About Patricia

Polymath. Ontological Designer. Protopian Futurist.

Portrait of Patricia Parkinson

There's a moment when a group stops performing coordination and starts actually moving together. I design for that threshold.

If you've ever been part of something that suddenly clicked — capacity unlocking that you knew was there but couldn't reach — that's the territory I work in. It's called organizational emergence: the living process by which groups develop coordination, structure, and collective capacity.

For 18 years, I've led teams at pioneering thresholds — scaling a digital financial newsroom during the 2008 crisis, advising banks and Fortune 500s through early digital transformation, designing national programs reaching hundreds of thousands, leading design for the world's largest blockchain encyclopedia, directing design for an early metaverse platform, guiding first-of-kind digital transitions for MAPS, Burning Man, and Esalen, co-creating self-organizing coalitions reaching 15M people, designing an Indigenous nature regeneration network stewarding 140k acres, and shaping participation for Canada's largest civil disobedience movement.

The pattern is consistent: I get enrolled when groups face territory they've never navigated before. I build teams and shape systems of participation that let them move.

People describe me as a multiplier — someone who amplifies the capacity of others. I'm a polymath; emergence doesn't resolve within a single domain. My work weaves together spaces, stories, and systems. The environments we gather in, the narratives we hold, the structures we coordinate through — these shape each other. This is ontological design: designing the conditions that design us.

Our compounding crises led me to co-found OpenCivics — a philosophy, practice, and network for open civic innovation. We're building peer-to-peer coordination infrastructure for navigating emergence at civilizational scale: participatory governance, mutual stewardship, regenerative collective action from the ground up. We've distributed more than $350k USD to 47 projects through participatory funding. This is what I'm most devoted to — where everything I've learned meets what this moment requires.

My home, Imaginal House, on Salt Spring Island in the Salish Sea, is a community hub and sanctuary for practitioners designing regenerative futures. I also lead the arts collective Luminary Society, and tend a knowledge garden as the Kosmic Gardener.

Career Highlights

Recently

Co-founded a civic innovation network distributing $350k+ in grants for open civic infrastructure
Forest regeneration network in British Columbia
Stewarding emerging infrastructure for networked sovereignty and local self-governance

Wild Exploration

Supported Burning Man's transition into decentralized digital experiences
Designed and executed the first online global event for MAPS
Advised Esalen during their response to pandemic-era conditions
Co-designed the world's largest blockchain encyclopedia
Built one of the first metaverse platforms to support NFTs
Led a pandemic-era digital campaign engaging 15M+ participants

Early Career

Advised major banks and service firms on early digital transformation
Helped design national-scale financial and digital literacy programs
Incubated the southern hemisphere's largest professional speaking institute

Collaborators & Partners

ANZ Bank · AP News · ATYP · Bankwest · BioFi Project · BlockOne · Burning Man Project · Buckminster Fuller Institute · Center for Humane Technology · ChangeLabs · China Mobile · Clever · Commonwealth Bank · Concep · Consciousness Hacking · Crane Industry Association · Design Science Studio · Elanora Country Club · Esalen Institute · Everipedia · EY · FCB · Football Federation Australia · Gitcoin · Google · habRitual · Indigenous Commons · Johnson & Johnson · Kwaxala · Lionsgate · MAPS · Minter Ellison · Mondelēz International · MS Research Australia · NAB · Netflix · Optus · Pegasus Pictures · Pumpables · Rackett · Regenerate Cascadia · Rhizome Springs · Seven Seven Six · Shimano · Singtel Optus · Speakers Institute · Telos · Topia · Vision 2030 · Vogue · Westpac

Domains of Focus

Explore garden →

My Vision

A future where thriving communities, resilient systems, and planetary well-being emerge naturally from cultures of participation, shared stewardship, and regenerative self-governance.

Humanity stands at the threshold of a radical reconfiguration — a time when exponential change and existential reckoning converge. Beneath every collapse lies a deeper wound — a forgetting of our belonging to the living systems that sustain us.

