Speaker Bios

The Future of the Mind

Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD

Founder & Executive Director UCSF Neuroscape
Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor in Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the UCSF, and the Founder / Executive Director of Neuroscape. Dr. Gazzaley is co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive Labs and JAZZ Venture Partners. He has filed multiple patents, authored over 100 scientific articles, and delivered over 500 invited presentations around the world. He recently co-authored “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World”. He has received many awards, including the 2015 Society for Neuroscience – Science Educator Award.

The Future of Dating

Amanda Bradford

CEO The League
Amanda is the Founder and CEO of The League dating app: http://www.theleague.com/

The Future of Cannabis

Ben Larson

Co-Founder & MP Gateway Incubator
Ben Larson is a serial entrepreneur based in the San Francisco Bay Area and is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Gateway Incubator. Gateway is the cannabis startup accelerator that brings Silicon Valley expertise, mentorship, and investment to the cannabis industry. Prior to launching Gateway, Ben operated the early stage tech accelerator program, Founder Institute, in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, and managed global operations for the 100+ cities in which Founder Institute operates. Ben is also a professional pitch coach, international startup adviser and speaker, Mentor at Youth Business USA, and has helped hundreds of companies start-up.

The Future of Wearables

Billie Whitehouse

CEO Wearable Experiments
Billie Whitehouse is the CEO, designer and director of Wearable X. Wearable X specializes in the combination of hardware, software and apparel for wearable technology products. Forbes recently compared Billie and her co-founder Ben Moir to Steve Jobs and Jerry Seinfeld. Known for her development of Nadi X and Fan Jersey recently presented at Super Bowl 50, Billie is invigorating the fashion industry and transforming it into a business focused on improving the quality of our lives. Billie is an aesthetic specialist with a naturally inquisitive nature towards technology and innovation. As a garment engineer she strongly believes people should not have to look like the technology that they have grown to love and depend on. Billie’s designs are sharp, experimental, naturally confident and subtly feminine in appearance integrated with the latest technology. Business Insider recently named Billie as one of the 30 most important women under 30 in tech and she was named in the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. The highlight for Billie in 2016 was winning The Wearable Award in Paris at Show Room Privé as well as being featured on the Jimmy Fallon Show. Billie is a renowned keynote speaker with presentations stretching from the The New Yorker Tech Fest 2016, Fortune’s Elevate 2016, Belgium Fashion Congress 2015, Cannes Lions 2015/2016, Wired UK 2015, Conde Nast Digital Russia 2016, India Fashion Forum 2016 and many more.

The Future of Fun

Brent Bushnell

CEO Two Bit Circus
Brent Bushnell is the CEO of Two Bit Circus, a Los Angeles-based experiential entertainment company building products and events that combine story and technology. Most recently the team launched STEAM Carnival, a showcase of high-tech entertainment and workshops to inspire invention. They also built a 360 video production pipeline and deployed Virtual Reality content with haptic feedback for live events with clients including NFL, NBA, Indy, Olympics, Sundance and more. The company regularly serves as immersive entertainment partners for brands and location-based facilities. Previously, Brent was the on-camera inventor for the ABC TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. He was a founding member of Syyn Labs, a creative collective creating stunts for brands like Google and Disney and responsible for the viral This Too Shall Pass music video for OK Go which garnered 50+ million views. Brent is board president of the non-profit Trash For Teaching which upcycles clean corporate waste for school art supplies. He's an advisor to the Incubator School and USC's Greif Entrepreneurship School. In his spare time, Brent enjoys mentoring teens in entrepreneurship via programs such as NFTE. He's a supporter of Clowns Without Borders and publishes on Twitter at @brentbushnell.

The Future of Charity

Brett Hagler

CEO & Co-Founder New Story
Brett Hagler is the CEO and Co-Founder of New Story - an organization that builds safe homes and transforms slums into thriving communities around the world. Brett is a Y Combinator alum, 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur, cancer survivor, author, and speaker. In two years, New Story has funded over 750 life-changing homes because of a unique and transparent philanthropic experience.

