicked Problems and the Limits of Easy Answers
Many of our current social challenges—public health, our changing climate, safety, misinformation, and community trust—are what social change practitioners you'll hear from call “wicked problems.” These are complex, deeply interconnected issues with no single cause, no clear endpoint, and no one-size-fits-all solution. They are shaped by human behavior, social norms, power dynamics, lived experience, and systems that adapt as we attempt to change them.
These Wicked Problems are especially difficult because shifting population-level behaviors isn’t simply a matter of better information or stronger messaging. Interventions can have unintended consequences, progress is often nonlinear, and strategies that work in one context may fail in another.
Influence, Ethics, and the “Wicked” Dilemma
In this context, influence becomes especially fraught. The tools used by social marketers, policymakers, technologists, and institutions to shape behavior can support the common good—or cross into manipulation when they bypass ethical norms, exploit fear, or obscure tradeoffs in the name of efficiency or control.
Practicing Ethical Influence in Complex Systems
In this event you'll hear what it really takes to move the needle on wicked problems without sacrificing trust. Drawing on real-world examples from public health, traffic and pedestrian safety, and other topics, our speakers examine how social marketing processes, analysis, and various techniques build trust, align incentives, reshape environments, and support sustainable positive change.
What Is a TEDxSeattle Salon?
A TEDxSeattle Salon is a highly interactive TEDx experience designed for active attendee exploration.Each Salon explores a focused theme through short talks and audience discussion.
Unlike a traditional “one-way” conference or panel—where information is delivered to you—a TEDxSeattle Salon is intentionally “two-way.” You’ll hear from speakers then pause and process what you just heard, discuss it with the people around you, and deliver your questions and reactions back to the speakers. The result is deeper connection to the ideas—and to what they mean for our communities and our future.
TEDxSeattle Salon: Practice Letting Joy in while Coping with Loss
As our community emerges from the grief of the pandemic, we confront new and familiar challenges. We invite you to take inspiration from Caroline Catlin’s talk - Why I Photograph the Quiet Moments of Grief. Learn how her own experience with illness inspired her to connect to others facing similar challenges. After a diagnosis of a rare form of brain cancer, Caroline Catlin was forced to confront her own mortality and come face to face with the complex emotions surrounding death and dying. Through photography and writing, she has learned to see the beauty in the end of life and reframed her perspective on her own cancer in the process.
Together, we’ll enjoy a glass of fine wine, watch Caroline’s talk (which has 1M+ views to date) and then engage in dialogue with Caroline and invited guests who will share their wisdom on the tough but universal experience of grief.
A limited number of in-person seats are available here for $10. Wine and food will be available before and after the panel. Audience members will be asked to wear masks during the panel.
Or you can reserve your free virtual spot instead!
A special thanks to Elsom Cellars for partnering to make this Salon possible.
Caroline Catlin
Caroline Catlin is a writer, photographer, and nap enthusiast. She exudes such a positive, bubbly personality that her desire to dive into intense and difficult topics may come as a surprise to some—but for Catlin, joy and loss feel deeply intertwined.
In January 2019, Catlin found out she had brain cancer. A long-time advocate for mental health, Catlin suddenly found herself dealing with trauma and devastating illness first hand. With the help of her “sunshine tornado” partner, she made it through multiple rounds of radiation and chemo that were followed by coffeehouse jaunts with her dog and close friends in tow. The road was long, but she made a point to, “practice letting joy in.” Through it all, Catlin found the strength to process her own journey through trauma and to look with an inquisitive and sensitive eye at how other people function through life’s most difficult moments.
This work has taken Catlin and her camera to the bedside of those breathing their last breath and into the lives of individuals dealing with intense grief and loss. Catlin’s research and work in behavioral health and developmental trauma have inspired her to reform the way health, illness, and disability are portrayed in the media. Through her lens we can discover the art within caregiving and therapy.
Lynette Huffman Johnson
Founder Lynette Huffman Johnson began photographing families and children in 1984, shortly after the birth of her first daughter, but in 1996 her sister-in-law asked her to take a different kind of picture: a picture of her niece, Lainie, who was stillborn. Another close friend’s baby had died over two decades prior, and it was the memory of these two children, Lainie and Janus, that inspired Lynette to form Soulumination.
Since its inception as a 501(c)(3) non-profit public organization in 2005, Soulumination has grown to over 60 professional photographers who volunteer their time and talents, and over 120 community volunteers who lovingly help us serve these families.
Caroline Wright
Caroline Wright is a cook, author, and terminal brain cancer patient. After her diagnosis, she focused her career on her two sons and the connection that comes from telling her story. She’s written four cookbooks and four children’s books. Caroline lives in Seattle, Washington with her family. www.carolinewrightbooks.com
Colleen Robertson (Moderator)
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Colleen has been directly involved with grief work for nearly a decade through her board service with the Safe Crossings Foundation. Indirectly, Colleen has been involved with Safe Crossings Foundation and grief work since she was a little girl. Colleen's mother, Teresa Bigelow, co-founded Safe Crossings as a direct result of the death of Colleen's father when she was seven years old. Having experienced such intense loss at such a young age (and witnessing her two younger brothers and her mother experience their own grief), Colleen will be forever dedicated to the cause of helping kids and families grieve. As an Executive Board member and past President of the Board, Colleen has supported the creation of an annual conference for grief-related service providers and has helped expand the types and number of programs Safe Crossings Foundation funds by instituting an annual granting fund.
Colleen is the digital marketing director with local start-up, HeadLight and has previously worked for Expedia and Slalom. Additionally, she has freelanced as a marketing consultant for many Seattle-based SMBs and nonprofits. She started her career in direct service with nonprofits, first with YouthBuild via Americorps and later by launching and running the GED program for YouthCare's Orion Center.