To move beyond collapse, we turn toward the principles life itself teaches: regeneration, reciprocity, emergence. Not as abstractions — as design conditions. This is not a moment for incremental reform. It calls for a renaissance of imagination, a renewal of participation, and a deep remembering of our interbeing with all life.

By evolving how we imagine, organize, and relate, I believe we can ignite a cultural shift — one that restores meaning, reveals new possibilities, and builds systems rooted in care.

Career Details

Organizations & Roles
  • 2009 - Current | Strategic Consulting Practice
    Currently under the name "Future Historic"
  • 2022 – Current | OpenCivics | Co-Founder & Steward
    A civic innovation network empowering civic innovators, organizers, and patrons to collaboratively reimagine governance, community-building, and civic life.
  • 2022 - Current | Design Science Studio | Advisor
    A global learning community inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller, dedicated to life-affirming systems change.
  • 2023 - 2024 | Burning Man | Governance & Engagement Advisor
  • 2023 - 2024 | Kwaxala | Organizational Designer
    A cultural and ecological initiative rooted in Indigenous wisdom and regenerative stewardship.
  • 2022 | Habritual | Design Strategist
    Led collaborative think tank design processes informing the masterplan of a 430-acre regenerative eco-village project.
  • 2020 - 2021 | Liminalia | Founder & Creative Director
    A digital-first experience design studio born in response to the pandemic-era need for transformative online connection.
  • 2021 | Topia | Experience Design Director
    A pioneering social metaverse platform fostering participatory, collaborative digital environments.
  • 2018 - 2019 | BlockCollab | Founder & Facilitator
    A year-long think tank exploring decentralized collaboration systems.
  • 2018 - 2020 | Decrypted | Partner + Design Director
    A design and strategy studio specializing in the blockchain space.
  • 2018 | Blockchain Babes | Co-Founder & Movement Multiplier
    A global blockchain community created for women by women.
  • 2018 - 2019 | Chestnut | Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer
    Smart account technology designed to improve blockchain security and usability.
  • 2017 - 2018 | SteemSmarter | Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer
    Analytics and reporting tool for the Steem blockchain.
  • 2015 | Reidefine Media | Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer
    Entertainment-driven eCommerce and eLearning for the Asia-Pacific market.
  • 2012 | Karrikins Group | Shared Creative Services Manager
    A global behavior change consultancy focused on leadership alignment and organizational transformation.
  • 2011 - 2012 | Funke Labs | Creative Director
    A creative agency specializing in brand strategy and digital experiences.
  • 2010 - 2011 | Concep | Creative Manager - Design & Interactive
    Global B2B relationship marketing technology company.
  • 2008 | Brookeshire Media | Digital Producer
    Financial news network during the global financial crisis.
  • 2008 | Drive Strategic | Junior Creative Director
    Boutique digital agency based in Toronto.
  • 2004 | Quirk Solutions | Founder & Production Director
    First registered entrepreneurial venture, producing local music events and film screenings.
Skills

People

  • Leadership Development & Coaching
  • Stakeholder Engagement & Relationship Building
  • Capacity Building & Talent Development
  • Workshop Design & Facilitation
  • Culture Building & Community Engagement
  • Conflict Mediation & Resolution

Creative

  • Product Design & Innovation
  • Brand Strategy & Identity Development
  • UX/UI Design & Gamification
  • Immersive Experience & Transmedia Design
  • Content Creation & Campaign Development
  • Art Direction & Creative Strategy

Operations

  • Vision & Values Definition
  • Organizational Design & Modeling
  • Strategic Planning & Execution
  • Project & Program Management
  • Change & Transformation Management
  • Scaling & Growth Strategy