The Future of Hospitality

Chip Conley

Head of Hospitality Airbnb
Founder and former CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Chip Conley grew one inner city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in the world. The New York Times bestselling author joined Airbnb as Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy in 2013, where he's been instrumental in turning it into the world’s largest hospitality company. Chip received the industry’s highest honor, The Pioneer Award, and his BA and MBA from Stanford University. He holds an honorary doctorate in psychology from Saybrook University and serves on the boards of the Esalen Institute and the Burning Man Project.

The Future of Cities - Panel

Crystal Barriscale

VP Urban Design HKS
Crystal Barriscale, AIA, AICP, LEED AP BD+C, is the vice president and west coast director of urban design at HKS Architecture firm. Before that, Barriscale was director of planning and landscape architecture for HOK in San Francisco. Throughout her career, she has led award-winning projects from inception to implementation. Some of her Bay Area projects include Bay Meadows in San Mateo, Kaiser Permanente’s Redwood City Medical Campus, the Transbay Transit Center Site Design and Streetscape Plan in San Francisco, and the City of Fremont Downtown Community Plan. While practicing in New York, Barriscale’s planning and urban design work included the Lincoln Center Capital Improvement Plan, Battery Park City Authority Urban Design consulting, Indiana University Master Planner, and Governors Island Land Use Plan.

The Future of Art

Daniel Doubrovkine

CTO Artsy
Daniel Doubrovkine (aka dB.) is a seasoned entrepreneur and technologist, CTO at Artsy.net in New York, working on bringing the art world online. He is a maintainer of multiple popular open-source projects, including Java Native Access, Ruby Grape, Hashie and the popular Slack Ruby client, bot and server libraries. Daniel graduated from University of Geneva in late 90s and founded and sold Vestris Inc., an early stage technology start-up right after college. He joined Microsoft as Development Lead, was Director at Visible Path, then Architect and Development Manager at Application Security.

The Future of Journalism

Dave Pell

Publisher NextDraft
Dave Pell writes NextDraft, a quick, entertaining look at the day’s top ten news stories. Dave’s writing has appeared in Wired, NPR, Gizmodo, Forbes and elsewhere. He’s also been advising and investing in internet startup companies for nearly two decades.

The Future of the Brain

David Eagleman, PhD

NEUROSCIENTIST STANFORD UNIVERSITY & COFOUNDER NEOSENSORY
David Eagleman is a neuroscientist, New York Times bestselling author and Guggenheim Fellow. He is the writer and presenter of The Brain,an international television series that asks what it means to be human from a neuroscientist's point of view. At Stanford University School of Medicine in California, Eagleman’s research encompasses time perception, vision, synesthesia, and the intersection of neuroscience with the legal system. He is the author of several books, including the international bestsellers Sum and Incognito. Dr. Eagleman appears regularly on National Public Radio and BBC to discuss both science and literature.

The Future of Entrepreneurship

David Mandelbrot

CEO Indiegogo
David Mandelbrot became the CEO of Indiegogo in early 2016 after spending over two years as COO and SVP of Operations at the company. David has been an executive at high-growth online businesses for over 20 years, at both small start-ups and larger companies. Prior to Indiegogo he was VP and General Manager of Media and Entertainment at Yahoo where Dave led the teams that built Yahoo! News, Finance, Sports, Movies and Games into the #1 online destinations in their categories. Earlier in his career, Dave was a corporate attorney for Netscape and before that in private law practices where he got his first taste of start-ups representing entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investment bankers in venture capital financings, licensing transactions, mergers and acquisitions and IPOs.

