#Venture x Dallas Park Cities

[fiviza]

Why is Coworking Space Gaining Popularity?

It’s difficult to say when Coworking space first got its start. Data suggests the idea of a shared office space started in Berlin in 1995. A group of hackers decided to get together in a designated space. The concept caught on, and the first coworking space in the United States opened in San Francisco in 2005. Since then, coworking has become popular. Works well for freelancers, and solo practitioners in a professional industry. Even for an entrepreneur, a shared work space works well. Shared office space offers an opportunity to work in a well-equipped office. Without having to shoulder the high costs of maintaining a brick-and-mortar location.

Why Coworking

Business professionals from diverse backgrounds can now come in contact. They collaborate more while operating within the confines of a coworking space establishment. So, working professionals can connect and build networks in a productive way.

Throughout the world, independent creatives are seeking workspaces to provide them with more solidity, clarity, and drive.

More people turn to shared work spaces as an alternative. Traditional office setting, binding to a single room, is fading. The demographics of coworking offices are shifting. A 2019 survey of coworking space around the world reveals some fascinating statistics. Here is what the survey found out about the people who use coworking.

Women Outnumbered Men as Coworking Users

For the first time, women passed men as the majority of coworking members. As of 2019, women accounted for more than 50 percent of people who used coworking space.

A research firm behind the survey asked coworking members. What percentage of coworking space users were women? The percentage received as an answer was 40 percent.

According to researchers, there is a gap between people’s perceptions and reality. However, only on weekdays do women typically utilize offices less frequently than men do. The number of women utilizing the coworking space may have been underestimated by the survey participants, according to researchers. During the week, few women are seen.

Freelancers are the Biggest Coworking Demographic

Freelancers have made up the biggest number of individuals who use coworking space. This didn’t change in 2019. According to the survey, freelancers account for 42 percent of people who use coworking space.

In large cities, employees made up the biggest number of coworking users. Researchers also found that employees dominated in large cities in North America and Asia. Whereas Europe tended to have higher percentages of freelancers using coworking spaces.

The Age of Coworking Members Remained Steady

On average, people who use flexible office spaces are in their mid-to-late-30s, with the average age being 36. Researchers found that both younger and older people are turning to coworking spaces. With ages spanning a wide enough range to keep the average age steady.

Regardless of their age, coworking members tend to be highly educated. Eighty percent of coworking users have a college degree among all age groups.

Coworking Spaces are Predominately White

Researchers found that coworking spaces in the United States tend to have an ethnic divide. According to the survey, 90 percent of coworking users in the U.S. identified as Caucasian. The research firm behind the survey stated that 2019 was the first year they asked coworking users in the U.S. to self-identify as a particular race.

The firm also stated that it didn’t ask this question when surveying coworking members overseas. Ethnicity comparisons don’t offer much meaning in countries with a less diverse population. For example, a survey of coworking members in an Asian country will reveal that the number of coworking members identifies as Asian.

In the U.S., the general population is much more diverse. So questions about ethnicity offer more nuanced data. Researchers are hopeful these numbers can help the coworking industry. To raise awareness about coworking as an option among minority business owners and entrepreneurs. Many solo attorneys and small law firms have been using executive offices. 

There are Wage Gaps Among Coworking Members

The survey also revealed some interesting data about wage discrepancies among various demographics.

For example, women in coworking office spaces are less than men on average. Additionally, people who were classified as self-employed, regardless of gender, often made less money. People working for an employer made more money. Coworking members who lived in large cities earned a higher income than their rural or suburban counterparts.

Digital Nomads Continue to Rely on Coworking Spaces

The number of coworking users who rely on coworking space while working abroad held steady at 14 percent. This refers to people who spend at least part of their year traveling overseas. They continue to work during their travels. Among coworking members who worked abroad, the majority earned a higher income. As compared to those who worked without traveling. Researchers say this could be due to the cost of living in countries where digital nomads work.

