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E-Newsletter > Speakers News: January 2010

Speaker news: January 2010

IN THIS ISSUE:
Jessica Jackley of Kiva, Carol Kaesuk Yoon on "Avatar", Andrea Elliott on homegrown terrorism...

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For more information on our speakers, call us at 1-800-265-4870 or email us at info@thelavinagency.com.

NACA NATIONAL

Blake Mycoskie Keynotes at NACA 2010

The TOMS Shoes founder will discuss his path to professional and personal success

This Friday in Boston, at the 2010 NACA National Conference, Blake Mycoskie -- founder of TOMS Shoes, and star of a recent AT&T ad campaign -- will give a rousing keynote address. Mycoskie founded TOMS with a simple promise: for every pair of shoes sold, they give a new pair to a child in need. One for One. In just three years, conscious consumers have purchased and given over 400,000 pairs of new shoes. (TOMS has given shoes to local children in Ethiopia, Argentina, and New Orleans.) Now one of the country's hottest speakers, Mycoskie delivers a hopeful message to students who are about to enter the real world: you can go your own way, achieve success without sacrificing your dreams, and make a difference, all at the same time.

Be sure to visit Blake along with Dave Twombly, James Reilly and Tom Gagnon, of Lavin, at the Lavin Booth, where promo coupons for TOMS Shoes will be available.

Blake Mycoskie Speaker Profile

NEW EXCLUSIVE SPEAKER

With Kiva, a $25 Microloan Can Make a Big Difference

Jessica Jackley connects people through lending to alleviate poverty

Jessica Jackley is the co-founder of Kiva, the microlending website that has earned acclaim from Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and The New York Times Magazine. At Kiva.org, users can give microloans to specific developing world entrepreneurs, who use the money to grow their businesses and lift themselves out of poverty. Loans start at just $25. Since 2005, Kiva lenders have loaned over $100 million to the world's working poor; by 2012, that number is expected to grow to over $1 billion. In her talks, Jackley discusses how she drew on an unlikely background -- she studied art and philosophy, then earned an MBA -- to help her shape a new kind of company, based on transparency, social media savvy, and the belief that relationships are a powerful force
for positive change. Energetic and relatable, she tells students that they, too, can synthesize their unique skills to do what they love -- that they can build a meaningful life by helping others.

Jessica Jackley Speaker Profile

THE NEW WAR ON TERROR

The Jihadist Next Door

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott investigates a new threat: domestic terrorism

In a recent New York Times Magazine cover story, Andrea Elliott looks into why a high school student in Alabama -- a cool kid who was president of his sophomore class -- came to lead an Al Qaeda-linked terror group. It's a thoughtful and sensitive look into the roots of domestic terrorism. In another investigative project for The Times last year, Elliott detailed how more than 20 Somali-Americans from the Minneapolis area -- including promising business school students -- left the States to join the militant Jihad in Somalia. In "Terrorism in the West: Inside the New Threat," a new talk full of human tales and hard analysis, she discusses homegrown terrorism and why young Americans are being drawn to the movement now.

To read Andrea Elliott's story, The Jihadist Next Door, click through to her speaker profile.

Andrea Elliott Speaker Profile

BIOLOGY

Avatar: Nature as We Were Meant to See It

James Cameron's 3D epic is a biologist's dream, swoons Carol Kaesuk Yoon

"James Cameron's otherworldly tale of romance and battle has somehow managed to do what no other film has done," Carol Kaesuk Yoon writes in a recent New York Times essay. "It has recreated what is the heart of biology: the naked, heart-stopping wonder of really seeing the living world." Yoon is a Times journalist who trained as a biologist. Her "ecstatic wonderment" toward Avatar is easy to understand. In her joyous new book, Naming Nature, she looks at our scientific quest to name life and, along the way, helps us relate more closely to the natural world. Naming Nature has been hailed as "revolutionary" by Publishers Weekly and as "a sensuous delight" by Oprah Magazine. On stage, Yoon, drawing on her book, looks at the clash between instinct and science.

To read Carol Yoon's New York Times article on Avatar, click through to her speaker profile.

Carol Kaesuk Yoon Speaker Profile

NEW EXCLUSIVE SPEAKER

Why We Make Mistakes. And How to Do A Little Better

Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Hallinan reports on the captivating science of human error

Human beings are prone to error. It's as simple as that. Many otherwise lucid-thinking individuals make mistakes with alarming frequency. We are easily distracted. We make bad investments. We fail to see what's right in front of our eyes. And we forget things the minute we learn them. But it doesn't have to be this way. In keynotes customized for any audience, Joe Hallinan, author of Why We Make Mistakes, explains that some of the qualities that make us efficient also make us error-prone. How to prevent these errors--how to anticipate and then "outsmart" them--are at the heart of his engaging and interactive talks.

Joseph Hallinan Speaker Profile

GAYLE LEMMON at TEDxWOMEN

"If you're going to talk about jobs, then you have to talk about entrepreneurs," says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. "And if you're talking about entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict settings, then you must talk about women." Lemmon is the author of the New York Times bestselling book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and a Contributing Editor-at-Large for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. She has devoted her life to shedding light on the resiliency of female entrepreneurs, and their remarkable power to reshape local economies. By recognizing and investing in these female breadwinners, Lemmon says, we can help grow economies of all development levels around the world.