The Future of Mars Exploration

Dr. Anita Sengupta

Research Professor USC and Mars Entry Descent & Landing Specialist
Dr. Anita Sengupta is a Senior Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the Entry Descent and Landing Advanced Technologies group. She has been developing entry and propulsion systems for Mars, Venus, and deep space missions for the past decade. She is currently Principal Investigator for the MSL supersonic parachute qualification program and terminal descent engine plume impingement program, principal investigator for the Orion Vehicle Drogue Parachute Subscale Test Program, and leading a nano satellite architecture study for a Europa orbiter mission. Previously she was the entry system lead for a Venus lander mission concept, systems engineer for a Mars Ascent Vehicle technology development program, lead systems engineer for a Mars Sample return mission concept, and Co-Investigator of several plasma propulsion development programs including the extended life test of the Deep Space 1 ion engine which led to the qualification of the ion engines for the Dawn Mission. Prior to joining JPL she worked in industry on the Delta IV Launch Vehicle, X37 Vehicle, Space Shuttle, and Commercial Communication Satellites (XM-radio). She received her PhD and MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California, where she is currently teaching Spacecraft Design in the Astronautics Department. She received her BS in Aerospace Engineering from Boston University.

The Future of Health

Dr. Daniel Kraft

Chair for Medicine Singularity University & Founder Exponential Medicine
Daniel Kraft is a Stanford and Harvard-trained physician-scientist with over 20 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research and innovation. Dr. Kraft chairs the Medicine track for Singularity University and is Executive Director and curator for the Exponential Medicine, a program which explores convergent, exponentially developing technologies and their potential in biomedicine and healthcare.

The Future of Automation

Dr. Michael Chui

Partner McKinsey Global Institute
Dr. Michael Chui is a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey's business and economics research arm. He leads research on the impact of information technologies and innovation on business, the economy, and society. Michael has led McKinsey research in such areas as Big Data, Web 2.0 and collaboration technologies, and the Internet of Things.Michael is a frequent speaker at major global conferences, and his research has been cited in leading publications around the world. His PhD dissertation, entitled "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For: Web Searching as Query Refinement," examined Web user search behaviors and the usability of Web search engines.As a McKinsey consultant, Michael served clients in the high-tech, media, and telecom industries on strategy, innovation and product development, IT, sales and marketing, M&A;, and organization. Prior to joining McKinsey, Michael served as the first chief information officer of the city of Bloomington, Indiana, where he re-architected the enterprise architecture using open source technologies and led a project that resulted in Bloomington becoming the first community in the world to offer both live and archived video streaming of public meetings on the Web. Before that, Michael was founder and executive director of HoosierNet, Inc., a nonprofit cooperative Internet service provider that offered dial-up and broadband access to the Internet to consumers, nonprofits, governments, and businesses.

The Future of Capitalism

Ela Madej

Partner Fifty Years
Ela Madej is a serial entrepreneur and a Founding Partner at Fifty Years, an early stage VC fund that backs entrepreneurs solving the world’s biggest problems with technology. She’s a Y Combinator alum who previously co-founded Base CRM, the software development company Applicake, and was a Partner at Innovation Nest, a Europe-focused VC firm. With Fifty Years, Ela has invested in over 20 private companies in areas such as synthetic biology, energy, space tech, health tech, food tech, autonomous vehicles, and more. Ela also runs Impact.tech, a platform for technologists in Silicon Valley who want to combine purpose with profit.

The Future of Smart Cities

Elliot Katz

Global Co-Chair of DLA Piper's Connected and Self-Driving Car Practice
Elliot Katz is Global Co-Chair of DLA Piper's Connected and Self-Driving Car Practice. In that role, he advises automakers, tech companies, and municipalities on regulatory, policy, and privacy issues pertaining to these types of vehicles. In addition to his work surrounding self-driving vehicles, Elliot also works on issues related to other Internet-connected devices and systems, such as issues surrounding the use of mobile location analytics and other sensors within smart cities. Elliot regularly speaks and writes on emerging IoT and self-driving car issues, and has recently been quoted in articles on this topic in The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Miami Herald, Yahoo Finance, TU Automotive, Law360, and eSecurity Planet.

