2019 Keynote Speaker -
Harris III
While hundreds of thousands of people around the globe know Harris "the Third" as an award-winning illusionist, in the last few years his career has exploded into becoming a sought-out keynote speaker, storyteller, and event curator. His endeavors expanded as an entrepreneur as he founded the Istoria Collective, an event and production company that creates and executes meaningful and transformative experiences for people and brands through both live events and a variety of other mediums.
Harris's greatest strength as a communicator is often found in his unique form of storytelling. He attracts audiences and holds their attention in a way few other speakers do, not only because of his 20-year background as a master illusionist, but also a highly effective and memorable keynote speaker who helps audiences discover what he refers to as "real magic." His excellence and uniqueness in doing so has taken him to thousands of stages in 49 states across America, and in almost 40 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and even the Middle East. He has presented to more than 2 million people world-wide, live in person, not including multiple film and television appearances.
The universal nature of his presentations have taken him to such a wide variety of venues that it's difficult to wrap your head around. He has been called upon by Elvis Presley Enterprises to create custom presentations for Graceland, and asked to deliver creative and inspirational messages at fundraising events at venues like the Southwest Airlines Corporate Headquarters. He is invited to present at exclusive, members-only clubs like Manhattan's Soho House, the headquarters of tech giants like Pinterest, to TEDx events and arenas packed with tens of thousands at a time, like Catalyst Leadership Conference. Catalyst went on to add Harris to their prestigious and highly-respected Young Influencers List, naming him one of America's most influential young people.
After an already successful career as a speaker and performer, Harris is now entering the next decade of his career with a new enthusiasm for stories and art. With his perspective of what real magic is, Harris' presence is quickly being felt in new circles and industries. In 2016, he began a new season by relaunching STORY, the nation's premier conference for creators and storytellers. What began as a simple two-day annual conference has exploded into a prolific movement of culture-shaping storytelling. Under Harris' leadership, STORY has turned into a community who is gathering in multiple cities around the world through a variety of workshops, conferences, and events.
These are no ordinary creators' gatherings. Harris' STORY events have partnered with storytellers who create for companies like Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar, Nike, YouTube, NatGeo, and even NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories and more. That has led to Harris, himself, partnering with an equally impressive list of companies for workshops, keynotes, and presentations about storytelling, creative thinking, imagination and innovation, and how wonder transforms everything from leadership, to our workplace culture, and our creative processes.
Harris is awakening child-like wonder, imagination, and curiosity in a way that only someone who believes in real magic can.
Harris's greatest strength as a communicator is often found in his unique form of storytelling. He attracts audiences and holds their attention in a way few other speakers do, not only because of his 20-year background as a master illusionist, but also a highly effective and memorable keynote speaker who helps audiences discover what he refers to as "real magic." His excellence and uniqueness in doing so has taken him to thousands of stages in 49 states across America, and in almost 40 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and even the Middle East. He has presented to more than 2 million people world-wide, live in person, not including multiple film and television appearances.
The universal nature of his presentations have taken him to such a wide variety of venues that it's difficult to wrap your head around. He has been called upon by Elvis Presley Enterprises to create custom presentations for Graceland, and asked to deliver creative and inspirational messages at fundraising events at venues like the Southwest Airlines Corporate Headquarters. He is invited to present at exclusive, members-only clubs like Manhattan's Soho House, the headquarters of tech giants like Pinterest, to TEDx events and arenas packed with tens of thousands at a time, like Catalyst Leadership Conference. Catalyst went on to add Harris to their prestigious and highly-respected Young Influencers List, naming him one of America's most influential young people.
After an already successful career as a speaker and performer, Harris is now entering the next decade of his career with a new enthusiasm for stories and art. With his perspective of what real magic is, Harris' presence is quickly being felt in new circles and industries. In 2016, he began a new season by relaunching STORY, the nation's premier conference for creators and storytellers. What began as a simple two-day annual conference has exploded into a prolific movement of culture-shaping storytelling. Under Harris' leadership, STORY has turned into a community who is gathering in multiple cities around the world through a variety of workshops, conferences, and events.
These are no ordinary creators' gatherings. Harris' STORY events have partnered with storytellers who create for companies like Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar, Nike, YouTube, NatGeo, and even NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories and more. That has led to Harris, himself, partnering with an equally impressive list of companies for workshops, keynotes, and presentations about storytelling, creative thinking, imagination and innovation, and how wonder transforms everything from leadership, to our workplace culture, and our creative processes.
Harris is awakening child-like wonder, imagination, and curiosity in a way that only someone who believes in real magic can.
Andy Jorgensen
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Andy is the Founder of Fire Bros. Fireworks, a company that brings the power of online commerce to the world of fireworks. Fire Bros. was founded to change the way people buy fireworks by letting them watch videos of fireworks on an online store, pay for them on the site, and have them delivered to your door or ready for pickup.
Andy is heavily involved in the Sioux Falls entrepreneurial scene having served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship and organizer for Startup Weekend Sioux Falls. He is currently an organizer for 1 Million Cups as well as a member of the Board of Advisers for the SDSU Department of Journalism and Communication. He is a home-grown South Dakota native, an active leader in his local church, and the most competitive Super Smash Bros. player in his collegiate class." |
Laurel Diekhoff
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Laurel Diekhoff is the owner of Flume Bath and Body and a junior Entrepreneurial Studies and Business Economics major at SDSU. With help from the Brookings entrepreneurial community, Laurel founded Flume in December 2016. Since then, Flume has grown to carry more than 60 products that can be found at retail locations across the country and on Etsy.com. Flume has been featured on KSFY News and SiouxFalls.Business. Laurel also works as a market researcher for The Enterprise Institute, is the current president of SDSU’s Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and is a board member for the Brookings Farmers’ Market.
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Dhiraj Sharan
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Dhiraj Sharan has been in a software engineering career for 20 years during which he has founded two startups and has been an engineering leader in two more startups that were acquired by HP Enterprise. Dhiraj has 10 patents and has been a Cisco EIR Entrepreneur. He is a bachelor in Computer Science from IIT (BHU, India) and Certificate in Management from Harvard University. His current startup Query.AI is located at the Research Park in Brookings and building product to provide answers, insights and automation to enterprise IT team.
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Jessica Herrboldt
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At 23 years old, Jessica Herrboldt isn’t new to the entrepreneur scene. Raised in Lennox, SD she grew up with an entrepreneurial mindset by watching her parents live the lifestyle. While she was finishing her Entrepreneurial Studies degree at SDSU, Jessica discovered that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Inspiration struck while attending the community hosted, One Million Cups. There, Jessica uncovered an opportunity that she used as her senior capstone project. Putting her 2018 entrepreneurial degree to use immediately, she continued to build on her original concept and today owns Bum’s Bike & Brew, Brookings’ first party bike company. Her 14-person bar on wheels is powered by its pedaling passengers and is set to launch at the end of April 2019.
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