Unfinished Live Episode Two: Democracy & Voice
On November 10th, 2020, the second of four episodes of the Unfinished Live digital series streamed live on the web to an international audience. Focused on big societal issues and how conversations can lead to impact and positive change, Unfinished Live is a new kind of intelligent digital programming that combines storytelling and content with live audience interactivity and calls to action.
One week after the U.S. presidential election, the second episode topic was Democracy and Voice and examined the urgent questions about the future of democracy.
Writer, Artist and Activist, Baratunde Thurston, served as host guiding the audience through a fast-paced hour of insight discussions, films, and artistic commissions that invited the audience to participate and ask how do we citizen?
Bringing together a wide range of disparate voices and perspectives, episode two included artists Yo-Yo Ma, Carrie Mae Weems, Alfredo Jaar and Hank Willis Thomas, Artist & Co-Founder of For Freedoms; the preacher, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Co-Chair, Poor People's Campaign; Architect, Forward Together Moral Monday Movement, the innovators, Eric Liu, CEO & Co-Founder, Citizen University, Krista Tippett, Host and Creator, On Being and David Bornstein, Journalist, Author & Co-Founder, Solutions Journalism Network; the academics, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Author, Speaker, Commentator & Co-Founder, Echelon Insights, Arthur Brooks, Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School & Arthur C. Patterson Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School.
The program consisted of live host segments, dynamic films and thought provoking performances to showcase lived experience, creative expression and real-world candor. Each conversation reminded us: Who is the “we” in ‘we the people?’ What do we owe each other? When can the healing start? Where do we go from here? What is the democracy of the future? Through conversations, interviews, exchanges and roundtable discussions, experts joined everyday voices in a nuanced exploration of possibility and discovery on the episode’s topic.
Unfinished Live has partnered with an unparalleled, impact-driven partner network to create both the series and the impact platform (see below) including The Aspen Institute, The Shed, For Freedoms, Imperative 21, Ashoka, Georgetown, MilM2, McCourt and PolicyLink.
Empire is proud to serve as producer of this important series, managing the development and production of each episode as well as the overall project.
About Unfinished
Unfinished is an impact network and media platform devoted to the simple idea that if we open our minds and create the space for possibilities, we can advance powerful solutions to the most critical challenges of our time. By tapping into the power of communities, creative media and new technology, we connect thought-leaders, culture-shapers, policy-makers and innovators to provoke ideas, elevate unheard voices and pursue collaborations for greater impact.
To learn more and to RSVP for an upcoming episode visit: https://unfinished.com/
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