The Future of Education

Eric Lavin

Co-Founder & CEO IdeaFire
Eric finds his passion at the intersection of education, scaling social innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is currently working on a new edutainment concept, IdeaFire, to gamify self-directed cycles of continuous learning. Before starting IdeaFire, Eric worked at the Aspen Institute, where he launched and led a range of efforts to harness the Institute’s platform and resources to catalyze and accelerate social innovation. Prior to that, he co-founded and served as the first CEO of Whetstone, an education technology company based in New Orleans that partners with schools and districts across America to support great teaching. He started his career as a high school social studies teacher in the Mississippi Delta. Eric holds a B.A in International Political Economy from Tulane University, and completed coursework at LSE and Oxford. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016.

The Future of Building Brands

Eric Ryan

Co-founder Method Products
Eric makes soap. Really nice smelling soap that's non-toxic and good for the planet. It’s really beautiful, too. He and his high school buddy Adam started method in 2001 and have since built it into a global industry leader for both design and sustainability. Today, method has over 200 planet-friendly cleaning products in stores across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Eric has been named an eco-leader by Vanity Fair, an eco-revolutionary by Time Magazine, PETA's Person of the Year, a recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award and was named to Fortune’s 40 under 40. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his three children who all think he is the cleanest Dad in the world.

The Future of Music

Facundo Martin Diaz

CEO VRTIFY
Facundo is a tech Entrepreneur, advisor and investor in digital Startups. He has born in Argentina and today is based in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, CA). During the past 4 years he had focused on Virtual Reality technology development. He is part of the key Virtual Reality (VR) community, one of the main VR “evangelist”. Before that, he has founded several Digital Startups and has created the "Exponential Mind Program”, a methodology that still help companies and entrepreneurs to scale their business 10X bigger and faster applying Startups principles and taking advantage of digital disruption. Previous to his entrepreneurial journey, Facundo was a tech & digital consultant for more than 15 years (Accenture, DotionLab, Independent) working with Leading Companies in Argentina, Brazil, France, USA, Puerto Rico, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Peru. Facundo has also mentored hundred of startups and entrepreneurs through organization like Endeavor, Startup Weekend, Seedstars Startups and other Accelerators in which his also act as a Jury to select the most prominent of them.

The Future of Music

Facundo Martin Diaz

CEO VRTIFY
Facundo is a tech Entrepreneur, advisor and investor in digital Startups. He has born in Argentina and today is based in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, CA). During the past 4 years he had focused on Virtual Reality technology development. He is part of the key Virtual Reality (VR) community, one of the main VR “evangelist”. Before that, he has founded several Digital Startups and has created the "Exponential Mind Program”, a methodology that still help companies and entrepreneurs to scale their business 10X bigger and faster applying Startups principles and taking advantage of digital disruption. Previous to his entrepreneurial journey, Facundo was a tech & digital consultant for more than 15 years (Accenture, DotionLab, Independent) working with Leading Companies in Argentina, Brazil, France, USA, Puerto Rico, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Peru. Facundo has also mentored hundred of startups and entrepreneurs through organization like Endeavor, Startup Weekend, Seedstars Startups and other Accelerators in which his also act as a Jury to select the most prominent of them.

The Future of Augmented & Virtual Reality

Gaia Dempsey

Co-Founder DAQRI
Gaia Dempsey is the co-founder and director of public relations and marketing at Daqri, the leader in 4D experiences.At Daqri she manages projects including the company’s first hosted conference, VOX: The 4D Summit, and the Daqri blog. Gaia also currently serves as the liaison for global educational and art-related partnerships.Prior to Daqri, Gaia worked as a writer and marketing specialist at a premier sustainability conference Opportunity Green, generating their highest levels of social and blog engagement.Gaia then began her start-up career at Idealab where she brought social to the first-ever startup incubator, before going on to co-found interactive and digital marketing firm Demeter Interactive, where she provided marketing and social media services to tech startups and companies with a sustainability focus and championed a design-led ethos.Gaia received a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.

