Derek Woodgate, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer

President, The Futures Lab, Inc.

Derek established Plutopia (together with Jon Lebkowsky) as an extension of his earlier highly successful venture, Fringecore (The International Forum for Progressive Culture), in order to provide a platform for the convergence of technology, entertainment and the arts in Austin.

In selecting progressive culture and its futuristic overtones, Derek has managed to build a bridge between his work as a world-renowned futurist /author and a cultural maven. Derek’s projects for Fringecore and Plutopia have embraced artist management, development and representation; performance and event production, as well as publishing. With an emphasis on progressive and avant-garde music, spoken word and the visual arts, Derek has worked with a plethora of international artists including Sonic Youth, DJ Spooky, Diamanda Galas, Michael Gira and The Swans / Angels of Light, Nels Cline, Dinosaur Jr. Mike Watt, Marc Ribot, Jim O’Rourke, Maggie Estep, Bob Holman, John Zorn, Beau Sia, Mike Ladd, The Critical Art Ensemble and many more.

Derek has also worked as a consultant on future program development for MTV, Showtime, WorldSpace, Blastro, Clear Channel and the BBC, as has been a keynote speaker at numerous entertainment-related conferences, including: The California Arts Council, CMJ Music Conference, Cutting Edge Business Music Conference, New Orleans, International Live Music Festival in London and has been a regular panelist at SXSW since 1995.

His books include: Future Frequencies, (2004) hailed as “creating a unique paradigm in the professional futurist field”, Future Flow (March, 2010) with a preface by DJ Spooky, and Calling The Toads – A Burroughs Compendium (1999) co-authored with Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Allen Ginsberg and Douglas Brinkley.

Derek has a Masters in Political Economics and has lived and worked in eleven countries and is at home in seven languages.

He is on the board of the Association of Professional Futurists and Dart Music International and President of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Futures Society.

Jon Lebkowsky, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Co-founder, Social Web Strategies

Jon Lebkowsky is a culture and business strategist and thought leader focused on the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the social uses of digital technologies. An early online community moderator on The Well, and a founder of Fringeware – one of the first internet businesses, Jon has been a direct participant in the formative conversations that generated our contemporary global digital society. Writing on digital culture, technology, media, and global sustainability, he was one of the web’s first bloggers, having blogged regularly since 2000. He is an acknowledged authority on the social web, online communities, web development, public wireless broadband, and e-democracy. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lebkowsky)

He was involved in online community and e-commerce projects throughout the 1990s, and worked with bOING bOING (as associate editor for the original paper zine), HotWired, The Whole Earth Catalog, Electric Minds, and many other web and cyberculture projects and endeavors during the World Wide Web’s first decade. In the late 90s, he was actively involved in the creation of e-commerce and online community initiatives for Whole Foods Market. After leaving Whole Foods, he formed Polycot Consulting, one of Austin’s lead web consulting and development companies through the 2000s. He was involved in the emergence of social technology in the early 2000s, and has been a leader in the use of social technology for political activism. With Mitch Ratcliffe, he co-edited the book Extreme Democracy

Jon is very active in technology, business and arts communities. His projects include:

• President, EFF-Austin
• Vice President, Austin Wireless
• Former Member, Board of Directors, Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society
• Cofounder, Austin Wireless City Project
• Advisor for the annual South by Southwest Interactive conference
• Member, Executive Board of Directors, Digital Convergence Initiative of the Texas Technology Corridor
• Core Collaborator, Bootstrap Austin, and leader of its Web Subgroup
• Cofounder (with Clay Shirky), You’re It!, a group blog about tagging.
• Manager, Wireless Future, an IC² Institute project that produced a major economic development report as well as a national wireless track within South by Southwest Interactive.
• Former Board Member and President, Austin Free-net.
• Cofounder, Social Software Alliance.
• Former Advisory Board member, University of Texas Science, Technology, and Society Program
• Former Member, Board of Directors, SalsaNet

Maggie Duval, Chief Operating Officer
Executive Producer, Annual Plutopia Party
Principal, maggiedot.com
Senior Adviser on Technology, New Media & Sustainability, Invision Group, LLC

Maggie is a gifted noeticist and visionary who offers rare insight into and understanding of current, evolving and emerging technologies. She has been an entrepreneur for almost two decades – enjoying a successful career as an independent technology, Web, marketing and creative business development consultant. Maggie began her technology career in 1989 at CompuCom Systems. She broadened her technical knowledge with Exemplar Logic, a technology leader in programmable logic synthesis for UNIX and Windows platforms. In 1995 she began working as a freelance Web developer. From 1995-1997 with Pearce Communications of California, a “boutique” PR firm, she co-managed media relations for Burning Man in 1996.

Maggie is an expert in creating and producing unique marketing events, workshops, and conferences which are immersive, engaging, and iconoclastic – bringing together business, tech and ‘cultural creatives’ in exciting and innovative ways to dialogue and work together. Her current work in this area includes the SXSW Interactive related event Plutopia, One Web Day, the wildly successful Austin Non-Profit Bar Camp, sustainable community building workshops and ongoing “emerging paradigm” salons.

She lives in Austin, TX where she is active in numerous cultural, sustainability and economic development initiatives and as a partner in Plutopia Productions, Inc.

Bon Davis, Chief Technical Officer

Bon Davis offers a broad and diverse career spanning the academic, theatrical and cultural realms which gives him an unprecedented depth and breadth of production insight and expertise to supports his vision of presenting unique events that are thought provoking as well as entertaining. Steeped in theater since youth he is fluent in all aspects of theatrical and technical production from the conceptual to the practical. His work spans many head of department and steward positions to work in all theatrical departments such as electrics, carpentry, wardrobe and props. While he enjoys all facets of the theatrical realm, his specialty is large-scale production. He currently works for Ballet Austin and the University of Texas Performing Arts Center.

His dossier ranges from local cultural and corporate events to full-scale opera, ballet and Broadway productions including The Phantom of the Opera, Lion King, The Wizard of Oz, Dead Man Walking, Waiting for the Barbarians, The Nutcracker and Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing.

Bon has also enjoyed an active academic career (BA in Classics, MA in Anthropology) with his research focused on the Iconography and Performance of Ritual and Political Leaders in Mesoamerica. He has held several positions in field archeology with universities, private firms and state agencies and served as technical coordinator for the Maya Meetings at the University of Texas. Bon’s participation on the administrative side covers everything from database design, systems administration, and volunteer coordination to event planning and design. Academic experience includes publication, presentation at Professional Meetings and collaboration with scholars from the US, Holland, Finland, England and other countries.

His cultural activities range from visual and multimedia art, to poetry performance and large-scale participatory ritual, to percussion performance and teaching, jazz trombone, and acting, directing and stunt work for film and stage. He has been Leader of the Drum Gods Drum and Dance Theme Camp at Burning Man and at other Regional events. His artwork has been exhibited and published in several galleries in Austin, Texas and Buffalo, NY. He lives in Austin, TX where he serves as a Journeyman member of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts (IASTE) Local 205. He has also served on the Executive Board of IATSE Local 205 and Drums Not Guns.