Casey Steinbacher
Casey Steinbacher, Founder of Casey’s Company, is widely recognized as a national expert in urban innovation strategies. Her company identifies and creates NEXT opportunities for communities and organizations, and the women who lead them. Casey's experience brings with it a unique emphasis on place based talent recruitment. A 27 year veteran of Chamber and Economic Development work, she also served as President and CEO of Chambers in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida. She is a regular speaker in topics that include Talent Recruitment and Development, Urban Re-imaging, Entrepreneurial Eco-Systems, Community Branding, Innovative Organizational Strategies, Woman in Leadership, Finding Next, and Coolness that Matters.
Jes Averhart
Founder of the Reinvention Roadmap and CoFounder/CEO of Cultrue
Jes a sought after speaker in entrepreneurial diversity and minority business equity/ wealth building. She is also Co-Founder of Black Wall Street Homecoming, an annual networking conference for early-stage entrepreneurs of color. Jes also served as Director of Corporate Partnerships for The American Underground, one of 11 Google Start Up Hubs, managing the partnership relationships for Google for Startups, Google Fiber, Wells Fargo, Fidelity Labs, Lincoln Financial, Audi, Lenovo, Duke I&E, and the Research Triangle Park.
Joshua Gunn, B.K.A. JGUNN.
Durham, NC’s native Joshua Gunn represents the crux of what some refer to as the “Creative Economy.” A well respected hip hop artist, an entrepreneur, a community organizer and an executive with the Chamber of Commerce; Those are things that don’t often wind up in the same sentence. Gunn has managed to seamless merge these worlds, without trading one for another, and using his in creative and performing arts skills in spaces that don’t traditionally fit the “Creative” box. He is also Founder of Black August in the Park, and a partner in the Provident1898 a co-working space centered on the legacy of black entrepreneurship and diversity and inclusion.
Dave Alsobrooks
Dave Alsobrooks, is currently the Chief Brand Officer at Seez, a company best known as a rare fusion of strategic consulting and best in class marketing services. He is also one of the original Co-Founders of The Paragraph Project, a consumer research and brand strategy company and served as a partner for 14 years. Dave actively pursues his passion as a conceptual artist with a business known as Chasing Bear. His work reflects his interest in social commentary through conceptual art, design, and a decidedly Southern point of view.