The Future of Human Enhancement

Geoffrey Woo

CEO Nootrobox
Geoffrey Woo is co-founder and CEO of Nootrobox, a nootropics and biohacking technology company backed by Andreessen Horowitz and other top investors and profiled on New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Vanity Fair, and other top publications.Previously, Geoffrey spent time at Foundation Capital as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. In 2011, Geoffrey founded Glassmap, a technology company focused around location sharing and local discovery. Glassmap was backed by YCombinator and acquired by Groupon in January 2013. At Groupon, Geoffrey built and launched Groupon's point-of-sale and payments products.Prior to Glassmap, Geoffrey studied Computer Science at Stanford University and graduated with Honors and Distinction. At Stanford, he served as President of BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students), the largest entrepreneurship student group in the world, for which he now serves as a member of the board.

The Future of Retail

Healey Cypher

CEO Oak Labs
Healey Cypher (yes, that’s his real name) is co-founder and CEO of Oak Labs. He is a passionate product guy who loves to push the boundaries of retail, and GSD. Prior to founding Oak, Healey led the Retail Innovation team at eBay, Inc. Healey is recognized as a leader in the retail space, recently named one of WWD’s 10 of Tomorrow and Goldman Sach’s Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2016. Healey is an alumnus of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is from Nebraska, but spent a majority of his early life in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Future of Data

Hooman Radfar

Partner Expa
Hooman is an entrepreneur, executive and investor with deep expertise in building data-driven businesses. He's a partner at Expa and founder of AddThis (acquired by Oracle). At Expa, he collaborates with the founders of Uber, Foursquare, Metrolyrics and more to create and launch category-defining new businesses. He began his career as founder and CEO of AddThis, the world's largest online personalization platform for websites per Comscore. Named one of Tech's Best Entrepreneurs in BusinessWeek and one of iMedia's 25 most influential online marketing professionals, Hooman has been featured by NBC, ABC, Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company.

The Future of Cities - Panel

Jake Levitas

Co-Founder Our City
I am Co-Founder of Our City, a new nonprofit organization that empowers residents to imagine and build the future of their communities. We help governments, cultural institutions, and individuals make their cities better together, through imaginative public design festivals, workshops, and installations.Over the past eight years, I have worked across four sectors to develop new models for civic engagement. I have leveraged my experience as a community organizer, city employee, professional planner, and practicing designer and consultant to develop successful large-scale, cross-sector initiatives. With a specific focus on innovative work in public space, I have helped coin and shape the concepts of public design and urban prototyping as tactical complements to conventional urban planning processes.

The Future of Drones

Jason Jepson

SVP Mota
Jason Jepson is the SVP of Corporate Communications at Mota and, more importantly, is the father to one beautiful baby girl, Harper. He formerly studied Communications and Rhetorical Analysis at Vanguard University, ran PR at several financial services companies, launched a global protection app, helped run the world’s richest fishing tournament, founded and served as CEO of Screaming Monkey and Star38 and has had the privilege to work with a plethora of ground breaking technologies. He can neither confirm nor deny that he turned down an offer to run PR for one of the most powerful and soul-sucking companies in the world, but he can tell you that he has placed stories on BusinessWeek, CNBC, ABC, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Elite Traveler, Go Magazine, Sportfisherman.com, ESPN, and at least one bathroom wall - to name a few.

The Future of Human Connection

Jesse Israel

Founder Mediclub
Jesse is a community builder with a passion for creating experiences around human connection. He's the founder of The Big Quiet, a mass meditation movement that hosts large-scale moments of quiet and culture at iconic landmarks like Central Park and the Oculus World Trade Center. He's also the founder of Medi Club, a community of thousands of New Yorkers that come together to meditate and discuss challenges relevant to modern living. Jesse speaks at Fortune 500 companies, advises community-driven startups and rides with the Cyclones Bike Club.

The Future of Sustainability

Jonathan Trent

Director Omega Global Initiative
Jonathan Trent invented OMEGA to grow oil-producing algae on municipal wastewater and leads the multidisciplinary OMEGA team to test the feasibility of the OMEGA concept. Trent's previous research focused on astrobiology and nanotechnology using extremophiles. Extremophiles are organisms adapted to live in the most extreme environments on Earth. His studies of their lifestyle and adaptations have provided insight into how extremophiles adapt to live in near-boiling sulfuric acid and how their protein structures can be used to construct robust, self-assembling, genetically versatile tools for nanotechnology. His nanotechnology has been applied to developing enzymes arrays to access the sugars in cellulose for making biofuels.

