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
Nancy Lee
President, Social Marketing Services, Inc. | Strategic Advisor, C+C | Affiliate Instructor, University of Washington
(in conversation with Karyn Bronson)
Nancy Lee is president of Social Marketing Services, Inc., a strategic advisor at C+C, and an Affiliate Instructor at the University of Washington. Over the past 30 years, she has consulted on more than 100 social marketing campaigns, delivered over 50 trainings, and co-authored 17 books on social marketing—13 with Philip Kotler. Her work spans public health, safety, and environmental initiatives with agencies including the CDC, EPA, Washington State Department of Health, and the City of Seattle.
Julie Colehour
Owner, C+C | Founding Board Member, Northwest Social Marketing Association
Julie Colehour is an owner of C+C, a 120-person social marketing firm dedicated to creating campaigns that care for people and the planet, and a founding board member of the Northwest Social Marketing Association. A nationally recognized leader in behavior change for social good, Julie has led high-impact initiatives for more than 25 years, addressing issues such as COVID-19, climate, waste prevention, healthcare, water conservation, distracted driving, and suicide prevention. She co-led the original national launch of the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® program and is co-author of the 7th edition of Social Marketing: Behavior Change for Good with Philip Kotler and Nancy Lee.
Karyn Brownson
Community Safety Manager in the Violence & Injury Prevention program at Public Health – Seattle & King County
Rob Sadowsky
Transportation Safety Outreach Coordinator, Clackamas County | Board Member, Northwest Social Marketing Association
Rob Sadowsky brings more than 30 years of government and nonprofit experience and currently serves as Transportation Safety Outreach Coordinator for Clackamas County. His work focuses on building a culture of safe driving through trust-based outreach, policy, and award-winning campaigns such as Phone Chill and Friends Like Us, alongside direct community and school engagement.
Preeti Shridhar
Commissioner, Woodinville Water District
Preeti Shridhar is a dedicated public servant with over 30 years of experience and a distinguished record of leadership in environmental conservation, economic development, and social equity. She currently serves as the first woman of color elected President of the Board of Commissioners of the Water District, reflecting her longstanding commitment to public service and community well-being.
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.