Keita Demming
Firestarter. Change monger. Idea generator. Keita Demming is passionate about creating positive change, and the enabling systems that support it. Keita is currently working on his PhD in Adult Education. He is not your average PhD student. He runs a company, Village Seed Solutions that helps enthusiastic, caring citizens, individuals, groups, and organisations realise collaborative or multi-sectorial approaches to change intervention.
His PhD work focuses on understanding strategies for social problem solving. At the University of Toronto, he serves as the coordinator for the Social Economy Centre which promotes and disseminates multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on issues affecting the intersection among public, private and nonprofit sector.
During August, Keita leads a camp, Agents of Change where participants learn about social innovation and systems change. As a way of improving the content for the Agents of Change program, Keita also started TheSIDELab, a lab exploring ways of teaching systems, integrative, design and evaluative thinking.
He is also working with Social Innovation Generation on the development and evaluation of their Knowledge Hub, a website designed to provide learning resources about creating conditions for social innovation.
In the spirit of embracing the future as it unfolds, Keita has held the license for TEDxPortofSpain for three years, and has led a team of passionate changemakers through successful events that showcase ideas worth sharing.
Charlotte Elias
Charlotte Elias is committed to movement for positive social change. She has extensive experience in arts administration and cultural enterprise/exchange. Her current focus is on education, social change and justice, building networks and initiatives that address this.
In 1996, she founded Caribbean Contemporary Arts (CCA) and was its Director for twelve years, hosting 480 artists from 32 countries. Unique to the Caribbean, this autonomous regional developmental organization became a regional satellite for centres for the arts in Venezuela, Kenya and New Delhi, supporting creative exchange between local, regional and international artists.
At present she is Director of a newly formed NGO, Evoke, positioning creativity and culture as key tools for economic and social development. Evoke collaborates with Agents for Change “ artists, producers, curators, integrative practitioners and policy makers “ to foster a learning community, building confidence for positive social change.
Charlotte currently serves on the Advisory board of the Company Chameleon Dance Theatre in the United Kingdom and as an advisor for TEDxPortofSpain. She has served on the boards of the Allen Prize for Young Writers, the Caribbean Arts Trust in the United Kingdom, the Artist Advisory boards of the Cuban Artists Fund, the Hudson Valley Project at Mineta Brook in the United States, the Regional Network Committee for the Prince Claus Fund in the Netherlands, the Academy at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Trinidad and Tobago Entertainment Company. She is also a certified Doula.