The Future of Music - Interviewer

Joseph Perla

Founder Turntable2.FM
Joseph is currently a growth engineer at Lyft & former VP of Technology/founding team at Turntable.fm. His first college startup was in the education space. His second was Labmeeting, a cross between Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook for scientists. He dropped out of Princeton (twice). Joseph loves to advise and help startups. His code on Github powers many websites and iPhone apps. He give talks about startup tech around the US and also internationally at conferences in Florence, incubators in Paris, and startups in Budapest.

The Future of Smart Cities

Karen Tay

Smart Nation Director Prime Minister's Office Singapore
Karen Tay is Singapore's Smart Nation Director covering North America, and is currently based in the Bay Area. She is experienced in policy, strategy, engagement and regulation across a variety of domains. Prior to her current post, she worked in Finance, Education and the Prime Ministers’ Office, and has been a speechwriter and adviser to several Singaporean Ministers. She is passionate about deploying technology for public good.

The Future of Cities - Panel

Laura Schewel

CEO StreetLight Data
Laura, founder and Chief Executive Officer, is a leading advocate and researcher in advanced transportation, with particular expertise in transportation systems, sustainability and safety, and vehicle/system modeling and analysis. After completing degrees in engineering and comparative literature at Yale University, she worked at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), managing their vehicle electrification projects, including the Smart Garage Charrette and Project Get Ready. Next, Laura joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to develop planning for regulatory strategy for electric vehicles and energy storage. Laura’s work at StreetLight is an extension of her graduate studies at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in Energy Engineering, and the author of several publications about vehicle electrification and sustainable transportation. In 2013, Laura was selected as one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 and was the recipient of the International Transport Forum’s Young Researcher of the Year Award.

The Future of the Internet of Things

Linden Tibbets

CEO IFTTT
Linden is co-founder and CEO of IFTTT, a platform that helps your products and services work better together. With a background in engineering and design, Linden is passionate about wild ideas of all kinds.

The Future of Medicine

Lonnie Rae Kurlander

CEO Medal
Prior physician-in-training at Boston University. During my clinical training, I discovered my passion for Healthcare Information Technology (HCIT). Co-founder and CEO at Medal (www.medal.com) working to build infrastructure that can improve outcomes, reduce costs, and meaningfully improve the health care industry.

The Future of E-Commerce

Max Bennett

Co-founder Bluecore
Formerly a Goldman Sachs trader, Bennett cofounded Blucore in 2013 to make customer behavioral data actionable and easy to understand. As head of product management and design, Bennett, a New York City native and a Washington University in St. Louis graduate, has helped Bluecore become one of New York City’s fastest growing SaaS startups. More than 300 retailers in the U.S. including electronics, automotive, and apparel brands such as Nike, Gap and Staples use Bluecore, which generated tens of millions in annual revenue last fiscal year. The startup has raised about $28 million from investors such as FirstMark Capital and Georgian Partners.

The Future of the Worlds Fair

Michael Weiss

CEO Worlds Fair USA
Michael cares about getting the world excited about the future. As Co-Founder and CEO of Worlds Fair USA, Michael leads an effort to organize the first U.S. Worlds Fair since 1984. Today, Worlds Fair USA organizes mini-Worlds Fairs called "Worlds Fair Nano" in order to build towards the six month, 100 million person Worlds Fair. Michael started his Worlds Fair career as an amateur historian, which grew into an understanding of why a Worlds Fair is an incredible tool for inspiring world-changing innovation and progress.

