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David D. Burstein

Executive Director, Generation18
New York, NY
David D. Burstein is a writer, filmmaker, and expert on the millennial generation. His debut book, Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation is Shaping Our World--the first book about how the millennials are changing business, technology, culture, and politics written by a millennial—-will be released in February 2013 by Beacon Press. David is also the Executive Director of Generation18, which he founded in 2006. Generation18 is the nation’s largest youth run young voter engagement organization. It is nonpartisan and not-for-profit. It started as an outgrowth of the 2007 documentary film, 18 in '08, which David directed and produced. During the 2008 election campaign, Generation18 led a major national campaign to register, engage, and mobilize young voters for the 2008 election. This initiative succeeded in registering over 25,000 new voters, hosting over 1,000 events at high schools, colleges, and in communities in 35 states, holding youth policy forums with Senatorial and Congressional candidates, and a celebrity get-out-the-vote Public Service Announcement series featuring Olivia Wilde and Maggie Gyllenhaal among others stars. For his work he was honored with a 2009 DoSomething Award and his story was featured on millions of Doritos bags. David is a frequent speaker and commentator on millennials, social innovation, and politics. He has appeared on CNN, FOX News, ABC Evening News, NPR, C-SPAN and been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Politico. He regularly consults for not-for-profits and companies on how to understand and engage millennials. He is the founding co-director of the Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellowship @ Chicago Ideas Week. David is also the co-founder of The Westport Youth Film Festival (WYFF, now in its ninth year, WYFF is the world’s premiere film festival run by high school students for high school students.

David's News Feed

Dan Beckmann And Tom Hallaran’s Plan To Bring Big Data To Big Government If your elected officials suddenly seem less clueless, you might thank Beckmann and Hallaran, creators of Congressional analytics dashboard, Correlate. Updated Wed May 23, 2012
Innovation Agents: Oscar Morales And One Million Voices Against FARC Long before the Arab Spring, Oscar Morales was among the first people to use Facebook to mount a successful large-scale political activism effort. Updated Mon May 21, 2012
Robert Caro's Lessons From Lyndon B. Johnson About How To Lead In A Crisis Since 1982, historian Robert Caro has been chronicling the life of the 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson. Fast Company recently spoke with Caro, who said that one of the best ways to understand leadership is to observe leaders “during their most intense struggles." Updated Mon May 21, 2012
Innovation Agents: Adam Braun, Justin Bieber, And Pencils Of Promise It helps if your organization is on the radar of one of the world's--and social media's--most influential pop stars. But for Adam Braun, founder of education charity Pencils Of Promise, Bieber was just one building block. Updated Tue May 15, 2012
The Unlikely Multimedia Path Of Guardian Interactive Guru Gabriel Dance The computer scientist by trade put multimedia skills to use in journalism and helped usher The New York Times, News Corp., and now The Guardian into the digital era. Updated Thu May 10, 2012
The Xfund, Harvard, And The Student-Entrepreneur The Experiment Fund launched this year and is designed to make seed stage investments in potentially transformational companies started by students at Harvard and other colleges. Updated Tue Mar 27, 2012
4 Ways The Military Can Be More Innovative From Rachel Maddow On the eve of the release of her first book, Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, Maddow offers ideas on how the military can be a potential force for innovation--in its own ranks and in other aspects of American public life. Updated Tue Mar 27, 2012
NumberFire: "Moneyball" For Fantasy Leagues With winnings from "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," Nik Bonaddio created a predictive sports system Billy Beane would be proud of. Updated Tue Mar 13, 2012
Minding The College Gap Updated Fri Feb 24, 2012
Allow Cookies: Girl Scouts Enter The Digital Era With CEO Anna Maria Chavez In the 21st century, Girl Scouts from all over the world can get together in the virtual realm to do good and learn skills for success. Here's how CEO Anna Maria Chavez is helping organize new digital troops. Updated Wed Feb 22, 2012
Vosges Unwraps Chocolate's Wild Side Forget the Russell Stover this Valentine's Day--there's a delicious new world of innovative, artisanal chocolates out there. Katrina Markoff of luxury chocolate maker Vosges talks with Fast Company about the power of chocolate and her worldwide hunt for the perfect ingredients. Updated Thu Feb 9, 2012
Votizen Brings The Empowerment Of The Internet To Elections David Binetti's new venture is a Silicon Valley tech startup called Votizen, an online social network where voters can campaign for a candidate or a cause. With the 2012 campaign heating up, we spoke with Binetti about the disruptive impact of technology on the political landscape and the challenges of innovating in the federal government. Updated Fri Feb 3, 2012
Showtime's David Nevins On What It Takes To Make Sexy, Gripping TV Showtime won big at the Golden Globes, taking home three awards, including best drama series for "Homeland." Nevins spoke with Fast Company about the rapidly changing world of cable TV and how he stays on top in a world where audience tastes evolve at an ever-accelerating pace. Updated Thu Jan 26, 2012
Revolution 2.0: Google Marketing Exec Wael Ghonim And The Facebook Page That Changed The World In Wael Ghonim's new book, "Revolution 2.0," he maintains that last year's movement in Egypt was a leaderless revolution. We recently spoke with Ghonim, who is in Cairo, still hard at work trying to improve the future for his people and his country. Updated Thu Jan 19, 2012
Danny Meyer's Magic Touch: How To Create 4-Star Experiences And Lines Around The Block "You can try to change the world based on philosophy, doctrine, and belief. But I think the thing that really drives the world is hedonism, the pleasure factor," says Danny Meyer. As CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, Meyer has opened 28 restaurants, each of which dials up the pleasure factor to new heights, whether it's a four-star meal or a $7 burger (but, what a burger!). Here's how he does it. Updated Fri Jan 13, 2012
The New York Times's Nick Kristof On Journalism In A Digital World And The Age Of Activism Nicholas Kristof has been writing for The New York Times for more than a quarter century, penning articles about struggles in distant parts of the world. We spoke with him about how journalism is evolving in a digital world, his upcoming activist Facebook game, and his annual contest where a reader reports with him overseas. Updated Tue Jan 10, 2012
Shai Reshef On Educating The World Shai Reshef founded University of the People in 2009--it's a tuition-free, online university for people in developing countries. Reshef has announced a new initiative to "educate the world" for just $6 million. With the already high cost of education going constantly higher, that sounds awfully good. Updated Mon Jan 9, 2012
How Biochar Will Help Kenya Go Green And Save Money Re:char is a pioneering company that sells kilns to farmers in Kenya that allow them to convert their farm waste into what's known as biochar, which can then be used for cooking. CEO Jason Aramburu spoke to us about the emerging area of biochar and a grant that re:char just received from the Gates Foundation to develop a system to transform human waste into biochar. Updated Wed Jan 4, 2012
Can A Startup Store Change The Retail Business? Rachel Shechtman just opened a retail store in New York ... but it's still in beta. Shechtman explains why A Startup Store, though a small space, might be a big idea in the long-troubled business of physical retail outlets. Updated Fri Dec 23, 2011
Your Television Is The New Hot Shop: Meet The Man Behind eBay's TV Commerce App Steve Yankovich, the company's VP for Mobile, has put eBay at the heart of the emerging trend known as "television commerce." The new gold rush is on--to empower you to buy what you see on TV and TV-like streams on your tablet or phone. Updated Mon Dec 12, 2011

History

Member for
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