Get Ready to Work

Venture X Dallas Park Cities offers everything you are looking for in a flexible coworking space. Whether you are in need of a shared desk or community space. A few times a month or for daily use, Venture X coworking has got you covered. Need a bigger office for a team of employees? They can accommodate that too!

Coworking spaces are emerging as key disruptors in revamping the future of work. Encouraging a flexible and collaborative work culture empowers employees with ample room to evolve. Also, it helps organizations take a huge step toward business growth.

It’s an exciting mix of a traditional office and the growing work-from-home movement. If you’re looking for ways to trim your budget and grow your practice, coworking space in Dallas is an option to consider. Moreover, coworking offers the potential for authentic community and human connection.

Read More: https://venturex.com/locations/dallas-park-cities/

Venture X Dallas Park Cities 

8350 North Central Expressway, Suite 1900 Dallas, TX 75206

[funemployed-fangirl]

Modern Bridgerton AU

Daphne & Simon

Daphne is a typical upper class NYC society girl whose goal is to marry money and spend her life as a stay-at-home mom who brunches and plans fundraisers. She goes to a small, but well-respected liberal arts college (like Swarthmore) and gets a degree in an unemployable but respectable subject (like English Literature or French). 

Simon has recently inherited his father’s venture capital firm, only to discover the company is facing a PR crisis after his father’s not entirely ethical investment practices have come to light. And his personal reputation isn’t helping. Simon wants to sell the company so he can move onto other pursuits (probably spending his trust fund on drunken antics anywhere other than New York), but he can’t with all the current negative media attention.  

Daphne hears about the situation from her brother, and when she runs into Simon at the next social function, she proposes a deal: They pretend to date. He gets a PR boost from being connected to the Bridgerton family and looking more stable in his personal life, and she gets to piss off her older brother (Anthony) by dating his best friend.

Not long into their arrangement, Daphne organizes a charity tennis tournament. Anthony is pissed that his best friend is dating his sister, who is 8 years younger than them, and challenges Simon to a doubles match. Simon asks their mutual friend Will Mondrich to be his partner - Simon is actually a pretty terrible tennis player, but Will played in college. Anthony drags Benedict in to be his partner - Benedict also isn’t thrilled about Daphne dating a guy 8 years older than her, but knows better than to do anything about it (“Dude, you’re actually gonna do this? You know how hard she hits.”), so he’s only half in it. Colin and Daphne are watching from the slide. Colin can’t stop laughing, and Daphne is about to murder someone. 

The boys get it out of their system and come to a tenuous peace, with Simon promising Anthony he has dropped his playboy ways. But Simon doesn't actually have any intentions to get married, even after he’s maybe (but like probably not?) starting to fall in love with Daphne. She finds out about his plans to sell the company and leave New York and is PISSED. She might be willing to never actually get married (look, she really likes him), but she doesn't want to leave her family, and FOR SURE doesn't want to do long distance. Simon doesn't understand what the big deal with long distance is. 

Everyone in New York thinks they have some picture perfect relationship, but Daphne is starting to see cracks and feel the pressure. It leads her to pick a fight with Simon, who goes on a business trip to Dallas (Chicago? Denver? Look, he’s not in New York, does it matter where he goes?) to look at this other company he's thinking about buying, and he hates everything about the 2 weeks he's gone because Daphne’s not there. He gets back and they make up. They’re engaged 6 months later. 

Once they get married, there’s some disagreement on where they’ll live - Daphne wants to stay close, but Simon wants some distance from the Upper East Side and wouldn’t mind getting out of the city. They compromise and move to Park Slope. After a couple of years, they have a couple of kids, and once their children are school aged, Daphne decides she needs something to do that gets her out of the house. Anthony offers to have her come work with him at the family company, making her a VP of some such that she can do part-time.

more (x)

[biofunmy]

The Last Five Glamour Shots Locations in the United States

EL PASO — Glamour Shots was once the coolest store in every mall. Boomer mothers and Gen-X teens and 20-somethings paid $29.95 for makeovers and photography sessions defined by big hair, white satin gloves, heavy eye shadow and contemplative poses, in an era when pictures were taken for special occasions and not just to commemorate every brunch.

