Creators not Consumers
In a world overflowing with content, feeds, and endless input, the question is simple: are we just taking it all in, or are we actually making something with it?
We are more connected, more stimulated, and more “on” than ever before. But access alone does not create agency. Scrolling is easy. Creating takes curiosity, imagination, and the willingness to turn ideas into something real.
Creators, Not Consumers is a call to move from passive consumption to active contribution, and to cultivate the curiosity, confidence, and creativity that turn inspiration into action and action into impact.
The Human Advantage Summit brings together parents, educators, community leaders, and creatives for an evening of ideas, conversation, and shared experience. Through transformative keynote speakers, live music, visual art, storytelling, and a special performance by Boulder Ballet, we’ll explore the distinctly human qualities that shape how we learn, create, connect, and contribute: curiosity, creativity, emotional wellness, resilience, and purpose.
keynote speakers
Katina Bajaj
Co-Founder, Daydreamers | Creative Health Scientist
Katina Bajaj is a Creative Health Scientist and co-founder of Daydreamers, a Silicon Valley-based startup exploring the connection between creativity and human health. She coined the term Creative Health and has spent years developing the research, frameworks, and science behind a powerful idea: creativity isn’t a luxury. It’s a survival mechanism.
Katina holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University’s Mind-Body Institute and is an Aspen Institute Health Fellow. She recently gave a TED Talk, How Play Boosts Your Creativity and Resilience, on what she calls the Play Deprivation Crisis. Her work has also been featured in TIME, Fast Company, and Health. Through Daydreamers, she translates creativity research into science-backed tools that help people rebuild their creative capacity, navigate uncertainty, and thrive.
Patrick Marold
Artist | Sculptor
Patrick Marold is a Colorado-based artist and sculptor whose work explores the relationship between landscape, material, light, and movement. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a Fulbright Fellow in Iceland, he has spent more than three decades creating site-specific works that invite people to experience the natural world in new ways.
His notable projects include The Windmill Project, an installation capturing the choreography of wind; Shadow Array, a seven-acre installation at Denver International Airport; and Solar Drones at Canada’s National Music Centre. Across his practice, Patrick uses natural forces, changing conditions, and human perception to create work that is never entirely static, encouraging us to slow down, pay attention, and reconsider our relationship to place.
Jeffrey Palmer
Film Maker | Associate Professor, Cornell University
Jeffrey Palmer is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, and Associate Professor at Cornell University. A member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, his work explores Indigenous identity, history, culture, and the power of storytelling to connect people across generations and experiences.
His feature documentary debut, N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, aired nationally on PBS’s American Masters, and earned an Emmy nomination and the Ted Turner Award. His work has been supported by Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, and ITVS, and has screened internationally. Jeffrey has also created documentary installations for the Barack Obama Presidential Center, bringing film, memory, and lived experience together through immersive storytelling.
