Changemakers and Trendsetters

“I wanted to build a platform that could change the user experience of a foreign news story – help it make sense to new users and readers,” said Lara Setrakian, founder of News Deeply, in a 2014 interview with the American Press Institute. “I brought together friends in design and technology to help make it happen.”

Setrakian, an Armenian American journalist, created the online media platform that combines analytical aggregation and original journalism to better report on complex issues such as the war in Syria and Ebola in Africa. On Feb. 21, she will share the main stage with Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, and Raffi Krikorian, former vice president of Twitter, for “Innovate Armenia.”

The all-day event on USC’s University Park campus organized by USC Dornsife’s Institute of Armenian Studies (IAS) will celebrate Armenians’ past and continuing contributions to technology, social movements and the arts.

“It is amazing to see how audacious Armenian artists and other professionals are in risking a departure from the traditional — mixing the familiar with the unfamiliar — to create new music, new science and new forms of activism,” said institute director Salpi Ghazarian. “The event will feature global changemakers, trendsetters and creative artists from all walks of life.

“News Deeply covers important and complicated issues that mainstream media just isn’t able, or willing, to capture,” Ghazarian added. “And Alexis and Raffi have taken technology and used it to expand the civic and intellectual spheres immensely.”

CivilNet, another organization that will be represented at “Innovate Armenia,” is a trilingual internet-television site that seeks to use media to bring social change to developing democracies.

“Here at CivilNet we get to travel to Turkey, Lebanon and Syria, where we cover the stories of refugees,” said Seda Grigoryan, a video production manager at CivilNet. “CivilNet is also a platform where we can express our concerns and define our goals as citizens of Armenia to try make our country and this world a better place.”

In addition to technological and media entrepreneurs, the event will showcase inventive social programs in Armenia. One example is the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, a groundbreaking afterschool education program that introduces teenagers to technology to jumpstart their careers as innovators.

Other organizations include an experimental arts center, an urban planning and architecture platform, and an online hub for social activists. Altogether, representatives from nearly 20 nongovernmental organizations and startup companies will deliver presentations and have booths set up to offer information about their missions and products.

“This will be an opportunity to meet and speak with the creative people who are making changes in Armenia and around the world,” Ghazarian said. “This isn’t just about Armenia or being Armenian; it’s really an example of how brilliant minds are finding new ways to improve society.”

Ghazarian describes the event as both enlightening and family friendly.

Musicians such as Sebu Simonian of the band Capital Cities and Sima Cunningham — a modern folk artist — will play Armenian music with a contemporary flair. Collectif Medz Bazar is a Parisian-Armenian band, coming from France for this event. A number of other performers will be scattered around Founders Park, along Trousdale Parkway, in the heart of the University Park campus.

“And, of course, an all-day event would not be complete without food,” Ghazarian said. “Innovative food will be served up by the generation that inherited the hot-lunch-truck business, which Armenians initiated in Southern California nearly half a century ago.” 

Ghazarian described the offerings as “healthy, tasty and creative food that is both familiar and new.”

“Innovate Armenia” is the first in what Ghazarian promises will be a great number of out-of-the-box events hosted by the IAS. Ghazarian took on her leadership role just in time for the institute’s 10th anniversary. She hopes to build on USC’s commitment to making the university a hub of Armenian research, education and cultural experiences.

“The three words — ‘USC, Armenia and innovate’ — together reflect the institute’s mission in this second decade,” Ghazarian said. “Our goal is to support new multidisciplinary approaches to Armenian studies by capitalizing on USC’s tremendous resources.”