2011 Los Angeles Leaders Breakfast

IIDA Leaders Breakfast

The Los Angeles Leaders Breakfast attracted more than 350 attendees that came to hear keynote speaker Kevin Carroll talk about the importance of play in the workplace Sept. 23 at the JW Marriott at LA Live! The event also honored John Peterson, AIA, the founder and president of Public Architecture.

Kevin shared stories of growing up and learning the value and power of play that changed his life.

He left the audience stirring with inspiration from the following quote:

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both."

-- James Michener

Thanks to our Leaders Breakfast National Benefactors

Kevin Carroll, Keynote Speaker

Kevin Carroll is a masterful storyteller with a tremendous gift for reaching an audience and awakening the inspiration that lies within people and within the organizations for which they work. For seven years, Kevin was the Katalyst (someone who helps turn creative ideas into reality) for Nike and he continues to promote the power of play and creativity in achieving maximum human potential for such organizations as Starbucks, The Discovery Channel, ESPN, HSBC Bank, Mattel, Capital One, and The National Hockey League. Carroll is the founder of The Katalyst Consultancy and the author of Rules of the Red Rubber Ball: Find and Sustain Your Life’s Work.

Carroll draws on a uniquely diverse and rewarding background. He spent ten years as an Air Force linguist, becoming fluent in Croatian, Czech, and Serbian, and attaining conversational proficiency in German and Russian. He’s also been a high school health educator, a college-level head athletic trainer and head athletic trainer for the Philadelphia 76ers.

John Peterson, AIA, Honoree

John Peterson, AIA, is the founder and president of Public Architecture, a national nonprofit organization that is mobilizing designers to use their skills and expertise to drive social change. He is also the principal of Peterson Architects in San Francisco.

He is the recipient of numerous design and social innovation awards, as well as local, state, and national citations from the AIA. John has degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.