Theme: Join us at TEDx Berkshires to learn about the people, solutions, & wisdom that's changing our world.

When we're motivated to make a difference and we band together with leaders in the arts, technology, culture, academia, and business it is powerful and exciting and impacts our community. We have existential problems that need solutions - and fast! The good news is that innovation in 2023 is running full throttle. With more open access, there is a steady flow of new ideas that create value and solve problems from and for a more diverse ecosystem. We will face the big challenges ahead with ideas and solutions that are happening today.

Don't despair, solutions are everywhere! They're in our core, those ideas that spark meaningful change and action for good. We the people, we make the difference. The eveloution of technology, science, storytelling, art, sports, and academia is constant, and we are on the doorstep of a generational set of possibilities.

Berkshire Innovation Center
45 Woodlawn Avenue
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 01201
United States

Ben Downing

Ben Downing is Vice President of Public Affairs at The Engine. Before joining The Engine, he was Vice President of Market Development at Nexamp, a veteran-owned, Boston-based clean energy company. There he led the firm's strategic development efforts across growing geographies and the firm's entry into the energy storage market. Prior to this, Ben represented the State's largest Senate district while serving as State Senator for 52 communities in Western Massachusetts. He received a BA in Political Science from Providence College and an MA from Tufts University.

Burr Purnell

Executive Director of Social Good at VidMob

Burr Purnell is a seasoned executive with a passion for helping nonprofits amplify their message through video. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Social Good at VidMob Gives, VidMob's 501(c)3 organization, where he provides nonprofits with easy, fast, and affordable tools to create impactful video content. Burr has led successful campaigns for renowned nonprofits like Direct Relief, NRDC, Ronald McDonald House-NYC, Movember, and Equality Now. Outside of work, Burr is an avid ultramarathon runner, toeing start lines from California and New England. Burr is a graduate of Northeastern University and resides in South Dartmouth, MA with his wife and two daughters.

Charlotte McCurdy

Designer & Researcher at Arizona State University

Charlotte McCurdy is an award-winning designer and researcher who works at the intersection of emerging technology, futures, and existential threats. Her work on carbon-negative materials, “After Ancient Sunlight,” debuted as part of “Nature - The Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” in 2019, won the Experimental category in the 2019 FastCompany Innovation by Design Awards, and was most recently on view at The Design Museum, London. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, Dezeen, Wallpaper, and Vogue, and has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Swarovski, The UN Office for Partnerships, and Science Sandbox. She holds a degree in Global Affairs from Yale University and in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Arizona State University where she teaches courses at the intersection of climate change, design research, and experimental design.

Chris Draft

Founder, President & CEO of The Chris Draft Family Foundation

Chris Draft is the Founder, President, and CEO of the Chris Draft Family Foundation (CDFF) whose mission has been to empower families to lead healthy lifestyles. He is also the Co-Founder of Team Draft, leading the creation of a national campaign that is changing the face of lung cancer. He is an internationally recognized speaker, community leader, and family and character advocate who serves as an NFL Ambassador and a national spokesperson on many health-related issues, including the care and treatment of asthma, from which he suffers, and lung cancer, the disease that claimed the life of his wife, Keasha in 2011. In 2006, while with the Carolina Panthers, Chris established the Chris Draft Family Foundation, which focuses on several primary initiatives that stress the importance of family, education, healthy lifestyles, character development, personal responsibility, self-discipline, and physical fitness.

John Hart

Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT; Co-Founder of Vulcan Forms

Co-Founder and Director of VulcanForms & Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). John is also Director of the MIT Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity and the MIT Center for Additive and Digital Advanced Production Technologies (APT). John’s research and teaching activities at MIT focus on the science and technology of production, including additive processes, automation, advanced materials, and data science. He has been recognized by the United States NSF, ONR, AFOSR, DARPA, ASME, and SME, by two R&D 100 awards, and received the MIT Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching in Mechanical Engineering. John created the world’s first massive open online course on manufacturing processes (MIT 2.008x on edX) and leads MIT’s online additive manufacturing curriculum which has educated thousands of engineers since its launch in 2018. He is also a Co-Founder of Desktop Metal and a Board Member of Carpenter Technology Corp

Shivang Dave

Co-Founder & CEO of PlenOptika

Shivang, a bioengineer and nanotechnologist, has been passionately involved with global health throughout his career. He earned his BS and PhD in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and UW Seattle, respectively. As a NSF Graduate Fellow, he focused on the development of nanoparticle-based probes for the solution-phase multiplexed, ultrasensitive detection of cancer biomarkers. He was awarded the College of Engineering Community of Innovators Dean’s Award and completed the Program in Technology Commercialization and Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate (Foster Business School, Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship). Shivang has co-developed commercial strategies to numerous technologies, including drug-eluting intraocular lenses to reduce post-surgery infection burden in developing countries such as India, for which he was awarded Best Innovation and Finalist Prizes at various business plan competitions.

Sienna Leis

Venture Development Manager at MassVenture

We live in a culture of crises. The common thread of a career that started with leading implementations nationally on behalf of start-ups in the education industry has now come full circle as she works to design solutions for a contact tracing solution fighting COVID-19 in cities, counties, states, provinces, and countries throughout North America, the Caribbean and Latin America. As she finishes her graduate studies, her focus on crisis management has been heightened during this global pandemic, but more crises lie ahead. She's committed to helping public and private sector leaders apply lessons learned in leadership, communications, resilience, adaptation and mitigation in their roles, governments, and businesses. Ultimately she considers herself an enabler. Enabler of the dreams of individuals and organizations seeking to do good for our earth and people, and make a positive difference in the world.