At its mid-90s peak, Glamour Shots had more than 350 stores, with licensees in Venezuela, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Now, in 2019, just five stores remain — although there were seven stores last month. Most of these scant survivors have adapted with the times. What they have in common is that each is steered by devoted, longtime owners who have embraced a more natural look and whose business and photography skills were enough to persuade families, professionals and high school kids that a glamour shot could be taken for work, special occasions and graduations — not merely for entertainment.

Two stores remain at malls in Bridgewater and Freehold, N.J. The secret to their endurance? “We’re in New Jersey,” said Cliff Eng, the owner of both. “We got malls everywhere.” Another Glamour Shots store owned by Mr. Eng in Rockaway, N.J., closed just last week. Mr. Eng said the mall ownership was not being flexible on rent. But he’s still optimistic about Glamour Shots — Mr. Eng is already evaluating options for a new Glamour Shots at malls in Paramus and Cherry Hill.

But at nearly the same time, a Glamour Shots in Ellicott City, Md. also closed and was disappeared from the Glamour Shots website.

And the fifth remaining Glamour Shots is in El Paso — the last location west of the Mississippi.

El Paso is the only city in the world where it’s likely that a majority of millennials have a glamour shot.

✿

A glamour shot was not subtle. The makeovers were about big hair, doused in spray, and heavy amounts of foundation, powder and blush intended to make the customers, almost always women, feel like they were preparing for the runway. Staff at a Cincinnati Glamour Shots once boasted they could turn any customer into Cindy Crawford. They’d even paint on a mole.

For the photos, women picked four outfits from an assortment of jackets, wraps, furs, bustiers and dresses. Sequins were practically mandatory.

The photographers shot only from the waist up. They used camera filters that smoothed out wrinkles and blemishes. After the photo session, customers viewed their pictures on a video screen — immediately, thanks to proprietary technology — and selected their favorite looks. Jack Counts Jr., the Oklahoma City entrepreneur who started the company, described the filtering and makeover method that allowed customers to see a touched-up version of themselves as a precursor to Instagram but “in a real way.”

Mr. Counts was already owner of a photo finishing business called Candid Color Systems in 1988 when he learned of a store in Hawaii that offered a makeover with a photo session. His original location in Oklahoma City had the name Fantasy Faces. The company didn’t take off until he opened a store in Dallas that went by Glamour Shots.

Ads with before-and-after photos landed in almost every local newspaper. Olympic figure skater and ’90s icon Tonya Harding visited a studio in her Oregon hometown multiple times, according to The Vancouver Columbian.

In 1996, Glamour Shots was seeing $100 million in sales and had 6,000 employees, according to estimates from The Wall Street Journal and The Oklahoman at the time.

But the brand was based on a fashion trend that had already crested. By the late ’90s, said Jimmy Paul, a well-known hair stylist, grunge had gone mainstream, and looks shaped by Helmut Lange and Prada ushered in the minimalist era. “Makeup and hair got very stripped down,” he said. “It became about flat irons and straightening.”

While the portrait studio business overall remained stable — census figures showed modest growth in the industry from the late ’90s until the 2008 recession — many of the 350 Glamour Shots stores folded by the end of the 20th century, unable to escape their association with the outdated style.

“It just became passé,” said Bob Eveleth, the first Glamour Shots licensee and owner of nearly 50 stores at the company’s peak. “We did one focus group in North Carolina. One of the guys was talking about giving Glamour Shots gift certificates as a joke. And I thought we kind of crossed that threshold.” (Mr. Eveleth is doing fine.)

The remaining stores wilted in failing malls that charged steep rents. Then Apple and Samsung equipped every cellphone with a quality camera. About five years ago, with 30 to 40 stores left, a popular Groupon promotion provided a fleeting burst of new customers before technology almost completely wiped out Glamour Shots altogether.

