PORTFOLIO & PRAISE
I was thrilled to get the chance to work with Negin on the creation of an inclusion-driven community space. Negin’s expertise in community building, programming, experience design, and her leadership helped us clarify our vision and build out our community and membership strategy. Her capacity to understand and empathize with people’s needs, coupled with her ability to see the greater vision is what makes her approach both effective and unique. She is also such a wonderful facilitator! I would gladly work with Negin again and would recommend her work to anyone who wants to build their platform from scratch or to reimagine an existing part of their business.
Heather Payne
CEO of Juno College
“Negin is a dynamic heart-centred leader who works at the intersection of programming, community engagement, team culture, and, most importantly, business results. She has had so much experience playing point on past projects that she’s able to bring the “owner mindset” into anything that she works on.
Negin’s leadership abilities, combined with her attention to detail as an end-to-end producer were the sole reason we felt comfortable opening up a new channel of business. There are very few people who can operate at the intersection of strategy, content creation, marketing and business objectives. Negin is very much one of those rare individuals.”
Dhru Purohit
CEO of Dr. Hyman Enterprises
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Negin across many years and many projects. What I find most interesting about that is the nature of ideas and companies we’ve worked on in that time. They were all incredibly unique and creative expressions that required bringing together diverse teams and experiences in order to create something that was truly original and groundbreaking. I think it takes a special talent to bring something to life that has no priors. Whenever I’m embarking on a new venture, one of the first people I think of for a leadership role is Negin. I know that no matter what the context, she’ll find a way through, take on all the responsibility she can, and yet will never compromise the creative spirit required to feel pride in the work at the end of it all.”
Andrew Peek
CEO of Delphia
Juno College - Coral
Design Consultant - Community & Membership Strategy
R&D | Vision | Strategy
July 2021 - October 2021
I collaborated with Juno College to re-imagine their community and membership strategy as they prepared to launch Coral, their co-working space. Using an inclusion-centred approach, we embarked on a 3-month research and design process where we developed a sustainable strategy for member acquisition, activation and retention.
UKAI Projects
Design Consultant - Residency + Digital Strategy
Research | Design | Facilitation
2020
Collaborated with the Executive Director and principal designer of UKAI, as well as the residency project lead to co-design and facilitate IRL, a 12-week virtual artist residency featuring creators from across Canada. Collaboratively researched and developed a digital strategy for Zuppa Theatre that looked beyond the pandemic to imagine the future of arts and culture.
Humber College - IGNITE Student Union
Design Consultant - Health & Wellness Curriculum
Research | Design | Development
2020
This collaboration focused on a design research process to create and develop a one-year health and wellness curriculum for Humber’s student union, IGNITE. The process included academic research, one-on-one interviews and a stakeholder design session, all of which culminated into a 2-semester, week by week curriculum that will inform the organization’s health and wellness programming and support student well-being.
WoodGreen Community Services
Design Consultant - Newcomer Program
Research | Design | Prototyping
March 2019 - June 2019
This project entailed a co-design process that re-imagined WoodGreen’s (WG) newcomer settlement program, through a series of design research and workshops. The goal was to gather and present evidence for a prototype in order to improve the service offerings for both clients and WG staff, while continuously asking the questions: what does newcomer well-being mean and what do newcomers need to thrive?
Camp Reset
Co-Founder, Co-Executive Director
Vision | Strategy | Programming | Marketing
2015 - 2019
Reset began with a simple vision: to bring a community of like-minded people together to play, connect and transform. Since its inception in 2015, Reset has run 4-day digital detox experiences annually, attended by over 500 people. The event has been featured in Toronto Life, Breakfast Television, Global News and The Globe and Mail. In 2022 Reset announced the opening of a retreat centre in Toronto in service to collective joy.
The Annex Hotel
Director of Programming & Partnerships
Vision | Strategy | Design | Producing
October 2018 - May 2019
I accepted this project shortly after the hotel and event spaces opened in October 2018. During the 8 months I spent collaborating and consulting with the Annex team, I created and executed the vision and strategy for the hotel’s arts + culture programming, as well as produced and curated the hotel’s launch experience in January 2019—attended by 500 Toronto residents, media and cultural influencers.
The Feel Good Summit
Co-Producer
Vision | Strategy | Programming | Marketing
April 2017 - June 2018
The Feel Good Summit was hosted by renowned functional medicine physician and NYT bestselling author, Dr. Mark Hyman and his CEO, Dhru Purohit. Dr. Hyman and his team had a vision to bring together his global community for a once in a lifetime live experience focused on health and wellness. The 4-day experience was attended by 500 participants and featured many speakers and experts, including Dave Asprey, Dr. Shefali, Marie Forleo, Geneen Roth, Michael Beckwith and more.
SPARK! Canadian Social Innovation Conference
Co-Producer
Vision | Strategy | Programming
July 2017 - November 2017
SPARK! Gathered over 250 social innovation practitioners and community leaders from across Canada to engage in meaningful dialogue and exchange knowledge over the course of 3 days. Attendees were invited to participate in workshops, plenary sessions and connections labs that focused on both play and connection, as well as discussing important issues and visions for the future of social innovation in Canada.
An Honest Farewell
Co-Producer
Vision | Strategy | Programming | Marketing
August 2016 - February 2017
An Honest Farewell was a 4-day festival created in collaboration with The Centre for Social Innovation and Westbank, as the farewell experience for the iconic Honest Ed’s building. The event was co-created with over 500 artists, performers, community organizations, team members and volunteers, and attended by over 15,000 Toronto residents. The experience was featured in The Toronto Star, Toronto Life, NOWToronto and BlogTO.
TEDxToronto
Co-Chair & Board Member
Programming | Partnerships | Marketing
2013 - 2016
TEDxToronto is one of the largest independently organized TEDx events in the world. Every year, it gathers over 1000 attendees to experience and connect over ideas that have the potential to change people, systems and the planet. TEDxToronto was my entry into community and programming. During my time with the organization, I was responsible for overseeing teams that worked across programming, partnerships, marketing and operrations.
I seek connections, projects and opportunities that are in alignment with my values—which must prioritize the highest good for human-kind and planet earth.
When I contribute my time, energy and experience to bring a vision to life, I do so with the intention to create impact that is both transformative and sustainable.
If you want to create change, shift culture and imagine possibilities, let’s chat.