Colleen is mother to a 1.5 year old human, as well as a middle-aged dog, and an elderly cat. She lives with her son/dog/cat and husband, Benjamin, in beautiful West Seattle.
SCHEDULE
4:30 Doors open for guests at Elsom Cellars
5:15 Virtual doors open for guests on live stream
5:30 Salon begins
6:30 Salon ends; wine and food available
7:00 Last call
TEDxSeattle Salon: Moving Race Conversations Forward
Join us on March 23, 2021, for our next empowering and thought-provoking virtual event!
In her 2020 TEDxSeattle talk, Dr. Caprice Hollins explained why we often fail to have productive conversations about race, race relations, and racism in this country. Her talk shed light on why People of Color and white people take different approaches to these conversations and what white people can do to move race conversations forward.
In the spirit of transforming ideas into action, we invite you to continue the discussion as we revisit Dr. Hollin’s empowering TEDxSeattle talk, What White People Can Do To Move The Race Conversation Forward, followed by a moderated panel with Dr. Hollins and featured guests.
Dr. Caprice Hollins:
With over twenty years of experience leading and facilitating conversations on race, Dr. Caprice Hollins’ success stems from one distinct attribute—the ability to embrace her own imperfections.
Dr. Hollins stresses how she has learned to step back and reassess the “why” behind her work. She feels a clear calling, “I have the opportunity to change how this country has always treated those on the margins. I am an instrument for change.”
Her work ranges from providing culturally relevant professional development to assisting organizations in improving cross-cultural relationships while working with diverse populations.
In an effort to effectively engage all cultures, Dr. Hollins co-founded Cultures Connecting, LLC, an organization providing culturally relevant professional development workshops, keynotes, leadership coaching, and consulting services. Prior to this, she opened and served as the first Director of Equity, Race & Learning Support for Seattle Public Schools, as well as co-authored Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Strategies for Facilitating Conversations on Race.
Dr. Estell Williams:
Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and an Acute Care Surgeon at the University of Washington. She is the Executive Director of Doctor For A Day, an outreach program that introduces under-resourced students to health careers. She also serves on the Washington State Medical Association Foundation Board, working to advance efforts around healthcare equity. Dr. Williams is passionate about healthcare disparities, healthcare workforce diversity, and health justice—and in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd, she organized a march of 10,000 healthcare workers from across Washington state to declare racism a public health emergency.
Jila Javdani:
Not only is Jila Javdani a strong female leader in the local business world, but she's also an architect of workplace change. Currently, Javdani is a general manager with Slalom, a Seattle-based consulting firm, where she's been instrumental in creating a positive and welcoming workplace for all. She's passionate about delivering meaningful outcomes for clients and helping team members achieve their full potential. Javdani founded the Slalom Women's Leadership Network and was on the founding committee of Slalom’s inclusion and diversity initiative. She believes that diversity, equity, and inclusion are crucial to growing people, transforming organizations, and achieving results.
Cami Blumenthal:
Cami Blumenthal works with organizational leaders to foster diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace cultures where employees can grow and thrive. She's known for delivering a competitive edge and increased value for organizations. As an HR leader at Blue Origin, she drives talent strategies that help advance company cultures and people-first objectives, as well as organizational and leadership goals. In her hometown, Blumenthal started Equity & Inclusion Community Group, a grassroots organization with a mission to bring impactful change by addressing local inequities. She is a board member of Roots Ethiopia, a local NGO that improves education and enables women in rural Ethiopia, and also serves on the 100 Women Who Care Committee supporting local non-profits. Blumenthal is unapologetically anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-exploitive. Her passion for meaningful and sustained social justice cuts across all aspects of her life.
Michaela Ayers (Host):
Michaela Ayers is the Founder and Principal of Nourish, a social impact organization that advances anti-racism within companies and communities. Drawing from human-centered design, action learning, and anti-racism principles, Nourish uproots the deep-seated biases and racist behaviors that block belonging. By leveraging the power of curiosity and vulnerability, Michaela is constantly exploring creative ways of thinking, speaking, and listening in order to advance the collective conversation about systemic racism.
Thank you to our event partner, WSECU!
TEDxSeattleSalon: Becoming Thought Leaders
TEDxSeattle speakers who have brought innovation to the fields of business and medicine, through non-standard approaches, will share how they did it during this mid-week evening discussion.
Maura O'Neill, the former Chief of Innovation for the U.S. Agency for International Development (a role she developed in the Obama https://tedxseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/IMG_0549-e1527542780886-1.jpgistration) is a serial entrepreneur, instructor, and researcher on the topic of "narrow-mindedness" and its effect on science, medicine, business, and government. She was also a featured speaker at TEDxRainier in 2015. That presentation is linked, below.
Mónica Guzmán is a journalist reinventing media as a way for Seattleites to better connect. She is also the co-founder and director of The Evergrey, a new community media newsletter and platform that helps us, "Live like you live here." Prior to The Evergrey, Mónica was a columnist at the Seattle Times, GeekWire, The Daily Beast the the Columbia Journalism Review.
Mavis Tsai is a UW research scientist and clinical psychologist, and the founder of a new movement to increase deep social connections. This movement is spreading through cities on a global scale, led by facilitators whom she trains on learnings based on her research. Her work creates more accessible ways to provide meaningful connections at an affordable scale for all people, worldwide. For a sneak peek, you can also check out her previous talk at TEDxEverett.
When you purchase a ticket, you can expect an interesting and interactive discussion of thought leadership and innovation.
