Speakers and Performers

Michael Edson is the Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution, an organization spanning 28 museums and research centers, a zoo, and 6,000 employees active in over 100 countries. In addition to developing the Smithsonian’s first Web and New Media Strategy and its innovative Wiki-based approach to strategic planning, Michael helped create the Smithsonian’s first blog, Eye Level, and the first Alternative Reality Game to take place in a museum, Ghosts of a Chance. Michael is also the driving force behind the Smithsonian Commons concept which aims to make hundreds of millions of resources freely available for the public to build upon. Michael is an O’Reilly Foo Camp veteran and was named a Tech Titan 2011: person to watch by Washingtonian magazine.