Excited for Alt Summit yet? Yes! Curious about our keynotes? Yes! Yes! Get ready to have your socks knocked off as we think you will agree our four keynote speakers are pretty amazing.
Opening Keynote
The conference will open with the ever-inspiring Lisa Congdon! No doubt you will recognize her work – colorful paintings, intricate line drawings, pattern design & stunning hand lettering. She works for clients around the world including MoMA, Martha Stewart Living, Chronicle Books, and The Land of Nod, and her online drawing course is the most popular class on CreativeBug.
Lisa is the author of five books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist, Whatever You Are, Be a Good One, Twenty Ways to Draw a Tulip, and A Collection a Day. Her latest book, Fortune Favors the Brave (Chronicle) will be released later this year. You can keep up with Lisa on her blog about work and inspiration called Today is Going to be Awesome.
Lunch Keynote
Lunch on Friday will be an entrepreneurial feast – we will dine while listening to an info-filled Q&A with two powerhouse CEOs: Jess Lee and Susan Petersen.
During the first year that Polyvore existed, Jess Lee, an early user, emailed the founder with a set of suggestions. Cut to today, and Jess is the CEO! Polyvore has grown and thrived – there are active Polyvore communities centered around fashion, interior design and artistic expression, and the site receives 20 million monthly unique visitors.
Jess has a degree in computer science from Stanford University. Prior to her work with Polyvore, Jess was a product manager at Google, where she worked on Google Maps and launched features like My Maps and draggable driving directions.
Susan is the CEO and founder of Freshly Picked, a moccasin company that she started at her kitchen table, after becoming frustrated by the lack of well-designed baby shoes. Using a shoe-string budget and a scrap of leather she picked up at a garage sale, she worked like crazy and built a company that now has hundreds of thousands of loyal customers.
Instagram was one of the big tools Susan used to grow Freshly Picked, and her innovative ways of using social media have been a model for small businesses everywhere. In addition to running Freshly Picked, Susan provides marketing strategy and campaign planning for big companies, small shop owners, and bloggers.
Closing Keynote
Dallas Clayton will close the conference on Friday afternoon. Dallas’s story is grin-making. After being turned down by publishers, Dallas decided to self-publish his first book, titled An Awesome Book! using the internet. It was a massive hit and became a favorite among kids and adults everywhere, including stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Joaquin Phoenix and Justin Timberlake.
Dallas has continued publishing children’s books with Amazon, Harper Collins and Candlewick Press, while also working on creative collaborations with companies like Starbucks, Nike, J.Crew and Target. He now tours the country reading to kids in schools, hospitals, and libraries, giving away books to everyone along the way. To say that his venture was a huge success would be an understatement. Dallas spreads inspiration where ever he goes.
Dream Big
Each of these keynote speakers had a big dream and were able to achieve it unconventionally. Our dream for you is to leave the conference with fresh perspective on not only what you want to achieve, but how you can realistically achieve it. Prepare to have your mind blown.
And be sure to check the updated speaker page to get a feel for the awesomeness in-between these amazing keynotes. See you soon!
