AF-Chicago: How storytelling can change the world (Virtual)

Anyone who has heard a good story knows how powerful and moving they can be. They make you feel like you’re there. They allow you to feel like you’re living the experience, even though you’re just hearing about it. In the essay, “The Science of Storytelling,” entrepreneuer Leo Widrich noted scientific research indicating that when we hear a story “not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are, too.”

Stories are powerful. Stories can change lives and change laws. Stories can change the world.

Join AF-Chicago and Austin Berg, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Iron Light, for a conversation on time-tested strategies for telling compelling stories and how to use those stories to drive change in the world.

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About Austin:

Austin Berg is the Co-Founder and CMO at Iron Light, a marketing agency helping purpose-driven brands change the world. He also serves as Vice President of Marketing for the Illinois Policy Institute.

He and his work have been featured in the Economist, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, ABC 7 Chicago and WTTW. He is the winner of the Buckley Award from America’s Future Foundation, two Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club for his photojournalism work, and was honored as one of Chicago’s “20 in their 20s” by Crain’s Chicago Business.

Austin is the co-author of “The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities,” published in 2019 by Southern Illinois University Press. He is also the writer of the 2016 documentary film, “Madigan: Power. Privilege. Politics.”

He is a graduate of Tufts University.