One of my favorite practices is to begin the year with a reflection on the big moments of the past year - sights seen, people met, things accomplished, lessons learned. 2013 was a team year, so it is fitting for this to be a public celebration.
| The epic moments of 2013 began when my friends Olga Reimgen and Stan Bugaev, co-founders of Epiclist, invited me to beta test their app. Epiclist captured adventures that I had completed, put cool pictures with it and pushed me to articulate things that I wanted to do. While it was easy for me to catalogue epic things that have happened, I had to think hard about what to put on a "want list". Would I dare to claim these epic dreams? I did and much to my delight- 2013 saw 7 of them realized!
|  FYI: Epiclist an app to help you realize epic outdoor adventure dreams will be released in the iTunes store this week! Congratulations Olga, Stan and Epiclist team! |
2013 - An Epic Year in Review, a few of the highlights...
January
 8 year old Becky took the stage at Human Warming and rocked a performance of We are Young by Fun. She set the crowd on fire and the tone for the year! | The year kicked off with friends Ben Moskowitz, Shannon Spanhake, Tony Lai, Gardner & the Hive hosting Human Warming. A musical startup weekend that brought entrepreneurs and musicians together to invent start up ideas, write pitch songs and perform a pitch-song concert. Rich inter-disciplinary creative collaboration and much fun was had by all! "One Jetpack Per Child" was a crowd favorite though Becky (left) stole the show!  Human Warming - the musical startup weekend |
In January, my passion project the Hapa-Hafu Kitchen Project published the HKP blog. With 2 hapas, 2 hafus, 6 passports, 10 countries of residence between the three of us, fusion fun in the kitchen was delight-filled! Beginning in 2010, we met irregularly, experimented wildly and ate decadently. Along the way, we were hosted by culinary artist Diana To, Star Anise Foods founder Karen Cheng, and Quisting's Kitchen Christine Fong. Our team learned that we prefer cooking to blogging, but we buckled down to document out culinary adventures because Reika Goh, one of our core HKP team, returned to Singapore this year. Since cooking together won't be possible, we may cook something up digitally over at Global Culture Kids... stay tuned!
February - March
At Startup Weekend Transmedia organized by transmedia talent Alice Gillet, I joined the team of social innovator Shauna Nep from LA2050. In 54 hours, our rockstar team, including Brooke Estin and Michael J Coren, built an app to enable citizens to share visions for LA in 2050 on multiple media platforms. To inform the design, we got out onto the streets of San Francisco to interview people about the city and to learn about engaging people to share their visions for the future. Our app won an Audience Award!
 First time in Africa!!  Walking on rounds with community health workers in rural S Africa | Touching down for the first time on the continent of Africa was EPIC! Graciously hosted by Future Sharp founder and dynamo Irma Wilson in Joberg, collaborator Walter Karlen in Stellenbosch, and social entrepreneurs Arnaud Blanchet and Cecile Pompei in Cape Town, I fell in love with Southern Africa! Unforgettable Moment: A full circle rainbow while looking at Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe-Zambia border bridge. It was so big the camera couldn't get it in one shot - poorly stitched together here... trust me, it was incredible!  |
 Fun Memory: My friend's daughter invited me to join her 7th birthday party at the Cradle of Humanity in South Africa.
| I couldn't come all the way to Africa without a little safari... the nature was EPIC, adventures with fellow travelers priceless and kept safe thanks to wonderful guides, especially Roan Claase of Elephant Sands. Animals of Southern Africa from Kate Ettinger on Vimeo. |
From 39C in Botswana to -6C in Berlin, it was complete temperature-culture shock, but an absolute thrill to return to my beloved Berlin to kick off dotHIV's ethics-infused policy advisory board. dotHIV is a pioneer. The only social purpose enterprise in the top level domain (TLD) market (TLDs are .com, .org, .edu). dotHIV will sell websites that end in .hiv - as a digital red ribbon; funds will create a foundation to support grassroots and technology-centric HIV/AIDS initiatives. For awhile, I have held the question whether there is a lateral application of my bioethics expertise in decision support that applies to social entrepreneurs navigating uncertainty and negotiating values conflicts at the intersection of money and meaning. Carolin Silbernagl, the passionate and visionary co-founder of dotHIV said, absolutely! Together we designed the scope, roles and function for the policy advisory board and its commitment to create a roadmap for other social purpose ventures that seek to enter this market. Carolin engaged an outstanding advisory board including Patrick Ryan, Megan Yip, Joan Irvine, Pavel Richter, Laurindo Garcia (not pictured: Michael Bouldin, Philip Grabensee). Thanks to the dotHIV team and advisory board for an epic beginning!
Advisory Board Kick-off Meeting for dotHIV, a Berlin-based pioneer health-tech social enterprise
April
| On April 1st, I was in Berlin with a raging fever and no voice; I wondered whether I would make it Barcelona for TEDxBarcelonaChange in 2 days. Fortunately, it never occurred to me that I had recently been in Africa and should probably go to a hospital. Instead I thought I can't let the effervescent, social impact powerhouse Aurelie Salvaire down and figured that as an eternal optimist, she would think it was an April Fools Joke anyway. So, I focused on getting better and .... voila!  My first TEDx: Integrity by Design at TEDxBarcelonaChange |  My first TEDx: Integrity by Design - exhilarating 10 minutes! Grateful to the people who made this possible Aurelie Salvaire (organizer), Soledad Pons (suggested me), Brooke Estin (visual communication designer), Florian Mueck (speaker coach), Daniel Hires (coach), Walter Karlen (collaborator & first follower on the idea), Helene Finidori (host) & thanks to so many more for this team effort - FTW! |
May - June- July - August
This summer, I had the chance to work on an exciting research project for the Goldhirsh Foundation with social innovation visionary and impact rockstar Tara Nell Roth and social media diva Shauna Nep. Working with highly driven and high performing teams is an exceptional privilege-- especially when the focus is on building better futures. I also met up with makers, nomadic developrs, and 3D printing designers with inspiring projects to create change in the world! And most importantly, I had great times with family and old friends.
