PEOPLE
IDEAS
NATURE
COMMUNITY
For more than a decade, PINC has been Sarasota’s stage for imagination. What began as a single day of talks has grown into a year-round movement - four ways to spark ideas, build connections, and position Sarasota as the Capital of Creativity.
OUR 2025 SPEAKERS
IMRAN AHMED
Imran Ahmed is the Founding CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an organization confronting online hate, misinformation, and extremism worldwide. A recognized authority on the psychology of social media and the spread of conspiracy movements, Ahmed advises global policymakers, technology companies, and civic leaders on how to make digital spaces safer and more truthful. His work has been featured in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and BBC News. Passionate, clear, and data-driven, Ahmed stands at the intersection of technology and morality, challenging audiences to consider how we can protect truth, empathy, and democracy in the digital age.
CEO, Center for Countering Digital Hate
Dr. Zack Almquist is a computational sociologist and statistician whose research uses data to understand and solve complex social challenges, including homelessness, disaster response, and housing instability. An Associate Professor at the University of Washington and former research scientist at Meta, Almquist specializes in mapping human behavior through data networks to reveal how communities connect and adapt. As Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Mathematical Sociology and recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, he advances the idea that empathy and analytics are not opposites but partners in creating more humane systems. Almquist’s work shows how the right data, in the right hands, can drive real change.
Associate Professor, University of Washington
ZACK ALMQUIST
Eisha Buch leads Common Sense Media’s K–12 Digital Citizenship Program, a free curriculum used in more than 85,000 schools around the world. With 15 years in education as a teacher, administrator, and learning strategist, she helps students and educators navigate technology’s influence on relationships, well-being, and civic engagement. A former New York City public school educator, Buch believes that digital literacy is not only about knowing how to use technology but understanding its impact on humanity. Through her leadership, Common Sense is equipping a generation to lead online with empathy, integrity, and awareness.
Head of Teaching and Learning, Common Sense Media
EISHA BUCH
JUAN CABALLERO
Juan Caballero is an architect, engineer, and humanitarian dedicated to building safer housing in disaster-prone regions. As CEO of Build Change, he leads teams across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia in transforming how communities recover and prepare for future disasters. Fluent in several languages and skilled in both design and diplomacy, Caballero has advised governments, nonprofits, and multilateral institutions on resilient construction practices that save lives and livelihoods. His approach blends technology, policy, and empathy to create homes that are more than shelters—they are symbols of human resilience.
CEO, Build Change
Alison Cariens serves as Conservation Coordinator and Curatorial Technician for the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard Art Museums, home to the renowned Forbes Pigment Collection. The collection holds more than 10,000 pigment samples that chronicle the evolution of human creativity, from crushed minerals and insects to the earliest synthetic dyes. Cariens preserves, catalogs, and studies these materials to reveal what color tells us about history, technology, and the human impulse to create beauty. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and Harvard Magazine. Through her stewardship, pigments become more than chemistry—they become a language of human expression that connects art, science, and culture across centuries.
Conservation Coordinator and Curatorial Technician, Harvard Art Museums
ALISON CARIENS
ARMEN HRATCHIAN
Armen Hratchian leads Teach For America Detroit and the ambitious TeachMichigan initiative, a $120 million partnership designed to identify, train, and support more than 2,000 of Michigan’s top educators. Since taking the helm in 2018, Hratchian has grown the organization from 30 teachers to over 800 and increased annual revenue from $500,000 to $16 million. His vision extends far beyond classrooms, focusing on leadership, equity, and the belief that every child deserves access to an excellent education. Before joining TFA, he worked in educational policy and at the HighScope Foundation, shaping systems for quality and accountability. A passionate advocate for community-driven progress, Hratchian’s work shows how transformational leadership in education can redefine the future of entire cities.
Executive Director, Teach For America
AARON HURST
Aaron Hurst is a social entrepreneur, author, and purpose pioneer whose career centers on one theme: human connection. As founder and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Connection, he is addressing one of society’s greatest challenges—the erosion of social trust—by helping communities, companies, and leaders rebuild relational bonds. Hurst previously founded Taproot, launching the $15 billion pro bono service movement, and Imperative, which brought purpose-driven coaching into workplaces around the world. His latest venture, Board.Dev, connects technology leaders to nonprofit boards to strengthen civic infrastructure. Hurst’s bestselling book, The Purpose Economy, predicted the cultural shift toward meaning as a primary human motivator. His message is simple yet profound: if connection is our most essential need, then purpose is the system that sustains it.
