John Maeda Speaks as Part of Arts Orange County's 5th Annual 'Creative Edge' Lecture Today

John Maeda, author of the best-selling book Redesigning Leadership, will be the featured speaker at the fifth annual Creative Edge Lecture today, March 26 from 9-10:30 a.m. at the Renee & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, presented by Arts Orange County, Fourth District PTA, Orange County Department of Education and Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The title sponsors of the event are The Boeing Company and Phil & Mary Lyons.

John Maeda has long been a champion of STEAM Education [Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) as a way to build our students into creative thinkers. STEAM-style education can be a powerful pathway to deliver enjoyable, meaningful and more engaging instruction as well as give our students an advantage in a workplace focused on innovation.

John Maeda is a leader who imagines and demonstrates how design can simplify technology and help us all to respond to new challenges in this era of expanding social media. His work as a graphic designer, computer scientist, artist and educator earned for him the distinction of being named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine and one of the best Twitter feeds by Time.

Through his personal journey from MIT to the Rhode Island School of Design, the nation's leading art and design college, Maeda's creative nature and abilities make him a different sort of leader - one who values how art, design, technology and business interrelate. In this candid, entertaining and instructive talk, Maeda will use perspectives drawn from his various backgrounds to discuss new leadership techniques he's learned since taking the helm of the Rhode Island School of Design months before the Great Recession. He will explain how digital connectedness has changed the approach and practices of successful leadership.

What are the opportunities and limits of using social media in the new networked organization?

What does leadership even look like today?

How can we adapt and move forward in our ever-changing innovation economy?

Maeda will also explore how American students can stay on the leading edge of innovation and remain competitive in a hyper-connected world.

The Creative Edge Lecture Series was established by Arts Orange County to celebrate the role of creativity in all human endeavors and to inform how the arts and arts education contribute to maximizing our creative efforts. Previous speakers include Daniel H. Pink, Sir Ken Robinson, Randy Nelson and Tom Kelley. Orange County citizens interested in globally competitive businesses, educators, and family members who want to ensure their children will thrive in an empowered, creative workforce are encouraged to attend and learn what it takes to create that future.

"No one but John Maeda can give us the secrets of simplicity and the power that comes from simply leading. (Redesigning Leadership) is a contemporary leader's handbook." Beth Comstock, Chief Marketing Officer GE Called the "Steve Jobs of academia" by Forbes, he believes art and design are poised to transform our economy in the 21st century like science and technology did in the last century. Maeda previously served as associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab. He serves as Chairman of the ebay Design Advisory Board on the boards of Sonos, Quirky, and Wieden+Kennedy, and on the Davos World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership. His books include The Laws of Simplicity, Creative Code, and Redesigning Leadership, which expands on his Twitter feed at @johnmaeda, one of TIME Magazine's 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2012. Maeda received the AIGA Medal in 2010 and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Maeda served as President of Rhode Island School of Design from 2008 until 2013, and in late 2012, Business Insider named RISD the #1 design school in the world.

Tickets are $25 for a limited time and are on sale now online at www.scfta.org by phone at (714) 556-2787 and at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts box office, 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa.

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