Theme: ‘Collaboration by Design’

Collaboration by Design

Throughout human history, collaboration has been the fulcrum of innovation, invention and social progress. The power of collaboration is even more pronounced in our modern world of ready information and non-stop communication. As we enter a new era of technology and connectivity, how will collaboration become even more central to human existence and fulfillment? How might the design of our enterprises, organizations and initiatives become more intentional about collaboration?

As the global community becomes more connected, what new forms of collaboration have we created? How can fresh opportunities for collaboration by design enhance industries, strengthen our communities, and better our lives and the lives around us?

Finally, what powerful ideas can be shared, explored, and leveraged as we discover new frontiers of ‘Collaboration by Design’?

Knickerbocker Theater
86 E 8th Street
Holland, Michigan, 49423
United States

VanderProv

Hope College's premier improv troupe, "VanderProv" is made up and run entirely by Students. Their performances are enjoyed throughout the year by students and community alike.

Bill Holsinger- Robinson

Bill Holsinger-Robinson has been an entrepreneur, consultant, executive, scholar, chef and competitive cyclist. What’s the “red thread” that connects all of them together? Bill is a pattern recognizer with a love for new ideas, problem solving and story-telling. He excels at helping organizations — large and small, established and new — think big, be consistent and get moving. Bill’s most notable projects include Vice President of The Understanding Group, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Impact HUB Grand Rapids, Lead Organizer of TEDxGrandRapids and the Frederik Meijer Endowed Honors Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation with Grand Valley State University. Bill also was the founding Executive Director of ArtPrize while working as President of Pomegranate Studios.

Chris DeVos

Chris DeVos was born in Grand Rapids and grew up on the northeast side. He graduated with a philosophy major from Calvin College and, after graduating from Calvin Seminary, worked in Christian Reformed ministries in Boulder, CO, at the University of Colorado, Dunwoody, GA, Kingston, ON, and, most recently, in Holland. Threads of reconciliation and unity were woven into his spirit by parents who moved easily between churches of different denominations because they were sought-after musicians. He grew up assuming it was possible to collaborate across differences. That spirit inspires his work at Pillar Church, where Chris is the Congregational Mission Pastor. Pillar is a laboratory of collaborative work and mission.

Dan Klyn

Dan Klyn co-founded The Understanding Group with Bob Royce in 2011 under the inspiration of IA pioneer Richard Saul Wurman’s call to practice information architecture as “an understanding business,” and appears to be on some sort of mission to co-opt architectural thinking from the built environment and interpret it for use in the design of digital places that are made of information. In addition to his duties as structural design practice lead at TUG, Klyn works as an editorial assistant to Mr. Wurman, teaches an information architecture course at the University of Michigan School of Information and has served as a board member of the Information Architecture Institute.

Davin Huston

Davin Huston is a clinical assistant professor at Purdue University in the School of Engineering Technology, Purdue Polytechnic, as well as in the theatre department. Prior to his current position, he was a consultant at the acoustic and audio/video design firm Kirkegaard Associates in Chicago, IL. His current research interests include improvements to hearing-assistance systems and the uses for rapid prototyping technology in theatre. In addition to his teaching and research duties, he is a faculty advisor for a multi-disciplinary student organization, the Association of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Technologists (AMET). He received his B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology in 2004 and M.S. in Technology in 2007 from Purdue University.

Denise Kingdom - Grier

Rev. Denise Kingdom Grier is lead pastor at Maple Avenue Ministries, a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-generational congregation in Holland. Maple Avenue is the first union church of the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church. Denise graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, where she received a BA in psychology, and later became the first African-American woman to graduate from Western Theological Seminary in Holland with a Master of Divinity degree. She currently is pursuing her Doctorate in Ministry to study apartheid in the American church toward the development of an embracing model of ministry. Denise has committed her life to proclaiming the gospel of peace and justice.

Fred Bueltmann

Fred Bueltmann, aka The Beervangelist, is an owner of New Holland Brewing Company, where he serves as Vice President of Brand and Lifestyle. He is a nationally recognized expert on pairing beer and food, and a Certified Cicerone®. Bueltmann is past president of the Michigan Brewers Guild and recipient of their prestigious Tom Burns Award, recognizing the pioneering spirit of the “Great Beer State.” Fred serves as a judge for the Brewers’ Association’s Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup and was a 2013 Keynote Speaker for the Michigan Restaurant Association. His first book, “Beervangelist’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a seasonal tome on pairing, cooking and hosting with craft beer, and was recognized as an Indie Book Award finalist.

Helen Zeerip

Helen Zeerip is the President of Teddy’s Transport, a trucking company that specializes in nationwide expediting, local pickup and delivery, full truckload and dedicated fleet services. The Grand Rapids Business Journal recognized her as one of the Top Woman-Owned Businesses for 2011 and 2013, as well as honoring her in 2012 as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in West Michigan. She volunteers for Love INC (In the Name of Christ), the Wings Home and as a full-time foster parent. She currently is raising funds to build schools in Ghana to educate, feed and clothe children living in slavery. Locally, she is partnering on a marketing initiative focused on getting older children in the foster care system adopted before they “age out” of the system. The Grant Me Hope project is videotaping these children and airing them on West Michigan television in an effort to find them adoptive families.

