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The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Los Angeles is our home and living laboratory. For four decades at RIOS, we’ve pioneered design that confronts complexity, believing that every urban challenge carries profound opportunities for transformation. The recent catastrophic fires aren’t just a crisis, but a critical inflection point for reimagining resilience. Our landscape practice, led by Katherine Harvey, has always understood that urban design is an act of collective imagination. This moment demands we move beyond survival to radical reinventiona challenge that resonates deeply with our founding ethos of designing for dynamic, adaptive futures. Katherine’s background in landscape architecture, academic research, and residency in downtown Los Angeles provide her with valuable insights into the citys future. She offers thoughtful perspectives during this moment of sorrow and hope for the city we cherish. The following reflection from Katherine emerges from our commitment to Los Angeles, a city we’ve helped shape and continue to believe in, evenand especiallyin its most vulnerable moments. Los Angeles 2025 This year arrived with unimaginable devastation for the Los Angeles region. The catastrophic fires present a test for how we will address our citys future and the generational challenges and opportunities we have before us. As we move from shock to recovery, the debates have already begun on how, what, and where we rebuild. Immediate momentum addresses the human impacts, which will continue to unfold in the coming months. How we sustain that momentum and act deliberately toward our future is more uncertain. This recovery will be a massive work of city remaking and reenvisioning. This unanticipated moment grants us a window to address Los Angeless past and present challenges as we confront our global climate reality. Territory, governance, and collective recovery Most major acts of city-making have denied the complexity of existing communities, history, or environment in the service of narrow motivations and achievements. Los Angeles, on the other hand, has historically been plagued by the incremental and individual motivations of capital, resulting in a dispersed and decentralized city. Can we learn from these historic dichotomies of singular grand plans versus incremental individualism and define a collective recovery urbanism? One where we build back a city that reduces further harm to our residents and environment. One where we do not accept the inevitable results of extreme weather ending in disaster, but instead lay out ambitious plans for adaptation to build back more brilliantly. Many have speculated that our distributed jurisdictions and centers of power have held us back from a collective vision for the basin. Even the citys Mayor Bass has acknowledged our lack of comprehensive planning and fragmented governance as recently as October, when tackling street improvement initiatives. Could this event induce enhanced cooperation between disparate places: Altadena and Pacific Palisades, county and city, mayor and supervisor? With the appointment of a chief recovery officer for the city, Steve Soboroff, we now wait to hear if the county and city will find a method for shared cooperation. What may be needed is an agency that collates across these governances to address the kindred struggles and the unique geographies. Despite our snarled infrastructure, our LA Metro public transit system has been a remarkable model for what is possible when we remove the friction of inter-urban territories and support cross-agency planning. Design a collective vision There are many who will continue to say these events were inevitable, in the face of a warming climate. Yet we have a chance to change the next inevitability. As a landscape architect and creative director at a global design collective I am part of a design community where envisioning the future is integral to our daily work. This event has opened questions for us that would have gone unasked without this disaster. Can we rebuild our neighborhoods as places that will evolve from serving our immediate resheltering needs to more robust buildings? Can these new buildings be fire-hardened and passively coexist with the environment? Can we address equity and ongoing displacement more aggressively, in what will no doubt be an aggravated housing and affordability crisis? Can we amplify and restore the wildland urban interface and bring back our former basin ecologies, grasslands, and coastal sage scrub, as ecological buffers from intense weather? A wealth of ideas, research, and plans have been brought together under the Governors Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. Yet this work needs to become actionable and translated to our region and the urban context of these fires. For the design community, the translation of this expertise to scalable solutions for communities, neighborhoods, and buildings will be essential next steps. Allowing ourselves to dream in this moment of collective pain and trauma is imagining ourselves in a place beyond catastrophe. If we can do that, we can sort out the steps to get there. It will require invention and retooling, no different than what has already been initiated in hundreds of Californias climate initiatives to mitigate our projected climate future. It is the work our generation needs to do anyway. This is our moment to decide whether we will play a major role in defining that trajectory towards reduced vulnerability and increased resilience for future extreme weather as a city and region. Pacing ourselves It will not be an easy time to choose a collective vision over the instrumentality of executive orders or the facility of individual decisions. As of writing this on January 28 it is clear there will be a larger resistance to such a path from both a dismissive federal perspective and those that see the climate crisis as a fate we cannot change. Yet there are many more voices, from community members to experts, that will contribute to these questions and optimism about our future if we commit to this generational shift in city-making. Institutions, universities, community members, and storytellers will need to be engaged and empowered to move us imaginatively toward our future. Ultimately, a collective vision will need an engaged citizenry to imagine a different future that is invested in enhancing our regions livability and vitality. In this process we will revive the waning histories of these places, in combination with the nascent futures that were just beginning and are now emerging after this event. If we choose this as a generation, then the process we design will be as vital as the outcome. Jessamyn Davis is co-CEO and Katherine Harvey is creative director and landscap architect at RIOS.
