Ever leave a panel discussion craving more?

During NY Tech Week 2024, I found myself sitting through panel after panel, watching some of the most innovative companies use decidedly un-innovative formats to share their ideas. The disconnect was clear: here were rooms full of curious minds, each waiting for their turn to contribute to a conversation that, by design, excluded their voice.

By luck or fate, RADAR had just announced their microgrant program for anyone that shared their belief that “the future belongs to those who think about it.” This convergence of frustration and opportunity sparked a question: could we reimagine panels to be more multiplayer?

My application focused on a simple truth: innovation happens when we create space for both expertise and wonder to coexist. By positioning curiosity as the price of admission, a Collective Inquiry diverges from a panel by exploring not just the technical, but emotional, dimensions of what the future is going to look, taste, feel, sound, and even smell like. Because the truth is, we are all going to be living in this brave new world, whether we're engineers or not.

Since Collective Inquiry is an event program that celebrates curiosity about the future, the mark I created was inspired by the question, "what would an emoji or glyph from the distant distant future look like?"

As part of my grant, I created the pilot program and brand as an open source project. You can see all of the resources I created on are.na/CollectiveInquiry.

From the evolution of fitness culture to the emotional landscape of climate change, our gatherings explored the intersections where technology meets lived experience. Each session proved what I've learned building communities in emerging tech: the most powerful innovations happen when we create spaces for people to move from consumers to co-creators.
These conversations continue to unfold across Warpcast, LinkedIn, and our monthly gatherings: lu.ma/salonseries