Ember with Mark El-Rayes

Mark El-Rayes is a creative, entrepreneur, and community builder existing at the crossroad of design, storytelling, and belonging. A child refugee from Beirut, Lebanon, he grew up between cultures, later served as a U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist, and has spent the years since building creative businesses and communities across the United States.

Mark is one of three Regional Contacts for Burning Man representing Washington, DC, and a founding board member of DC Burners, the nonprofit behind some of the city’s most distinctive community events, including DCOMPRESSION at the BERHTA warehouse. He also co-founded Adorea, a strategy and consulting firm that helps organizations think differently about growth and change.

His CreativeMornings talk, Ember, is about resilience, identity, and reinvention. About the small sparks that, if you tend to them, become something that transforms you.