Mr. Eng, the owner of the two remaining New Jersey locations, was the go-to guy for Glamour Shots modernization in the early 2000s. He traveled all over the country, advising stores to ditch the old wardrobes, offer boudoir sessions and business headshots, take full-body photos and emphasize a more luxurious, more expensive spa experience. The average sale at his stores is around $500, compared to $100 for typical stores in the ’90s. The high prices are the only way for Mr. Eng to cover his $12,000-and-up monthly rents, which he said he was currently trying to negotiate down.

Ms. Lovello, 32, started working at Mr. Eng’s Bridgewater store when she was 16. She doesn’t remember the big hair days of Glamour Shots and mostly keeps a no-90s policy at her store in Staten Island. “You’re not going to bring a boa in here,” Ms. Lovello said. “Let’s be real.”

People walking by the New Jersey stores now see giant photo collages of customers who have gone the natural route. Mr. Eng needs them to know Glamour Shots has changed.

✿

But in El Paso, Leonora Campbell pivoted faster and more furiously than everyone else. She has defied major shifts in technology and fashion to sustain her business for nearly three full decades. Now 65, she opened her Glamour Shots in 1991.

Ms. Campbell moved to the U.S. from Antigua, Guatemala, on a student visa at age 16, and spent her first night on a restroom bench at the Houston airport after missing a flight connection. She received a business administration degree, had a daughter, and once worked at a grand department store in El Paso called The White House. That’s where Ms. Campbell met a man she said was a former Calvin Klein model. They would marry but he also introduced her to Glamour Shots, a more enduring relationship.

She studied photography for a year before opening the store. When she did, she set up video screens that were visible from the outside, and mall visitors gathered on benches to see which portraits customers would choose.

In 1997, ahead of the curve, Ms. Campbell moved her store out of the mall to a strip center about eight miles east of downtown. Other Glamour Shots owners told her she would fail.

But the strip center location better accommodated her mostly Spanish-speaking clientele. The larger store has room for the extended families she previously needed to turn away. Teams of young women in escaramuza charra uniforms can bring their horses to the studio’s back parking lot for team portraits. Without needing to keep mall hours, Ms. Campbell can also venture out to shoot quinceañeras.

And, when the Americas High School opened at around the same time, it offered her a contract to be the exclusive student photographer. With an endless stream of customers, Ms. Campbell wasn’t that interested — but she accepted, figuring she could cancel if it didn’t work out.

Now she and her staff have contracts with 20 area high schools.

In Ms. Campbell’s Honda Odyssey (with nearly 200,000 miles on it), she and the team travel to photograph the underclassmen for yearbook photos. Seniors, accustomed to seeing the Glamour Shots logo on the staff’s black polo shirts, also come down to the studio for their senior portraits.

The consistent churn of high schoolers from the last two decades means that, while Ms. Campbell’s revenue isn’t quite what it was in the mid-90s, now she knows or has shot almost everyone in El Paso, including superintendents, firefighters, workers in Beto O’Rourke’s congressional office and the singer Khalid, of “American Teen” fame.

“We kind of call her our mother,” said Ashley Diaz, 31, a high school teacher who works frequently with Ms. Campbell. “She has our back.”

She and her ex-husband divorced amicably not long before she moved her store to the strip mall. “I knew your baby was Glamour Shots,” Ms. Campbell remembers him telling her. It is: A trip home to Antigua this year for Holy Week marked Ms. Campbell’s first vacation in nine years.

✿

In Staten Island, friends routinely ask Ms. Lovello why she doesn’t ditch the Glamour Shots title. She works with “Jersey Shore” star Nicole “Snooki” LaValle on a monthly basis, filming her YouTube channel, and snapped a holiday card for Melissa Gorga of “Real Housewives.”

“There’s still like some kind of security,” she said, “about having the large, branded name Glamour Shots.”

The name does have a currency. When Mary Swope, 53, first went in 1994, she chose a look — curled hair, bangs, hoop earrings and a black jacket — that was “completely out of my comfort zone,” she said.

