where innovation and creativity meet

We invite you to collaborate with New Mexico State University, Arrowhead Center, and Doña Ana Community College in celebrating creativity and innovation as drivers of positive economic and social growth.

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October 23 - 24, 2026 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM | Doña Ana Community College (DACC) Creative Media Technology, Cholla Hall, located at 2400 Film Street

About the Conference

6th Annual 10×25 Creativity Conference Returns to Las Cruces.
Las Cruces, NM – The highly anticipated 10×25 Creativity Conference is set to make its return on October 23 – 24, 2026, at the newly opened Doña Ana Community College (DACC) Creative Media Technology building @ 2400 Film Street on NMSU’s Arrowhead Campus.
The 10×25 conference, now in its sixth year, continues its tradition of bringing together visionaries, educators, entrepreneurs, and creatives from across the region. This year’s theme, “Where Innovation and Creativity Meet,” encapsulates the spirit of collaboration and forward thinking that has become synonymous with the event. 

THE 10X25 VERTICAL STORYTELLING CHALLENGE THREE EPISODES.
90 SECONDS EACH. ONE STORY. DESIGNED VERTICALLY.

Forget the traditional frame.

The 10X25 Vertical Storytelling Challenge asks creators to produce an original, connected three-episode series designed specifically for the 9:16 vertical screen.

Narrative. Documentary. Animation. Comedy. Horror. Experimental. Hybrid.

The format is vertical. What you do with it is up to you.

Each episode can run up to 90 seconds and must connect to one story, concept, or subject. Teams will also incorporate a required creative element and line of dialogue revealed when the challenge begins.

Registration Opens — September 25
Challenge Begins — October 2
Submission Deadline — October 21 at 8:00 PM MST
Screening + Judging — October 23
Awards — October 24

Make Something. Show Something.
Meet Someone.

October 23–24, 2026 | Cholla Hall | 2400 Film Street Las Cruces

Two days of creativity, storytelling, film, performance, workshops, and conversation.

10X25 brings together students, artists, filmmakers, designers, educators, and creative professionals from across the region to share ideas, try something new, show their work, and connect with one another.

Come for a session. Stay for the festival.

WHAT IS 10X25?

A FESTIVAL FOR CREATIVES

10X25 is a gathering of creative people and creative ideas.

Over two days, Cholla Hall becomes a place to hear from working creatives, join conversations, participate in hands-on workshops, experience live performance, watch original films, and meet others doing creative work throughout our region.

Filmmakers. Artists. Designers. Animators. Writers. Performers. Photographers. Students. Educators.

Whatever you make, you're invited.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23

STORIES + IDEAS + PERFORMANCE

3:00 PM — Doors Open / 10X25 Kickoff

Come early, grab a seat, meet some people, and help us kick off 10X25.

3:15 PM — The Act of Creation: Vertical Films to Stage

A quick opening conversation about creating work, experimenting with format, and taking an idea from concept to audience.

3:30 PM — Storytelling & Politics:
Narratives With Impact Ilana + Julian

How do stories shape the way we understand our communities and the world around us? A conversation about storytelling, politics, and narratives that make an impact.

4:30 PM — A Billi: LAB Free + the Learning Action Buffet

A young adult perspective on the production of The LAB x TENM collaborative podcast: Transform The Norm and the process of building media production skills. Three LAB leaders will discuss their experience in learning how to produce, communicate, and advocate through multi media.

5:15 pm - Dr. Andrea Severson Lopez

Sew Medieval
As a living historian, recreating dress from earlier periods is an important part of what I do and it requires a lot of research to get it right. This evolution of European dress between 1400 and 1500, and how they were connected to the society of the time. Rather than treating fashion simply as a sequence of changing styles, the presentation will explore dress as a reflection of gender, class, labor, technology, and cultural expectations in the fifteenth century with an eye towards recreating historical clothing and understanding what it was like to literally walk in their shoes.

6:00 PM — 10X25 Poetry Slam

The DACC English and Arts Departments are joining forces to host the 10×25 Conference’s First Annual “Poetry Slam and Jam” at Cholla Hall. Students, Faculty, and members of the community with something to say are encouraged to step up to the mic and share your words, bare your soul. While the term “Poetry Slam” may seem intimidating to some, this event is done in the spirt of community and our shared voices. All voices in the community are welcome.

7:00 PM — Vertical Storytelling Challenge Screening + Judging

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24

LEARN + MAKE + EXPERIMENT

1:00 PM — Public Speaking Workshop Julian

Build confidence, strengthen your presentation skills, and learn how to better connect with an audience.

2:00 PM — FLL∆PPS

FLL∆PPS is the experimental electronic duo of Jason Begin and Jared Blum, longtime collaborators who first met at Ithaca College in 1995. After years of playing in various bands, the two ventured into electronic music, developing a sound that collides musique concrète, electroacoustic composition, broken techno, dub, and glitch with a playful sense of humor.

Drawing inspiration from artists including Bernard Parmegiani, Jan Jelinek, Richard James, Bjork, Autechre, Otomo Yoshihide, and Peter Rothbart, FLL∆PPS creates fractured, textured, rhythmically unpredictable sound worlds that blur the line between composition, improvisation and sound design.

This performance marks FLL∆PPS’ first live appearance since 2012. The duo will also be preparing forthcoming releases featuring compositions recorded over the past twelve years. After a long hiatus, FLL∆PPS returns to the stage with a strange, playful, and deeply experimental approach to electronic sound.

The duo will give a brief talk about their unique process of creating music with a Q&A to follow.

3:00 PM — Cinematography Workshop

Explore visual storytelling through camera, lighting, composition, and creative decision-making.

4:00–6:00 PM — Vertical Storytelling Challenge Showcase + Awards

Celebrate the creators behind this year’s challenge and find out who takes home Best Vertical Series, Most Creative Use of Vertical Storytelling, and Audience Choice.

After Party / Film Las Cruces Mixer

Details coming soon.

CREATIVITY LIVES HERE.

You don’t have to be a filmmaker.
You don’t have to be a professional.
You don’t even have to know exactly what you’re looking for.

Come hear an idea. Learn something. Watch something. Meet somebody. Make something.

That’s 10X25.

October 23–24, 2026
Cholla Hall | Doña Ana Community College

10x25 Schedule

Hosted by Julian Alexander & Asiah Thomas Mandlman

12:00pm - 1:30pm | Workshop

Conference Welcome and Intro

Welcome to an exciting event focused on creativity, innovation, education, and entrepreneurship.

4:20 PM - 4:35 PM

4:40 PM - 4:55 PM

5:00 PM - 5:15 PM | Ten Minute Lecture: Dr. Julia Smith - Title + DescriptionForgotten Films, Hidden Futures: How Regional Cinema Rewrites History

In 1965, a Las Cruces English professor premiered The Devil’s Mistress at the Rio Grande Theatre. Then it disappeared for decades. Filmmaker Julia Smith shares the story of rediscovering this forgotten Western — and what it reveals about the power of outsider and regional cinema to reshape our cultural myths, challenge mainstream history, and open hidden futures for art and identity.

5:30 PM | Variety Show Performance

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