Five Questions with Nick Skytland

What motivates you?

Pushing boundaries. Doing things that haven’t been done before. Helping people extend beyond what they think is do-able.

What do you do for a living, and why?

I’m an expert in harnessing the power of open innovation, data and technology to reform business and government. I work at SecondMuse – a collaboration and innovation firm focused on changing the world through the acceleration of positive impact. Throughout my career, I’ve envisioned galactic-sized hackathons, developed cutting edge technology, planned space exploration missions, designed next generation space suits and trained space-bound astronauts.

Which TED talk do you think everyone should watch?

Why are you excited to speak at TEDxManitoba?

In this TEDx talk, I’ll focus on exploration. I’ve spent my entire career pursuing exploration. At first, it was human exploration – but over time – it slowly morphed into the exploration of how we enable more people to participate in solving the toughest challenges we face in our time. I’ll walk us back through history and look at some of the great explorers from the past, in hopes that we will discover something about ourselves.

What’s your connection to Manitoba?

I was slated to speak last year, but it didn’t work out. Looking forward to visiting your great city.