 Springtime in NY...the love affair begins anew  Old Pomfret roomie Amy Veek visits SF! |  With the nomadic programmers of Nukomeet at MakerFaireSF  Family time with my aunts |  Hold Up for Ashley Dara's project using 3D printers to make medical devices as a way to teach design/innovation in Haiti. Animated by Romain Nervil and Making Society blogger Mathilde Berchon  Mom and Dad celebrated their 70 & 75th this year! Family weekend in NYC included a High Line visit. |
| Wonderful Moment: Seeing Hafu - the story of mixed-Japanese people in Japan on the big screen in New York City- a labor of love 4 years in the making by my friend and peace catalyst, Megumi Nishikura. Megumi's courage and dedication to realize this vision to tell her story- our collective story- and to build bridges of hope and understanding is an inspiration. |  |
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Family Moment: Participating as one of 3 generations of Sanmiyas tree climbing on Manitoulin Island. Thanks to my cousin, Toby Sanmiya for taking us to new heights. You can climb with him next time you're in British Columbia, check out Elementree. Lesson: Together we can reach new heights, and it helps to have an experienced guide.
| September September 21st is International Peace Day. This year, I was in NYC for TEDxUNPlaza and the Mashable Social Good Summit. In addition to a week of intellectual stimulation meeting brilliant people and inspirational projects, I had a chance to celebrate with old friends, new friends, and some surprise encounters- all around epic fun! | |
October
Epic Moment: Our project, OpenQRS, was selected as one of 39 projects from 650 to be semi-finalists for the Knight News Challenge: Health. With the launch of OpenQRS- the idea of my TEDx: Integrity by Design turned into an open project. Thanks to everyone for your support - we rocked audience engagement on the Knight platform!
Special shout out to our amazing team on this proposal: Laura Thierry (visual communication designer), Maite Hernandez Zubeldia (first follower catalyst and operations), Julian Muresianu and Nukomeet on (tech development), Walter Karlen (device adviser), Marigo Raftopoulos and Ben Stokes on game design, Indy Johar and Rachel de Sain (enterprise advisers).
Special shout out to our amazing team on this proposal: Laura Thierry (visual communication designer), Maite Hernandez Zubeldia (first follower catalyst and operations), Julian Muresianu and Nukomeet on (tech development), Walter Karlen (device adviser), Marigo Raftopoulos and Ben Stokes on game design, Indy Johar and Rachel de Sain (enterprise advisers).
 | OpenQRS in 30 Seconds from Kate Ettinger on Vimeo. |
November
A month of firsts:
- First time to Singapore!
- First time to Hong Kong!
- First mother-daughter vacation!
- My first MakeSense SenseCamp and Hold Up in Asia! MakeSense is a global network passionate to support social entrepreneurs solve challenges. I participated in Hold Ups on 4 continents this year, the MakeSense impact is truly global!
 ComCrop- social enterprise with the 1st rooftop aquaponics garden- tour part of SenseCamp Singapore sponsored by MakeSense  Touring Singapore Botanical Garden with Bian Tan, one of my first "bosses"- a taxonimist who hired me as an intern at SF Botanical Garden when I was a pre-med botany student. |  Old friends, new friends - these joyful gardeners of peace invited me to a lovely dinner in Singapore!  Special Mother-Daughter trip for Mom's 70th birthday in Singapore with Satsuki and the Goh family and in Hong Kong with Yuko Campbell. A trip to Haji Lane thanks to rec by the lovely, inspiring b-change founder, Laurindo Garcia. |
December
December brought the chance to move forward by standing still. Sometimes in the rush of goal setting and pushing to make things happen, it seems an anomalous approach to set the course forward by just being where you are. The decision to respond to the "what's next" question with "I'm standing still to figure that out" was met with a surprising amount of support from my social entrepreneur peers. Entrepreneurs live in uncertainty and the normal response is to do, learn and iterate through the unknowns. This December, I opted to resist that constant pressure to move forward- show your drive, set goals, tick off to do lists, and execute by creating space to stand still. It's counter cultural yet I find that it is a powerful practice that yields great rewards. Inspired by a visit from my friend Jan Stewart, who is the founder of the School of Space and was in SF for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute course, I was reminded about this intentional stopping to sit in the messiness of the unknown. It afforded me time to catch up with mentors and to stumble on serendipitous encounters that set a beacon for what lies ahead... TBC!
 | holiday gifts of surprise beach walks with superheroes |  |
Spectacular Morning: Seeing a pod of dolphins in San Francisco! My first visit to Fort Funston for a walking meeting. Many thanks to the delightful and multi-talented Eugene Kim for capturing the dolphins on this beautiful morning and creating this perfect parting shot for 2013. (Click here to zoom in) Shared by Eugene Eric Kim under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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