“They really went overboard,” she said. “They really made you feel like a model.”

And, 23 years later, Ms. Swope, while taking care of her ailing mother, realized she wanted a quality photo of herself to later pass down to her children and grandchildren. Her memory from Glamour Shots inspired her to drive two and a half hours from Lancaster, Pa., to the nearest store, in Bridgewater.

Sonia Frontera, an attorney and author in Lambertville, N.J., also recently went to the Bridgewater Glamour Shots, but for a LinkedIn profile picture. She remembered a friend who spoke highly of the chain during their law school days in the 1990s. After she saw how good she looked in the recent photos, Ms. Frontera signed up for boudoir shots.

“I find my glamour shots to be very empowering,” she said.

The experience still had friendly reminders of the Glamour Shots of Gen X yore. The makeup artist didn’t assume Ms. Frontera would prefer a natural, modern look, for example. About to apply foundation, she asked: “Do you want it dramatic?” Ms. Frontera did not.

In the back of Ms. Campbell’s El Paso store, next to a set of graduation gowns, she keeps pink and white feather boas for the rare customer who desires some retro style.

“Those are my 1991 boas,” Ms. Campbell said. “I take care of them very well.”

Sahred From Source link Fashion and Style

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2PVeKjc via IFTTT

[thenextrush]

The world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney returns in 2018 with a spectacular new precinct at Luna Park, the return of much-loved Customs House, and a fantastical blend of everyday objects and Australian-inspired motifs on the sails of the Sydney Opera House. Vivid Sydney 2018 – Lighting of the Sails by Jonathan Zawada

Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Adam Marshall said, “Vivid Sydney has delighted and inspired people from around Australia and the world. With the Festival now in its 10th year, visitors and locals alike can once again expect to be mesmerised by the Vivid Sydney program, with larger installations and a gripping Music and Ideas offering, so I encourage visitors to start planning their trip early to get the most out of this year’s exciting line-up.

“Over 23 nights from Friday 25 May to Saturday 16 June, Vivid Sydney will paint the Harbour City in the colour and spectacle of Vivid Light, take over Sydney stages with Vivid Music’s electric performances and collaborations, and provide a global forum for thought-provoking debate and creative discussion at Vivid Ideas.”

Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency Destination NSW and in 2017, attracted a record-breaking 2.33 million attendees to Vivid Sydney, delivering an incredible $143 million of visitor expenditure into the NSW economy.

VIVID LIGHT For the first time, Vivid Sydney’s dazzling Light Walk extends to new precinct Luna Park Sydney, where the iconic amusement park comes alive with large-scale projection on the facade of Coney Island. The show celebrates the history, magic, creativity, engineering, fantasy and imagination that have come together to create millions of memories on this unique and special site.This year also marks the first time Luna Park’s iconic Ferris Wheel will be lit for the festival following an LED refit, which has included a massive boost in the number of lights adorning the wheel. Vivid Sydney 2018 Vivid Sydney’s bright lights will illuminate the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney again in 2018, where visitors will follow a pathway that weaves through an exciting nocturnal environment inspired by nature. Here, Parrot Party inspired by the New Zealand Kea Parrot and the Australian Rainbow Lorikeet, comes alive as people gather, breaking into song and radiating colourful light. Aqueous will dazzle with its interactive landscape of meandering pathways of light, which will flow and glow in full illuminated interactivity, engaging visitors in collaborative play. The Bloom, a giant electric, metallic flower with petals adorned with mirrors that refract and reflect light, puts you in the centre of the flower capturing the perfect photo moment, and He’e nalu gives the joyous sensation of surfing a wave.

In celebration of their 100 year anniversary, May Gibbs’ iconic and immortal characters, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and their stalwart companions come to life on the faade of Customs House, as they journey through the Australian Bush and encounter the weird, the wonderful, and things quite unknown altogether. This whimsical piece will be narrated by renowned Australian film and television actress Noni Hazlehurst AM, Patron of the Australian Children’s Laureate, and beloved by Play School devotees far and wide.

