Feedback was proud to host the 3rd annual Dent: Blend conference last week, where visitors from across industries and across the country (including here in the host city of Richmond, VA) once again enjoyed the community, program, and activities of a one-day conference full of innovation and heart.
A lunch (surprise all-vegan) by The Daily kicked off featured presenters and activities included:
Sean Young & Jessica Carter (Drake Cooper; Seattle / Boise): The creative and strategic team behind an extraordinary outreach to teens in Idaho.
John Walker (President & CEO of SOAR365): The leaders of an organization creating life-fulfilling opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
Brian Dismore (Moon Day w/ Make-A-Wish® Greater Virginia): How do you film a wish? How do you begin to capture one of the happiest days of a 9-year-old diagnosed with a critical illness and the transformational impact a wish has?
Ed Browell (NASA) & Dean Browell (Feedback): For the first time, father-and-son researchers explore what it means to communicate findings authentically in both quantitative and qualitative research.
Sarah Mekonnen: a special pop-up gallery called Deeply Rooted, exploring her family’s immigration story through the perspective of the women who lived it.
Mike Hiller and Erik Lars Myers (Fullsteam): Craft beer tasting.
Jason Alley (Bingo / Comfort): Food tasting and Bingo Beer Co dinner.
At its least, Blend is an inter-disciplinary playground where the people in the seats could easily be on stage. It results in a half day experience in collaboration, innovative leadership, and ideas that showcase how we can transform people, organizations, and ourselves. At its best it is all of these things and a transformative experience that re-motivates and encourages new connections between people and concepts.
Attendees represented a wide variety of industries, including:
- Solana
- CapitalOne
- NASA
- Dominion Energy
- TDC Makerspace at MIT
- SOAR365
- Special Olympics Virginia
- Drake Cooper
- Make-a-Wish Greater Virginia
- VCU da Vinci program (Masters program)
- DARTE Design
- Resolve Philly Media
- Effective to Great Education
- Moon Day Productions
- Fullsteam Brewery
- Bingo Beer Company
- Cristo Rey Schools
- Wildfire
- VCU School of Education
- DuPont Transportation & Industrial
- Forrester Research
- Drake Cooper
- Feedback
- Bon Secours Healthcare
- MQ&C Advertising
- The Poe Museum
- Marymount University
At Dent: Blend Richmond this year Feedback’s front conference room was transformed into a special pop-up gallery by Sarah Mekonnen called Deeply Rooted, exploring her family’s immigration story through the perspective of the women who lived it.
Deeply Rooted’s gallery will remain up at Feedback through October but you can also experience the video, images, and additional interviews online here: https://www.sweetmvmnt.com/deeply-rooted
See more photos over at our Facebook gallery!
Photos by Feedback and Aaron Varella