The Future of Cities - Panel

Molly Turner

Lecturer, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
Molly Turner is an urban planner and tech policy pioneer. She is a leading voice on urban innovation as a Lecturer at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and advisor to startups and municipal governments. Turner was an early employee of Airbnb, where she created the company’s public policy team in 2011. She co-authored some of the world’s first “sharing economy” regulations and directed the company’s partnerships with governments around the world, including its international disaster response program and its 2015 business launch in Cuba. Turner is engaged in Bay Area urban policy issues as a board member of SPUR.

The Future of Food

Neil Grimmer

CEO Habit
Neil Grimmer is an entrepreneur at the intersection of creativity, brand and business strategy. Prior to founding Habit, Neil was the co-founder and CEO of Plum Organics, the number one organic baby food brand. A former punk rock musician and artist turned entrepreneur, his punk roots have served him well in a creative career that has taken him from art galleries to product design at IDEO. As Habit’s Founder and CEO, his "outsider" sensibility permeated the purpose and design of the first personalized nutrition company created for anyone who wants to be their best through the transformative power of food.

The Future of Robotics

Oussama Khatib

The Head of Stanford Robotics
Oussama Khatib received his Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering from Sup’Aero, Toulouse, France, in 1980. He is Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. His work on advanced robotics focuses on methodologies and technologies in human-centered robotics including humanoid control architectures, human motion synthesis, interactive dynamic simulation, haptics, and human- friendly robot design. He is Co-Editor of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics series, and has served on the Editorial Boards of several journals as well as the Chair or Co-Chair of numerous international conferences. He co-edited the Springer Handbook of Robotics, which received the PROSE Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE and has served as a Distinguished Lecturer. He is the President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR). Professor Khatib is a recipient of the Japan Robot Association (JARA) Award in Research and Development. In 2010 he received the IEEE RAS Pioneer Award in Robotics and Automation for his fundamental pioneering contributions in robotics research, visionary leadership, and life-long commitment to the field. Professor Khatib received the 2013 IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his vision and leadership for the Robotics and Automation Society, in establishing and sustaining conferences in robotics and related areas, publishing influential monographs and handbooks and training and mentoring the next generation of leaders in robotics education and research. In 2014, Professor Khatib received the 2014 IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation.

The Future of Augmented vs. Virtual Reality - Panel

Peter Rojas

Partner Betaworks
Peter Rojas is a founding partner at Betaworks Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund based in New York and San Francisco. Prior to joining Betaworks he worked at AOL as VP of Strategy and later as Co-director of Alpha, the company's experimental products group. He is also the co-founder of several startups, including Weblogs Inc. (acquired by AOL in 2005), where he created and was the founding editor of tech sites Engadget and Joystiq; gadget blog Gizmodo (formerly Gawker Media, now part of Univision); music discovery service RCRD LBL; and gdgt, a social commerce platform (acquired by AOL in 2013).

The Future of Artificial Intelligence

Richard Socher

Chief Scientist Salesforce
Richard Socher is the CEO and founder of MetaMind, a startup that seeks to improve artificial intelligence and make it widely accessible. He obtained his PhD from Stanford working on deep learning with Chris Manning and Andrew Ng and won the best Stanford CS PhD thesis award. He is interested in developing new AI models that perform well across multiple different tasks in natural language processing and computer vision.He was awarded the Distinguished Application Paper Award at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2011, the 2011 Yahoo! Key Scientific Challenges Award, a Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship in 2012 and a 2013 "Magic Grant" from the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and the 2014 GigaOM Structure Award.

The Future of Democracy

Santiago Siri

CEO Democracy Earth Foundation
Founder of Democracy Earth Foundation, a Y Combinator backed non-profit building incorruptible digital governance for small and large communities; and the Partido de la Red (Peers Party), a political party that aims to improve representation with candidates committed to citizens requests online. Partner of Bitex.la, the largest bitcoin exchange in Latin America. Published 'Hacktivismo'​ in 2015 with Random House. Co-founded Argentine Game Developers Association. World Economic Forum member. Contributed in radio and TV.

