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Iowa Ideas keynote speakers set to deliver inspiration, hope and humanity through three conversations
Register now to join the conversation on Oct. 10 and 11
Oct. 6, 2024 5:30 am, Updated: Oct. 10, 2024 7:22 am
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What do you get when an Emmy-winning Saturday Night Live writer, accomplished cupcake entrepreneur-turned-mentor and the first Iowa woman to climb Mount Everest come into the same space?
Iowa Ideas.
This year’s virtual conference on Oct. 10 and 11 promises to spark inspiration, hope and humanity through three keynote speakers.
Hear them speak and join the conversation on dozens of sessions over multiple topics important to Iowans by registering for the free conference at iowaideas.com.
Harper Steele: Emmy award winner, producer, comedy writer
After decades as a comedy writer, Harper Steele is reintroducing herself. If you watched “Saturday Night Live” between 1995 and 2008, you already know the Iowa City native and University of Iowa graduate’s work.
The 2002 Emmy award Winner was SNL’s head writer from 2004 to 2008. Later, she served for over a decade as creative director of comedy website Funny or Die, as well as executive producer of HBO’s “Funny or Die Presents.”
Today, she faces audiences anew with close friend and comedy legend Will Ferrell at the center of heartwarming documentary “Will & Harper,” which premiered Sept. 27 on Netflix after a run at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
After starting her gender transition in 2022 at the age of 61, Steele’s evolving friendship with Ferrell comes to light on film.
In March 2023, the duo chartered a 16-day road trip through the heart of America at Will’s suggestion “to figure out what this means to us,” after Steele wrote a letter to him coming out as transgender. From Indianapolis to the Grand Canyon, Steele and Ferrell strike up conversations and make friends as Steele rediscovers a sense of belonging in the spaces she loved before her transition.
“I love this country so much. I just don’t know if it loves me back right now,” Steele said in the documentary. “I’m not really afraid of these people. I’m afraid of hating myself.”
Nearly 30 years after the pair met in their first week at SNL, they discover new dynamics to their friendship as they traverse places many LGBTQ people avoid.
“I didn’t just want to come out in places like New York or L.A. and forever live on either coast,” she said. “I love the whole country. It’s my country, and I wanted to feel a little safer being in it.”
As anti-LGBTQ legislation proliferates in the Hawkeye State, Thursday’s keynote speaker hopes to remind Iowans of the kindness she remembers growing up here.
“What I would like for people to take away from (the) conversation is that we are neighbors first and we treat each other with respect,” she told The Gazette. “I grew up in an Iowa that held to this basic tenet of society without any effort. Being kind is the natural resting place of an Iowan, and we need to remember that.”
Christina Moffatt: Certified Business Advisor, entrepreneur, consultant, growth strategist
Des Moines entrepreneur and small business advocate Christina Moffatt is perhaps most widely known for being a runner-up on season 8 of Cupcake Wars, aired in 2013. But the TV baking competition was far from the last of her battles.
In less than a year, the lifelong baker expanded her home-operated bakery into a popular dessert and cocktail lounge. Within two years, she became a national leader in the baking industry.
But three weeks into opening the brick-and-mortar location for Creme Cupcake + Dessert, she found out she was pregnant. A month after that, her mother suffered a massive stroke.
“It was so emotional, being torn between what you feel you’re supposed to be doing and what your family needs of you,” Moffatt said. “We learned this really good lesson of supporting each other through things, because everybody has something come up.”
As she found herself a liaison between two generations — mother to one and caregiver to another — her story shaped into a paragon of how to adapt to the life events no business plan can account for.
But what’s more is that through the process, empathy found its place in driving the success of the entrepreneur’s venture — across the counter to every customer that came through her doors, and behind the scenes with the staff that served them. Through a journey of learning how to lean on others with trust, the bakery went from her business to “our company.”
“There’s no work-life balance. Just a work life blend,” she said. “I hope audiences leave inspired to have the grit to get through it. It’s never going to be graceful, and that’s OK.”
Throughout her career, she has committed to offering support for entrepreneurs, with a focus on women and minority business owners. She has served as the Regional Director for Mid Iowa SBDC, and the Director of Small Business Development for the Greater Des Moines Partnership.
In addition to her reality TV appearances, Moffatt has been recognized by several industry awards including DSM Top List for Best Bakery, Cityview’s Best Dessert and Sweet Equality Best Dessert.
Since selling her business in 2022, Moffatt has become a customer growth strategist for a Fortune 500 business in the financial industry, where she focuses on small to mid-sized businesses.
After being declined for a business loan seven times with a solid plan and a unique concept, she remains passionate about helping other women find their way. Through a “fireside chat” at Iowa Ideas on Friday morning, attendees can gain insights on how to navigate the often unspoken dynamics of business through her life’s examples.
For female and male entrepreneurs alike, building community support isn’t just an underrated tool for sustainable growth — it’s the right thing to do.
“Community is that piece people really don’t talk about,” she said. “What are you doing beyond your company? What are you doing that ‘s going to help the next generation behind you?”
Jen Loeb: Climber, Photographer, Humanitarian
Friday closing keynote speaker Jen Loeb finished climbing the Seven Summits in 2021, but reaching new heights remains a continual lifestyle for the farm girl born and raised in a state where the highest elevation is 1,670 feet.
The Marengo woman made headlines as the first woman from Iowa to successfully summit Mount Everest in 2016. In 2021, she achieved her dream as the first woman in Iowa to climb the highest peaks across all seven continents with the completion of Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
“I was always outdoorsy (growing up,) running around outside like a feral wild child,” said Loeb, 48. “I was always athletic. Being active in the great outdoors was what brought me the most joy.”
But after running track and cross-country through high school and college, backpacking wasn’t enough of a challenge. She wondered about the joys, the challenges, the fears and unknowns of climbing up mountains — not around them.
“I had all these questions and no answers. A lot of curiosity, really,” she said. “I was looking for something more.”
The photographer and humanitarian has used mountain climbing as her way to explore the world and volunteer more. She never intended to climb Mount Everest at the outset of her adventure.
But she pushed herself to do what was once unthinkable to avoid regrets later in life.
“There was this idea that Everest was only for professional climbers, sponsored climbers,” she said. “I was a small town farm girl nobody had heard of.”
Her 2020 book, “Shots from the Heart,” documents many of her climbs through 238 photographs and journal excerpts from her travels near and far.
Now, she tells others how they can expand their horizons, achieve their dreams and overcome the summits of life’s barriers — some of which may be self-imposed. At her keynote address, listeners can learn more about the process of climbing mountains, the training it required, her inspirations, and how it all can be applied to anyone’s dreams.
“No matter what your dream is, you can achieve it,” she said. “It is possible to achieve your dreams, even if there’s risk and sacrifice and fear.”
Iowa Ideas Keynote Speakers
Three keynote speakers will be featured at Iowa Ideas 2024.
- Harper Steele, producer, comedy writer and Emmy award winner, will speak at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10
- Christina Moffatt, business advisor, entrepreneur, consultant and growth strategist, will speak at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 11
- Jen Loeb, mountain climber, photographer and humanitarian, will speak at 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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