All eyes turn to the World-Heritage listed Sydney Opera House at the centre of the Vivid Light Walk for Lighting of the Sails, created in 2018 by award-winning Australian artist Jonathan Zawada. Visitors will be captivated by Metamathemagical, a bold and dynamic display of morphing digital sculptures inspired by recognisable Australian motifs across science, nature and culture.

Vivid Sydney 2018 Preview. Luna Park. 23rd May 2018. Photograph Dallas Kilponen

Sydney’s iconic buildings will once again be transformed, including the facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) with Virtual Vibration, a highly-collaborative creative work produced in conjunction with MCA Collection artist Jonny Niesche and composer Mark Pritchard. Interactive lighting display Skylark will let visitors put their own colourful mark on the city, stretching from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the skyscrapers of Circular Quay to the reaches of Sydney Harbour.

Network Ten and MasterChef Australia will bring a magical experience to the facade of the ASN Co. Building in The Rocks, in celebration of both Masterchef and Vivid Sydney’s 10th Birthday with Mystery Gateau. Mini construction-worker chefs will guide you on a journey of fun and wonderment, with the famous MasterChef clock ticking down to the final extraordinary surprise.

Popular precincts Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbour, Chatswood, Barangaroo and Kings Cross will return in 2018.

Festival favourites from last year are back along with a whole new mob of fierce, fantastic, quirky and endearing species for Taronga Zoo’s Lights for the Wild. Visitors will discover some new spectacular animal light sculptures, and learn how Taronga is working to help save 10 species from extinction over the next 10 years.

An art-meets-technology water fountain, light and laser experience takes Darling Harbour visitors into a dream-like dive under the ocean, while the iconic rooftop of the Australian National Maritime Museum will be projected with BBC Earth and Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, exploring the fascinating world beneath the waves.

A pop-up market inspired by the colourful neighbourhood street markets of Brazil, built from scaffold and recycled materials and lit by lasers will transform the Chatswood CBD. The Concourse will take visitors on an immersive, deep dive into space featuring NASA’s amazing imagery and 360-degree projection.

Barangaroo glows under layers of light and sound that evoke the surrounding waterways, with the precinct coming to life through the magnificent art of puppetry with a breathtaking, giant luminescent creature venturing along the waterfront in a theatrical display of sound and light.

Precinct contributor Coca-Cola returns to light up the streets of Sydney’s iconic Kings Cross and to support another KX program in 2018. The colourful strip along Darlinghurst Road will be transformed with a spectacular display of light and life. The famous Coca-Cola sign comes alive again in 2018 with an array of flair and a creative colour show. Other Vivid KX transformations include the historic Victorian Terrace; World Bar, which will unfurl a multi-story house party, and the renowned Kings Cross Hotel, which will host cutting-edge artists curated by legendary party-crews.

VIVID MUSIC

Vivid Music ups the ante in 2018 with an electric line-up, from noise to jazz, sonic experimentation to soul. Highlights include a one-night-only performance by Grammy award-winning rock-goddess St. Vincent, and the return of Curve Ball headlined by Alison Wonderland — a large-scale live music and art event created by the team behind Field Day, Harbourlife and Listen Out — both at Carriageworks.

The City Recital Hall returns to the program, tracking the extraordinary rise in jazz with the Innovators In Jazz series featuring the undisputed king, triple Grammy award-winner saxophonist Branford Marsalis.The world’s finest jazz vocalists including Kurt Elling and chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux, will line up alongside Orange is the New Black star Lea Delaria in her musical comedy, jazz interpretation show.