Founder, U.S. Chamber of Connection
SARAH KAUFMANN
Known to fans around the country as The Cheese Lady, Sarah Kaufmann transforms ordinary wheels of cheddar and gouda into extraordinary works of edible art. For nearly 30 years, she has toured the nation creating whimsical sculptures—alligators, aircraft carriers, entire football stadiums—while holding multiple Guinness World Records for her craft. A lifelong creative and former commercial artist, Kaufmann treats cheese as both her canvas and her collaborator. Her performances combine humor, storytelling, and technical mastery to remind audiences that creativity is not confined to studios or galleries. It lives wherever imagination and joy meet. For Kaufmann, art is play with purpose, and every carving celebrates the simple pleasure of creating something that makes people smile.
Cheese Sculptor & Artist
ANDREW LUMISH
Andrew Lumish is known around the world as The Good Cemetarian for his remarkable work restoring neglected graves and uncovering the stories of the people they memorialize. Through his nonprofit, The Good Cemetarian Project, he has cleaned and restored thousands of headstones belonging to veterans and ordinary citizens whose legacies had been lost to time. Lumish researches each life, documents every transformation, and brings dignity back to the overlooked. His work has been featured on national television and in major media outlets, inspiring a movement of remembrance and respect. Through his hands, history is not erased but renewed, reminding us that the past only truly fades when we stop caring.
Founder, The Good Cemetarian Project
DR. ALISON THOMPSON
Dr. Alison Thompson is a global humanitarian and founder of Third Wave Volunteers, an organization dedicated to serving communities in crisis. For more than 25 years, she has worked on the front lines of disaster zones across the world, from Syria and Ukraine to Haiti and the aftermath of hurricanes here in Florida. Thompson’s journey began as a first responder during 9/11 in New York City and has evolved into a life devoted to love in action. Her guiding belief that “everyone’s needed” reminds us that real change begins with compassion and courage. Recognized by President Biden with the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award and by Queen Elizabeth II with the Order of Australia, Dr. Thompson continues to prove that one person’s willingness to act can ignite hope for many.
Founder, Third Wave Volunteers
Danielle Todd is the Founder and Executive Director of Make Food Not Waste, a nonprofit transforming Michigan’s approach to food sustainability. Since 2017, she has built a statewide platform for action by opening two upcycling kitchens, creating Every Bit Counts, and leading campaigns to cut food waste in half by 2030. A former marketing strategist turned environmental innovator, Danielle brings practical creativity to a global issue. She works with households, restaurants, and policymakers to change habits and systems alike, turning surplus food into nutritious meals and opportunity. Her work shows that sustainability can be joyful, communal, and achievable, one meal at a time.
Founder & Executive Director, Make Food Not Waste
DANIELLE TODD
THE PINC EXPERIENCE
The day that redefines inspiration.
11 years ago, PINC began as an idea on the back of a cocktail napkin to bring ideas from the edges of human creativity and curiosity together on one stage.
On December 11, the curtain rises on our 11th PINC Experience – a full day of powerful talks, performances, and ideas that challenge, inspire, and transform. This is where everything we’ve been building toward all year comes together.
This year, with topics ranging from the world’s most extensive library of natural pigments to the world’s most accomplished cheese artist, we’re gearing up for an unforgettable day of creativity, innovation, and inspiration.
OUR PARTNERS
Our community is how PINC happens. We are eternally grateful to our partners for their support., guidance, and fervor for creativity and changemaking.
PRESENTING PARTNER
VISIONARY PARTNER
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
If you’re interested in partnering with PINC, send us an email at: Hello@DreamLarge.org
LISTEN UP.
In the earliest days of PINC, NPR gave us some airtime. That conversation captured what we were trying to build – a space where people could come together, share ideas, and leave inspired to see their city differently.
That spark is still alive today. From the airwaves to the stage, from intimate dinners to city-wide festivals, PINC has always been about amplifying voices that matter. We’ve grown, evolved, and expanded – but the heartbeat remains the same: listen closely, because the next idea might just change everything.