Jason Pasatta

Jason Pasatta is the Development Director for Career and Technical Education within the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District (OAISD), which serves 55,000 public and non-public school students. In this position, he has developed and is championing the FuturePREP program, an initiative that connects education, business and the community to provide relevant learning options both for educators and students. Earlier, Jason worked for the Chicago Public Schools where he developed and implemented a Technology Magnet Program within 19 schools in the city, many of which were located in Chicago’s highest-need neighborhoods. Jason holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard University and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Administration and Leadership at Loyola University of Chicago. Jason serves on the Holland Public Schools’ Board of Education.

Jeremy Blaney

eremy Blaney is an Institute for Business in the Global Context Scholar at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in international business, specializing in global human capital. As a self-described global citizen, Jeremy is deeply passionate about cross-cultural collaboration. Most recently, he was named an emerging North American leader as part of the 2014 United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellowship Programme. Before coming to Fletcher, Jeremy served in the U.S. Air Force. He completed three deployments in support of Operations ENDURING and IRAQI FREEDOM, earning three Air Medals. In his spare time, Jeremy works with transitioning service members, veterans, and their families, serves on various Michigan State University alumni boards, and recreationally explores the life of President John Adams.

Jonathan Brown

Jonathon Brown is the Lead Pastor of Pillar Church in Holland Mi, a dual-affiliation congregation of the Christian Reformed Church in North America and the Reformed Church in America. As a dually affiliated church, Pillar thinks deeply about the work of reconciliation and pursues purposefully the work of collaboration. That is one of the reasons Jon is so thrilled to be on the team at Pillar. Jon served a church on Whidbey Island in the state of Washington with his wife Kristyn for nearly 10 years.

Karyl Morin

Karyl Morin is an educator and innovator who enlivens the “what If” thinking of individuals and organizations to discover and pursue their unique contribution to the world. After serving in K-12 public education for 15 years, including Holland Public Schools and Black River Public School, she now collaborates to design new forms of education as an advisor, contributor and facilitator. Through Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University, Karyl serves as the Project Director for the collaborative team designing the Grand Rapids Public Museum School launching this year. Karyl was raised in Lansing, Michigan. Hope College drew her to West Michigan, graduating with a B.A. in special education with a learning disabilities endorsement.

Kevin Budelmann

Kevin Budelmann is co-founder and president of Peopledesign, a design strategy firm based in Michigan. His work at Peopledesign includes serving as a strategic partner to a wide variety of organizations from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Kevin’s work has been published in hundreds of books and magazines. He co-authored the Brand Identity Essentials, a book which has been translated into six languages and is available worldwide.

Patrick Cisler

Patrick Cisler is a community developer at heart who has spent his career working primarily on behalf of nonprofits and in the area of economic development. Currently Patrick serves as Executive Director of the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance and Ottawa County Human Services Coordinating Council, two organizations that seek to strengthen the community through collaboration and by building capacity for local nonprofits. Volunteering and service play a large role in Patrick’s life as most recently demonstrated in the launching of a free exercise class and health support group with his wife called Healthier Holland. Patrick is a life-long resident of Holland.

Patrick Moran

Patrick Moran has been a part of the West Michigan non-profit world for almost 20 years. He spent 11 years with the YMCA in Grand Haven, occupying several roles including CEO. His passion for community development led to his current position as president of Greater Ottawa County United Way, where he has spent the last eight years. Patrick has served on many community collaboratives, programs and initiatives, including several he founded and co-founded. Originally from England, Patrick now resides in Grand Haven.

Seth Starner

Seth Starner joined NewNorth in February 2014 as the new President. He brings a broad variety of experience in innovation, design and team leadership. Most recently, Seth led the Business Innovations Group at Amway Corporation and was responsible for internal innovation training, leading strategic planning sessions, and catalyzing innovation teams to implement new opportunities around the globe. Prior to his decade of innovation experience at Amway, Starner was Project Director at Wirthlin Worldwide, a global market research firm. Starner has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan and a Master’s Degree from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design. He serves on the Boards of Directors of the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the Keller Futures Center. Starner also was one of the drivers of GRid70 in downtown Grand Rapids

Tracy Brower

Tracy Brower is a sociologist, author, wife, mother of two, and Director of Human Dynamics + Work for Herman Miller. She studies how humans affect their work-life and how it affects them back. Getting her Ph.D., MM, and MCR degrees has given her lots of opportunities to learn how much there is to learn. Her blog, Fruition, focuses on workLIFE stories. And her book, Bring Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work: A Guide for Leaders and Organizations, provides new perspectives on work-life balance and how to create abundance and fulfillment in work-life.

Willie Watt Jr.

Willie J. Watt, Jr. is the Founder and Executive Director of Escape YFGK an urban ministry for urban teens and young adults and their families. Willie is a member of Christ Memorial Church where he is studying to become a Commission Pastor. He founded the Open Arms ministry which has fed over 3,000 families in Ottawa County and met their basic needs. In 2009 he founded Escape YFGK (Youth For God’s Kingdom) a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that houses six programs to ensure that children who are expelled or suspended are afforded the opportunity to graduate on time with their high school diploma.

Yang Kim

Yang Kim, as Peopledesign co-founder and Creative Director, changes minds. Recently voted one of the “50 most influential graphic designers working today,” Yang is always able to find fresh, startling ways of seeing and showing. Kim’s work has been recognized by her peers for its clarity, distinctiveness, humanity, and charm. With a long list of design awards and publications to her name, Kim has made a mark on contemporary graphic design, now serving as lecturer and judge to the world’s most prestigious graphic arts organizations and schools.