Tom de Blasis, IDSA | Who Gives a Damn? (Part 3)

2011 IDSA Mideast District Conference
Cincinnati, OH
04.08.11

About the Talk: There are no shortage of major social problems in the world—the kind of challenges that evoke sadness and anger. But what can one person do, say, to help millions of people recover from a nation-breaking earthquake? In 2010, Tom de Blasis, IDSA sat in his office at Nike watching the devastation following Haiti’s earthquake. He decided that he gave a damn and possessed unique skills that could be leveraged to help out. This is his story of how to use the horsepower of a corporate machine to help save the world a little bit.

About the Speaker: Tom De Blasis, IDSA is a global design director for Nike Football (soccer). Over the past 20 years, he has worked at Nike, ballydesign, IDEO, Philips and Hewlett-Packard. His adventures in experiential design and design research have lead him to shoot an illegal Belgian semi-automatic assault rifle, walk into a burning building in full firefighter turnout gear, go on a stakeout with a private detective and roam the tent cities of refugee camps. DeBlasis’ latest creation is called The Gamechanger Bucket, a health and happiness kit for disaster areas and emerging communities all over the world. 

Run time: 16:16.