Performance by "Slam Poet Harvester" TIM MERRY: Holding Up a Mirror to the Moment. This gifted spoken-word improviser revives the ancient art of sacred bards and jesters as he generates instant poetic commentary on and analysis of what he sees and hears, on the spot, helping us live more consciously in the moment.

As a boy in Australia, Jay Harman noticed that nature’s favorite form is the spiral. From the shape of galaxies and hurricanes to how blood flows through your veins to how water goes down a drain, this ancient sacred form – the Golden Mean – has preoccupied a lineage from indigenous peoples to Plato, Pythagoras, Descartes and Da Vinci. Harman had the genius to apply nature’s favorite form to industrial design. Through starting numerous biomimicry firms and research conducted for his acclaimed new book, The Shark’s Paintbrush: Biomimicry and How Nature Is Inspiring Innovation, he has illustrated key ways that biomimetic business differs from business as usual. He’ll share inspiring examples of companies and governments that are adopting biomimicry, including radical approaches to mitigating the harms of fracking and climate change. He will illustrate ways we can all be biomimics in our homes and businesses. Modern biomimicry does more than gratify human industrial ambition; it teaches us how to live in harmony with nature and opens breakthrough opportunities for a new business model of partnership with nature.

By: Rachel Bagby