I’ve been organizing professional and cultural communities and hosting events since 2001, always striving to make them welcoming, accessible, and genuinely representative of the fields and constituents they serve.
Building and convening these communities has been a throughline of my career — not as a side project, but as a way to stay embedded in the fields I work in, test ideas, and build the relationships that make everything else possible. Many of the conversations I start at these events continue on my podcasts — and vice versa.
To keep a little balance in my social life, I have also volunteered to help organize and run a number of artistic and cultural communities.
The Dataworthy Collective
May 2021-present
Co-organize weekly gathering of semantic tech professionals (and regularly attended meetings of its precursor entity, the Personal Knowledge Graph Working Group)
Kinetic Council
October 2023-present
Founding co-organizer of the formation committee for the Kinetic Information Association, a “big tent” professional body for the people who structure knowledge and ascribe meaning to it
The Knowledge Graph Conference
January 2021-present
Currently host conference webinars and convene weekly ontology chat; previously chaired content graph programming track, convened speakers and attendees at conference networking events, and co-hosted book club
Future of Content
April 2023-present
Founding co-organizer for Amsterdam-based professional meetup — program planning, panel moderation, emceeing, and general organizing
Decoupled Days
January 2022-August 2025
Co-organized annual developer- and business-focused conference on decoupled content architectures — programming, speaker relations, panel moderation, event planning, sponsor outreach, event promotion
Connected Data London
July-December 2024
Led team of five speaker-liaison volunteers, coordinated on-site assignments, and collaborated with AV and other event vendors
Content Strategy Seattle
May 2018-January 2023
Co-organized large monthly meetup of content professionals – managed venue and sponsor relationships, led event production, produced and hosted Zoom events, post-event video production
World Information Architecture Day
September 2020-February 2022
Co-organized WIAD Phoenix 2021 and 2022 events — speaker recruitment, event planning, emceeing, coordination with parent/sponsoring organization
Seattle Community Events
January 2017-March 2020
Curated eclectic weekly community events listing covering the arts, world music, local culture, design, technology, journalism, media, and other topics
WordPress open-source project
August 2016-February 2019
Member of Global Community Sponsor committee, served as community deputy, co-launched speaker-diversity program, organized multiple WordCamp Seattle events (2-day, 500-attendee conference)
Ignite Seattle
May 2015-June 2019
Served as “slide wrangler” for the original franchise of this global community speaking program, managing slide presentations and coaching speakers on presentation skills — also general event planning and website content strategy
Dent Conference Code of Conduct Committee
November 2017-February 2018
Collaborated with team of ethics experts and community conveners to create a community code of conduct and values statement for annual thought leadership conference
Fremont Noodle House Group
February 1998-February 2013
Organized regular (at least monthly but sometimes weekly) business networking lunches for independent professionals and small-business owners — grew to include Hollywood screenwriters, professional speakers, playwrights, prominent startup founders, and many others
TEDxSeattle
June 2011-December 2012
Co-organizing and on-site leadership roles for curated speaking series — led production management team for the 2011 event and supervised the stage management team for the 2012 event
One World Dance
September 2001-May 2010
Founding co-organizer of African-inspired dance class and community, which ultimately became an international cultural-exchange program — planned, launched, and ran original music program
World Rhythm Festival
January 2001-December 2003
Co-organizer and board member of the Seattle World Percussion Society, which hosted annual 4-day, 10,000-attendee music, dance, and culture festival