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E-Commerce
The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Well, this year was a wild ride. As we turn the page to 2025, its time to set intentions and make our own agency New Years resolutions. If your company is anything like ours, youve already met with your internal teams to determine what steps you will take to level up this year. This isnt one-size-fits-all. Your approach may look entirely different, depending on your: Niche and target market Unique goals Resources Team structure This new year is all about progress, and were ready to raise the bar. Here are five ways were leveling up our game in the new year. 1. EMPOWER OUR TEAMS WITH AI TRAINING If you havent already implemented AI training, youre missing out on a major opportunity to amplify. For us, 2025 is all about ensuring every team member knows how to leverage AI tools effectively and responsibly. We are prioritizing hands-on training programs, including our Thursd-AI workshops. Adopting AI isnt just about saving time; its about giving our teams the tools to push boundaries and feel empowered in their work. The teams that are curious and exploring AI are the ones leading change, and were making sure were right there at the forefront. 2. STRENGTHEN OUR COLLABORATION AND FLEXIBILITY Weve always been a remote agency that values collaboration and flexibility. Flexibility is the future of work, and were leaning into that by enhancing how our team collaboratesno matter where theyre working from. Were creating new ways for our remote team to connect, whether planning event space layouts in the Meta Wooorld app or playing a round of mini golf in apps like Walkabout. 3. REFRESH OUR MARKETING AND SALES MATERIALS Its been a busy year. Like most agencies, our internal marketing projects often take a backseat to client projects and tight deadlines. But were changing that in 2025. Were refreshing everything, from our capabilities deck, to our one-pager, and everything in between. Our team is continuously evolving, and our materials need to keep up. Whats more, our marketing should reflect the same creativity, innovation, and strategic thinking that we deliver each day for our clients. By getting this task off the back burner, well have stronger tools to win over new clients and showcase our value. 4. DOUBLE DOWN ON EMERGING PLATFORMS AND TRENDS This past year, we experimented A LOT with immersive virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) environments. We dont take this lightly. The digital marketing world is expanding beyond traditional platforms, and if youre not actively trying to get ahead, youre falling behind. At the start of 2024, we gifted all of our employees a VR headset to experiment with. As we look back at the year, weve managed to incorporate VR into our creative workflows in such incredible ways! This past month, one designer even created an immersive experience to excite team members about our upcoming 2025 company retreat. This mindset and hands-on approach opened up new opportunities and allows us to now build similar campaigns for our clients. 5. MAINTAIN A CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS INNOVATION Innovation isnt just a buzzword at Quantiousits the foundation of our company and culture. In 2025, were continuing to foster this through regular team workshops, think tanks, and collaborations with other creatives. This culture extends to how we approach client work, surpassing limits and introducing innovative strategies in our campaigns. This focus is what will keep our workand our clientson the cutting edge of whats possible. We know that the future of marketing will be as exciting as it is challenging. Thats why our goal is to not just adapt to change, but to drive change! The year ahead is full of opportunities for agenciesand companies of all typesto push limits, surprise clients/customers, and show whats possible in marketing. For your New Years resolution, vow to level up and deliver your best work yet. Lisa Larson-Kelley is founder and CEO of Quantious.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Golden State Warriors are known for their electrifying plays and superstar Stephen Curry, but now the team is pioneering a fresh gameplan: blending sports and entertainment in a way no NBA franchise has before. As the first and only NBA team with its own record label, Golden State Entertainment, the Warriors are expanding their reach with For the Soil, a new album released this week. The projectfeaturing more than a dozen Bay Area music artists, including E-40, Too $hort, Saweetie, G-Eazy, Goapele, LaRussell, and Larry Junearrives just in time for the league’s All-Star Game weekend in San Francisco. A basketball team with a record label is unheard of until now, which is a testament to the Warriors and the Bay, said P-Lo, a Filipino American rapper who produced For the Soil, a collaborative release between Golden State Entertainment and Empire, a distribution and publishing company. He will perform live during an NBA All-Star tipoff party on Thursday at Thrive City, a 11-acre community gathering space surrounding the Chase Center. This is about innovation, bringing a new idea to the table, said P-Lo, a lifelong Warriors fan who has worked with artists such as Yo Gotti, Saweetie and Kehlani. He’s no stranger to the franchise, riding his convertible car as part of the Warriors championship parade, celebrating the team’s title in 2022. We’re here to break barriers while I’m trying to process it all,” he added. “I’m grateful for this opportunity. Warriors guard Gary Payton II said he plans on listening to the album. For me, to be the first team to have a music company, or production company, its kinda cool, Payton said. P-Lo is running it, and getting it done. I know theres a lot of talented Bay Area artists behind it, so its something to look forward to and be excited about. P-Lo played a key role in bringing together the Bay Areas top artists, contributing to all nine tracks on the album. He began the process late last summer, collaborating with local talent to craft a well-rounded project. P-Lo can produce, rap and bring all these artists who are like family to him, said David Kelly, an executive with the Warriors. He spearheaded the launch of Golden State Entertainment in 2022 before the team won the championship that year. Several NBA teams have partnered with artists over the years: Drake as the global ambassador for the Raptors, Jay-Z as a former minority owner of the Brooklyn Nets, and the Miami Heat collaborating with DJ Khaled, who performed at games. The Atlanta Hawks have also embraced their citys rap scene, working with T.I., 2 Chainz, and Quavo. But an NBA team with its own record label and entertainment division? Thats where Kelly saw an opportunity for the Warriors to break new ground. He said creating a label, intersecting hip-hop and basketball made sense. Its just kind of authentic and natural to the culture, said Kelly, who joined the organization in 2011 and currently is the chief business officer of Golden State Entertainment. It seems like a lot of times people try to force them apart or mesh them together that dont make sense. But if you grew up a part of both, they naturally intertwine. Kelly first pitched the idea of the Warriors having a record label to then-president Rick Welts before bringing it to the teams owner, Joe Lacob, and co-executive chairman Peter Guber. He said the Warriors’ leadership embraced his vision, and he hopes more pro teams will follow suit. Its seeing the culture being presented in a way thats true and reflective on a grand international scale, said Kelly, a former Chicago-based rapper, whose stage name was Capital D. Hopefully this is the first of many for Golden State and the culture. By Jonathan Landrum Jr., AP entertainment writer AP Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon contributed to this report in Dallas.
Category:
E-Commerce
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