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impactmania
features thinkers and doers who drive cultural, social, and economic impact.

“Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.” - Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

impactmania started as the book Impact X by Paksy Plackis-Cheng, which featured 30 impact makers. The enthusiasm received and connections made between the 300 participants at the Impact X book launch inspired the project impactmania as a way to continue to explore what makes impact and share these insights with a broader audience.

From a U.S. presidential award winner, nine-time Grammy award winner, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, ambassador, artists, entrepreneurs, and investors, impactmania is an ongoing repository of interviews with some of the most innovative and dynamic global thinkers and doers today.

This online publication, launched in February 2016 at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, features video and transcribed interviews with more than 300 people who drive cultural, social, and economic impact.

With such a wealth of information in its archive, impactmania is an important purveyor of ideas that affects our cultural lens, addresses societal issues, and rethinks our economy globally. One of impactmania's video stories was featured at the United Nations (UN) Global Compact Conference 2017 and is also included on the United Nations Foundation (UNF) Every Woman Every Child's website. A number of impactmania interviewees and their projects have gone on to be featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Wired, and other notable publications after being covered in the online publication.

Additionally, impactmania has become a source cited by Harvard Business School, University of Southern California (USC), San Francisco State University (SFSU), and the U.S. Consulate. Recently, impactmania formed a partnership with Newton Paiva University in Brazil, and AD&A Museum, UCSB, where students receive credits by working on research and media projects with impactmania.

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What have we accomplished so far?

Within 22 months, we’ve interviewed more than 300 people in 30+ countries, spanning various fields and different for-profit and for-purpose enterprises.

- The first impactmania interviewee went on to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2016.

- impactmania video story The Future of Business is Responsible was featured at the United Nations Global Compact Conference 2017.

- impactmania's video story The Future of Business is Responsible is also available on view at the United Nations Foundation's website as part of the Every Woman Every Child initiative.

- We connected people with projects globally. Two organizations announced a strategic alliance

- impactmania interviewees have gone on to speak at the White House.

- impactmania interviewees have gone on to be covered in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Business Insider, and Departure Magazine.

- The U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan featured an impactmania interview on their social media. Two news outlets in Pakistan published another one of our interviews

- Futurist, global speaker, and author Jody Turner selects impactmania for publication of parts of her upcoming book Living in the Creative Zone.

- impactmania has been cited as a source in several publications: Harvard Business School, The Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Forte; Doner D/Construct, Xtrapreneurship; Discussion Guide from UNC Journeys in Film & USC Rossier School of Education.

- impactmania formed partnerships with AD&A Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Newton Paiva, a private university in Brazil.

impactmania interviewees have included:
An ambassador, U.S. Presidential Award winner, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee 2016, Academy Award (Oscar) and Emmy producer editor, Emmy award winner, Grammy award winner, MacArthur Fellow (Genius Award), Two-time World Champion boxer, Star Wars’ First Trumpet, Two of the 200 women venture capitalists in the U.S., TV Director, Artist in Residence at SETI Institute, Treasurer of the City and County of San Francisco, Congressional Candidates, One of the world’s 500 Parfumeur Créateurs, Van Gogh Museum, Berlin Philharmonic, adidas, Google, PepsiCo, and many social entrepreneurs, sidepreneurs, and mompreneurs.

What’s coming up next?

In 2017, we will continue featuring people who drive social, cultural, and economic impact and will be adding themes critical for a more thoughtful and inclusive society.

You will meet 125 Women of Impact: founders, CEOs, and movement makers across various fields. Because You Can't Be What You Can't See.

We hope that you’ll continue to make impact with us as we move forward, whether that’s by reading our articles, reaching out to collaborate, or becoming a Founding Partner.

Press

Newton Paiva University and impactmania's Announce a Partnership to Uncover Impact Makers in Brazil

United Nations (UN) Foundation Features impactmania's video story!

Universal Giving and Trekking For Kids’ Strategic Partnership Bridged by impactmania

impactmania launches at UC Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara Birthplace of impactmania's: Women Collaborators Launch Online Magazine

Californian Change Makers at Impact Makers X Event — Impact X Book Launch

Team

Paksy Plackis-Cheng

Paksy (Dutch native), founder of impactmania, has lived in the USA since 2001. As a marketing & business development executive (from startup, IPO, M&A to mature tech companies), she has worked in a dozen countries. She has served on half a dozen boards, including two seasons as the Board President of the Santa Barbara Symphony. Paksy directed and co-produced a video story for impactmania that was featured at the United Nations (2017). Paksy is a Senior Fellow Research and Media at AD&A Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She graduated from the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Erika Betty Carlos

Erika is a writer and multimedia designer. Her interests lie at the intersection of documentary, design, and technology. You can find her work at erikabettycarlos.com. These days, she can reliably be found in a coffee shop, at home with her cat, or on the occasional camping trip.

Kristina Van Dyke

Kristina Van Dyke is a writer, scholar and curator with a strong interest in the digital humanities. She was formerly Director of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and prior to that, Curator for Collections and Research at the Menil Collection. She received her MA from Williams College and PhD in African Art History from Harvard University where she wrote her dissertation on the concept of objects in oral cultures.

Ricardo Gandour

Ricardo Gandour is the Journalism Director at CBN, a nationwide radio network belonging to the Globo Group in Brazil. Previously responsible for journalism at Estado Group, which flagship is the 138-years-old newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Gandour is an associate professor at ESPM, member at the Doctoral program at São Paulo University, member of the board of Wan-Ifra Latin America, and member of the board of Instituto Palavra Aberta. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the Columbia Journalism School, New York NY.

Jody Turner

Jody Turner, Culture of Future, is an insight strategist and writer with a foundation in design. For the past 16 years Turner has advised over 200 brands on project initiatives small, large, local and global in scope. Her brand strategy specialty includes igniting new directions. A writer of blog content for Fast Company, she also writes for Shareable, GOOD and Stanford Social Innovation Review. To date her favorite work has been with TrendWatching, IDEO, Starbucks, Nike, Google, Apple, etc.

Contributors