LINK Conference Superstars
I promised you all bios on the wonderful people I met while at LINK. Now that I’m actually sitting down to tackle that task, it appears quite daunting. As I mentioned before, the people that surrounded me at LINK humbled me. These are people that have made a substantive difference around the world- and continue to do so everyday. So, in the interest of being fair, I have decided to write a quick 1-2 lines on each attendee, since giving full credit to their accomplishments would fill a book.
Rodrigo Diamanti- Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (A World Without Censorship): Rodrigo is a founding member of the Venezuelan Student Movement which began in 2007 in opposition to Hugo Chavez. He has helped mastermind and lead coordinated protests featuring red-bandana gagged protestors which took place in dozens of cities simultaneously around the world.
Brian Center- A Better LA- Brian is the Executive Director of ABLA, which focuses on transforming inner city LA neighborhoods that are ridden with gang violence by empowering the community leaders in the area with the tools to make a difference. Brian’s organization has seen murders and violent crimes drop drastically compared to other parts of LA in the areas which they work.
Maya Enista- Mobilize.org: Maya serves as CEO of Mobilize, whom you should recognize as the non-profit that awarded TR a share of $25,000 in grant money following its Beyond the Welcome Home Summit in LA. Mobilize focuses on empowering the ‘millenial’ generation to make a substantive difference in United States.
Vanessa Fuentes- SFK and Opinion Actual: Vanessa stepped away from a very successful entrepreneurial career in both Venezuela and Panama to work as the regional director for SFK and Opinion Actual, which focus on promoting children’s lives around the world. She has utilized her expert business skills to propel both organizations forward.
Susan Gordon- Facebook’s Causes: Susan helps, coaches and strategizes with indivdidual activists and over 1,300 nonprofit partners using Causes. Causes is a social media tool that empowers young organizations and movements and helps to create a viral effect in recruiting support and donations. Team Rubicon has joined Causes at www.causes.com/teamrubicon, believe me, this is a very powerful and useful tool!
Austin Heap- Censorship Research Center, Haystack: Austin serves as Executive Director of CRC, which researches the way in which censorship is being performed, educates people about the impact of censorship, and finally, when necessary, develops software (such as Haystack) which enables people to bypass internet censorship. Haystack, a proprietary software developed by Austin, has been implement in Iran; it essentially allows users to communicate on the internet without detection by Iranian authorities.
Scott Heiferman- MeetUp: Scott is the founder and CEO of MeetUp, a for-profit company that is the world’s largest network of local community groups. Over 50,000 Meetups (self-organized community events) take place every week around the world. The idea is to “use the internet to get off the internet.” It is built on the idea that every town needs support groups, playgroups, book clubs, business circles, etc.
Mark Horvath- Invisible People: Mark started invisiblepeople.tv in order to tell the story of our nation’s homeless. Mark’s blog, invisiblepeople.tv, broadcasts real footage of Mark travelling the country and learning the story of people on the streets. What makes Mark even more incredible is his own story- after a successful career in television, Mark himself was homeless for many years. Now it is his job to shed light on the situation. The Huffington Post named him one of the 11 Twitter activists you should follow.
David Levy and Joe Marchese- SocialVibe: These two guys founded SocialVibe. SocialVibe is a marketing agency that effectively builds brands in social media by facilitating interaction between corporations, people, brands and causes. SocialVibe empowers people to raise money for charity by inteacting with and sharing brands on social networks. SocialVibe has raised millions of dollars for dozens of charities since it was founded just a few years ago.
Christie Manning, Participant Media: Participant media seeks to entertain audiences through major film productions first, and then challenge them with a ‘call to action’ following the feature. To facilitate this, Participant creates specific campaigns for each film and documentary designed to give a voice to issues that resonate in the films. (Food, Inc; Syriana; Charlie Wilson’s War, The Cove, etc)
Oscar Morales- Un Millon Voces Fundacion: Oscar was the founder behind the Facebook group that essentially ended the FARC crisis in Columbia. He created the group on January 4, 2008 and one month later an estimated 12 million people around the world, in 200 cities and 40 countries, organized through social networking, marched through the streets to protest FARC.
Kelly Golnoush Niknejad- Tehran Bureau: An Iranian by birth, Kelly has taken her journalist skills and founded an online bureau that provides accurate information from inside Iran. During the protests last year, most major news agencies within the US were getting their information from Kelly’s bureau. Tehran Bureau is now partnered with PBS/Frontline.
Rodrigo Nogueira- Viva Favela: Viva Favela is a collaborative platform that gives citizens of Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas (the poorest slums in the city) journalistic access through teams of community correspondents. The Viva Favela project has one several national and international awards for covering stories that feature human, historical, cultural, economic, and social dimensions, with a different perspective from the mainstream media.
David Smith- Executive Director, National Conference on Citizenship: The NCOC is a Congressionally Chartered organization that tracks modern citizenship by measuring and promoting civic engagement with the goal of building a more informed, engaged, giving and trusting citizenry. It promotes greater participation in the political process.
Chris Youngblood- To Write Love on Her Arms: TWLOHA is a social networking powerhouse, these guys are literally rockstars in the social media scene. TWLOHA is an organization that promotes awareness and provides support for people suffering from depression, addiction, self injury and suicidal tendencies. Chris is the Director of New Media, and has helped propel TWLOHA to crazy membership on Facebook, Twitter, SocialVibe and many other social media sites.
Stephanie Rudat- EVERYTHING: Stephanie was the force that brought this delegation together. I guess I can’t really pin down what it is that she does, other than run the Alliance of Youth Movements and serve on the boards of a gabillion organizations. She basically identifies young, powerful movements and ensures that they have the tools and mentoring necessary to ensure their success. I’d say she’s good at what she does. Oh, and Oscar calls her the Madonna of nonprofits. I’m just saying…