Technology

  • Digital Strategy & Transformation
  • Systems Architecture & Integration
  • Data Analytics & Visualization
  • Content & Knowledge Management Systems
  • Web & Interface Design
  • Media & Video Production
Awards
  • 2020 | Muse Design Awards
    Silver Winner – Website / Art & Design (for "Bicycle Night – A Virtual Bicycle Day Experience")
  • 2018 | EOS Global Hackathon
    2nd Place + Best UX / Chestnut – Smart accounts for automation and security
Speaking
  • 2020 | Consciousness Hacking — Future of Immersive
  • 2020 | Quarantime — Commander in Us: Quaranteams
  • 2019 | Burning Man — Reinventing the web that wasn't
  • 2018 | Hubud — Brand-driven Innovation
  • 2017 | Punspace — Do polymaths own the future?
  • 2016 | Pecha Kucha — Do polymaths own the future?
  • 2012 | Pilab Forum — Finding an audience in the digital age
Education
  • 2009 | OCAD University — Design
  • 2007 | Ryerson University — Journalism

My Values

The values that guide my being

Curiosity

Staying open to what I don't yet understand

Presence

Honoring what's here, not just what's next

Reverence

Remembering my web of relations

The values that guide my doing

Coherence

Aligning intention, action, and design

Plurality

Welcoming many truths without losing clarity

Wholeness

Designing for integrity, not efficiency

Gifts & Growth Areas

People describe me as having relational intelligence and a gift for synthesizing complexity into coherent, actionable systems. I make mistakes often and seek to learn and attune.

Activator

Gift

I bring energy and momentum that helps things get moving.

Growth

I can move too quickly, mistaking motion for progress and skipping over necessary depth.

Strategist

Gift

I clarify options and help others act decisively in uncertain situations.

Growth

I can default to decision-making too fast — narrowing choices before others feel heard.

Futurist

Gift

I inspire next steps and help imagine what's possible beyond the current stuckness.

Growth

I can get so focused on what's next that I lose patience for the present moment or pace.

Relational Intelligence

Gift

I create spaces of deep trust and meaningful connection across difference.

Growth

I can overextend emotionally — taking too much responsibility for harmony.

Synthesizing Complexity

Gift

I distill insight from complexity and make systems legible and actionable.

Growth

I can overwhelm others with frameworks, or over-architect things before people are ready.

Kind Words from Collaborators

My Life Story

I believe our story is a lens; a constellation of meaning through which we see and seek to be seen.

I was born into the blur of suburbia, at the edge of industrial decay and digital emergence. From the start, I sensed I wouldn't fit into a single role or follow a linear path. There's a Maltese tradition (Il-Quċċija) where a child's future is symbolized by the object they choose on their first birthday. I chose a machine gun and rosary beads. Even then, I was reaching toward something both rebellious and reverent.

By sixteen, life had already demanded I grow up fast. Loss shaped me. So did curiosity. I became a teenage activist and journalist, learning to move between stories and systems, behind and in front of the camera. In the years that followed, I carved my own path — through media, design, and technology — searching not just for success, but for meaning.

Eventually, the inner dissonance became too loud to ignore. I had spent a decade building things — brands, platforms, careers — but without a compass rooted in care, they began to feel hollow. So I walked away.

For seven years, I wandered the world as a digital nomad. I learned from elders and edge-dwellers, mystics and metaverse architects. I healed, studied, and listened. I learned that regeneration isn't just ecological — it's ontological. It's how we design ourselves, each other, and our shared worlds.

When I returned to the Pacific Northwest, I was no longer chasing titles or trends. I was in service — to something older, wilder, more whole. I found language for what had been guiding me all along: planetary regeneration, cosmolocal collaboration, civic imagination, and the sacred architecture of participation.

Today, I tend to experiments at the intersection of governance, culture, and care. But more than anything, I'm learning how to live in right relationship — with land, with time, with others, and with myself.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

— Buckminster Fuller

Past Selves & Meaningful Moments

If you're building something that matters and could use a thinking partner, I'd love to hear from you.

Let's Connect