Techonomy’s conferences are really intended to raise consciousness. With the world moving so quickly, it’s frighteningly easy to get stuck in one spot and not grasp how business and society are evolving, and how much changing tech is the reason. We don’t pretend our own consciousness is especially high. But based on eight years of experience at this conference thing, we do firmly believe that we can generate mind-expanding conversation by bringing together practitioners of innovation, business leaders who are open about their challenges, policy experts who go out on a limb, and plenty of young entrepreneurs. That is what we will do on West 46th Street in midtown Manhattan on May 8-9. It will be one of the best events we’ve ever done.
Few conferences offer such a diverse and rich program, especially one with tech as its foundation. Our diversity is by design — we believe cross-fertilization of ideas is what spurs the deepest insights. And it’s hardly painful brain work. Along with great panels and numerous TED-style talks, we’ll see a demonstration of the latest home robots, and close our first day with renowned New York 3-star Michelin Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin. Our conversation with Ripert follows three top food entrepreneurs and a leading analyst examining how tech is changing how we eat.
Business is there in spades. You’ll hear CEOs and founders of: WPP, S&P Global, Postmates, Datto, Vimeo, Betterment, Farmers Business Network, Amyris, Samsung North America, and Novozymes. Microsoft President Brad Smith speaks Tuesday. Wednesday opens with Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia, the world’s leading development economist and a huge advocate of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and the day ends with Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and author of the new book Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn.
Some of our newest speakers: Brian Deese, who heads BlackRock’s Sustainable Investing Group and formerly a top aide to President Barack Obama who helped negotiate the Paris Climate Accords; Tim Baxter, CEO of Samsung North America; Zoe Leavitt, senior analyst for retail and consumer packaged goods at CB Insights; Alice Lin Fabiano, global director for social innovation and global community impact at Johnson & Johnson; Charles Penner of Jana Partners, an activist hedge fund lobbying Apple to address smartphone addiction; James Patchett, CEO of the NYC Economic Development Corporation; journalist and professor Jeff Jarvis, one of the world’s top authorities on media and tech; Rich Benjamin, journalist and author of Searching for Whitopia, and Jalak Jobanputra, blockchain expert and managing partner at FuturePerfect Ventures. We could go on. Check full speaker list here.
Each of these topics will be addressed by one or more masters:
- Blockchain (of course)
- Artificial Intelligence and marketing
- Understanding 5G wireless
- Investing in New York startups
- Combatting tech addiction (An interactive conversation)
- The future of food (with three top entrepreneurs and a leading analyst guiding us through how growing and architecting food will change how we eat)
- The technologies of environmentalism, the future of cloud computing (with one of its great leaders, Brad Smith of Microsoft)
- The Chinese technology machine
- The future of entertainment
- Creating brands with a higher purpose
- How enzymes can combat climate change
- How transparency changes the relationship between consumers and brands
- And, no Techonomy conference would be complete without figuring out Facebook’s future
If you’re in business and you are not committed to immersing yourself in the ways tech is changing your industry and others, you are missing a critical competitive advantage. Inoculate yourself against ignorance. Come to Techonomy NYC. Register here.