Vivid Music 2018: Curve Ball, Carriageworks, June 16, 2018. Photo by Anna Kucera

Vivid Music 2018: Curve Ball, Carriageworks, June 16, 2018. Photo by Anna Kucera

Vivid Music 2018: Curve Ball, Carriageworks, June 16, 2018. Photo by Anna Kucera

Vivid Music 2018: Curve Ball, Carriageworks, June 16, 2018. Photo by Anna Kucera

  Vivid LIVE at the Sydney Opera House hosts a stellar line-up of Australian exclusives as part of Vivid Sydney, including several Opera House debuts. Highlights this year include American dream-pop icons Mazzy Star, the godfather of West Coast rap Ice Cube, acclaimed 90s indie rock singer/songwriter Cat Power, Grammy award-winning artist Solange, and the long-awaited collaboration between iconic Australian artists Daniel Johns and Luke Steele.

Now in its 4th year as part of Vivid Sydney, Heaps Gay struts uptown to Sydney Town Hall for an unmissable experience, the inaugural Qween’s Ball. Other not-to-be missed events include Young Hearts Run Free and one of Australia’s most exciting breakthrough artists performing at the Enmore Theatre, Vera Blue.

Also returning to Vivid Music in 2018 is X|Celerate, a partnership between Vivid Sydney and the City of Sydney to enliven music venues across town. Showcasing grassroots and emerging local music talent, highlights will include Purple Sneakers 12th birthday at The Lansdowne, a fusion of food, wine and music at Cake Wines Cellar Door, and HAPPY and VISIONS at The Lady Hampshire.

Video – http://static.prnasia.com/…/video/20180320VIVIDSYDNEY1.mp4 Vivid Sydney 2018 – Lighting of the Sails by Jonathan Zawada

VIVID IDEAS

As architects of the future, it’s time to join the masterminds and creative catalysts at Vivid Ideas for inspiration. Vivid Ideas provides a forum to workshop, collaborate and cultivate fresh thinking to drive the creative agenda across tech, design, entertainment and culture. Vivid Ideas returns in 2018 with some of the world’s greatest minds as we explore the future-shaping scenarios that will define our lives.

Vivid Ideas 2018 showcases those who are leading the way in technology, creativity and science. Game Changers and Creative Catalysts this year include film-maker, marine explorer and conservationist James Cameron. In a Vivid Sydney exclusive, James will explore his passion for science and technology, and how it has influenced his work as a film director and environmentalist. James will be joined in conversation by Adam Spencer, while in Sydney to open the James Cameron – Challenging the Deep exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Australian global success story Dare Jennings — founder of Mambo Clothing, Phantom Records and Deus ex Machina — joins his good friend James Valentine to discuss creating cult brands that cut across age and lifestyles as well the joys of throwing out the rule book.

Futurist and game developer, Jane McGonigal can prove games have the power transform our real world lives. She and Artificial Intelligence expert Kriti Sharma join Vivid Ideas to explore the latest in AI, VR and gaming to ask what kind of society we can create with technology.

Visual strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-founder of the Museum of Awe, Dan Goods joins the Vivid Ideas Creative Catalysts line-up to explore how creativity and science interplay and why NASA has a virtual strategist.

The New Horizons series explores the mega-trends and micro-developments in technology and innovation, and shines a light on experts tackling the biggest issues with creativity in a bid to make our future brighter. Topics include Future Fashion, Algae is the New Black, Blockchain Decoded and Evolving Democracy.

Over three successive Wednesdays, Vivid Sydney will take over the Art Gallery of NSW to create an intimate portrait of our better selves. Our special guests dare to ask if we can improve dying, how we can find common ground when and where there’s conflict, and why we should nudge perceptions around female sexuality. These events will be accompanied by curated music from Goldheist, Air Land Sea and Haiku Hands.

The Vivid Ideas Exchange at the Museum of Contemporary Art returns, boasting a diverse line-up of talks presented by creative experts covering topics including the future of work, the ethics of humanising technology and how to become agents for change. Photo Credit: Destination NSW

Vivid Sydney Program Announced The world's largest festival of light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney returns in 2018 with a spectacular new precinct at Luna Park, the return of much-loved Customs House, and a fantastical blend of everyday objects and Australian-inspired motifs on the sails of the Sydney Opera House.