Author: heidimillerful

Seth Zuckerman used to think that logging always involved two guys and a chainsaw. But like the Super-Axe-Hacker in The Lorax, he learned modern lumberjacks fell trees quicker and more efficiently than the loggers of yore. The latest models are computerized wood manufacturing operations on wheels, which travel through the forest turning trees into precisely optimized piles of logs.

Since the early 90s, the number of people killed in logging accidents in the United States has decreased by half. And the amount of logging has decreased by just over 20%.

Elizabeth Nelson understands that life is digital in 2018, but our bodies are still flesh and blood. So how do you stay employed when working with a computer hurts? How do you stay connected to friends, family and news of the world? Back in 2000, moving a computer mouse with her hands became painful. So she turned to her toes! She teaches us how to make mousing look magical while actually speeding up your computer work!

If you can steal a soccer ball from a kid, you can mouse with your toes!

Colin MacDonald never looked a public the same after he took up parkour. He believes we can design spaces that enable and encourage climbing, jumping, and balancing – without losing functionality or getting ourselves sued. Making a space play-able is all about creating adjacency and connections between objects, while using graphics and visuals to invite people to try something new.

Play that is defined and anticipated lacks this element of let’s call it “cheerful transgression” that the best play possesses. I want moments of play, of physical exploration, to leap out at you and grab five minutes of your day, like a partner pulling you onto the dance floor.

Jeremy Kayes believes that profanity is the capsicum of language! It’s not appropriate for every meal, but could you imagine food without spice? Curse words tell us so much about our selves and our culture. His adventure with profanity began when he had to decide if a certain word belonged in his graphic novel.

When we combine our views of sex and each other, we discover words like these. How afflicted are we with our sexuality that we have an insult for someone that enjoys it?

So whey do we use these slurs? Because they are weapons. Weapons are tools to do harm. We reach for them when we feel weak and scared.

The Washington State initiative process allows anyone with an idea to make a law. And Gabe Meyer  helped qualify two statewide initiatives: I-735 to get money out of politics and I-940 for police accountability. In this talk, Meyer shares what’s needed to qualify for less than $500,000. Direct democracy in action!

So I want to tell you that initiatives are such an opportunity in this state. We can have people power; it’s direct democracy. And those three to five years are a lot faster than things they’ve been working on in Olympia for a long time. And you can do it–you can be involved.

Zach Cohn knows the slowest gazelle gets eaten by the lion. And he also knows that in the world of cybersecurity, you are probably one of the slowest gazelles. But he shares one thing you can do that will drastically enhance your personal security and safety on the internet.

All you need to do is to have a different, unique password for every single account you’ve ever had on the entire internet. Now that sounds pretty hard to remember. So don’t. Instead, use a piece of software called a software manager.

Sara Sanford was once pulled into a broom closet during a job interview by the male CEO, who asked if she was planning to have children. After that, she knew that gender parity was something she couldn’t ignore. In her talk, Sanford dives deep into what the data of gender bias tells us–and what we can do about it.

We’ve identified over 100 of these cultural levers that can be adjusted to counter the impact of bias by changing environments rather than mindsets. We use this data to help organizations achieve gender parity.

Joel Fariss spent almost two years working for the Seattle Mayor. His is a story of championing creativity, challenging power, questioning his identity, and finding hope in the margins of society.

Trust is critical because the act of creativity is fundamentally about bringing something into existence that doesn’t exist yet.

As a disaster responder, people think Chris Sheach helicopters in to dig out people from collapsed buildings, feed starving children, or evacuate whole cities from an impending storm. This is a myth. His superhero power is dispelling these myths and sharing insight on how anyone can be a hero, by providing aid that really helps those affected by disasters, at the time they need it most.

95% of people after a disaster are rescued by friends and family. These  are the real heroes. A lot of my focus is on mobilizing local disaster response.

Linnea Westerlind had a child and decided she needed to get out of the house. So what did she do? Decided to visit every park in Seattle in a year. OK, it took four years, but she discovered some pretty cool stuff. Like, did you know that some of our parks were built in areas that were previously dangerous? Or that one overlooks an international engineering marvel? Or that one hosts a stolen totem pole?

More than 11% of all the land in Seattle is park. And 96% of Seattleites live within a half mile of a park.