The Future of Urban Infrastructure

Stephen Engblom

Global Cities Director AECOM
Stephen Engblom, AIA, LEED AP, is a Senior Vice President and Architect with AECOM with a global track record of working with public and private sector clients to develop healthy and successful places. As Global Director of AECOM Cities, Stephen and his team are dedicated to forward-thinking urban policy and development strategies that underpin world-class infrastructure that enhances the environment, equity, and economy of our cities. Stephen is active in the Urban Land Institute and American Institute of Architects, contributes thought leadership to industry journals, and lectures and teaches at universities and institutes worldwide.

The Future of Politics

Steve Hilton

CEO Crowdpac
Steve Hilton is co-founder and CEO of Silicon Valley political crowdfunding and data start-up Crowdpac. He also teaches at Stanford University's Institute of Design (d.school), and is the author of the UK Sunday Times bestseller More Human - Designing a World Where People Come First. Steve was previously Senior Advisor to former Prime Minister David Cameron, where he helped lead the implementation of the British government's domestic reform program. Prior to the 2010 General Election, as David Cameron's head of strategy, Steve is credited with helping to develop the ideas associated with the modernization of the British Conservative Party. Before working in politics, Steve was co-founder of Good Business, a corporate responsibility consulting firm, and The Good Cook, an award-winning London restaurant. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and young family. And 10 chickens.

The Future of Augmented vs. Virtual Reality - Panel

Taylor Freeman

CEO UploadVR
Taylor Freeman is the Founder and CEO at UploadVR. Taylor is passionate about education, entertainment, startups, building community, human enhancement, health, music, and the future of human computer interaction. He has made the personal commitment to do everything in his power to ensure the success of consumer virtual reality technology. He is a 3x entrepreneur with successful exits in the digital advertising space. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Taylor production managed a 150 person team at Universal Studios.

The Future of Feminism

Tiffany Shlain

Emmy Nominated Filmmaker & Founder Webby Awards
Tiffany Shlain is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and founder of The Webby Awards. Her films and work have received over 80 awards and distinctions including a Disruptive Innovation Award from Tribeca Film Festival and NPR’s list of best commencement speeches. Four of her films have premiered at Sundance, including her feature documentary "Connected." The US State Department selected four of her films for The American Film Showcase.Her original series "The Future Starts Here" has received over 40 million views. She is co-founder of Character Day, a global annual event for schools and organizations on the science of character and that had over 90,000 events in 125 countries. Her new film “50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present & Future of Women + Power” just premiered at TEDWomen and Refinery29.

The Future of Consumerism

Tina Sharkey

CEO Brandless.com
Tina Sharkey is the Co-Founder and CEO of Brandless, a fresh approach to consumer commerce. As an Entrepreneur, Investor and Advisor, she has dedicated over 20 years to creating and building purposeful communities, brands, and experiences with soul. Prior to Brandless, Tina was a Venture Partner at Sherpa Capital and the CEO of Sherpa Foundry. She is currently an advisor to NewCo, Cue, Greenhouse, Pinrose, and The Information as well as WE Charities and the UN Foundation. She also sits on the Board of Directors of ipsy and Brit + Co, and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

The Future of Augmented vs. Virtual Reality - Panel Moderator

Tom Emrich

Partner Super Ventures
Sometimes called the “man from the future” Tom Emrich is a leading voice in wearable technology committed to driving adoption and innovation in technology augmenting the human experience. He is an investor and partner at Super Ventures, the first fund and incubator dedicated to augmented reality and a community builder, founding We Are Wearables, the largest wearable tech community of its kind in the world with a reach of over 120,000 and chapters across North America. He is also co-producer of Augmented World Expo (AWE) the largest AR and VR conference now in California, Europe and Asia. Tom has been recognized as a global influencer for both wearable tech and virtual reality and has presented talks at major conferences such as TEDx, WT Conference, Wearable Technology Show, TOM*FW, and FITC and regularly appears in the media as a wearable tech expert including The New York Times, CNN, BBC, CBC, Readers Digest and FASHION magazine. His passion for this space is driven by his belief that wearable tech plays a critical role in our human evolution. You can follow his thoughts on Twitter @TomEmrich.
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