Techonomy 19
The theme for Techonomy 2019 in Half Moon Bay, California was “Reset and Restore: Governing Tech, Retrieving Ethics, and Acting on Climate.” We are in a unique period when corporate responsibility and big-picture thinking is absolutely essential. Business needs to be stepping up to the challenges of society, and we spent much time discussing aspects of that.
To catalyze the debate and stimulate our thinking, we combined some of the world’s most veteran tech experts with business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and several experts on ethical and responsible technology.
Techonomy 19
The theme for Techonomy 2019 in Half Moon Bay, California was “Reset and Restore: Governing Tech, Retrieving Ethics, and Acting on Climate.” We are in a unique period when corporate responsibility and big-picture thinking is absolutely essential. Business needs to be stepping up to the challenges of society, and we spent much time discussing aspects of that.
To catalyze the debate and stimulate our thinking, we combined some of the world’s most veteran tech experts with business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and several experts on ethical and responsible technology.
Speakers
Lila Preston
Partner & Co-Head, Growth Equity & Sustainable Solutions Fund, Generation Investment Management
All Sessions
Play all 48 sessionsJohn Chambers and Soni Jiandani on Starting Up to Challenge Amazon
John Chambers now puts his energy into startups, including Pensando, formed by four or his former Cisco colleagues. Pensando aims to enable enterprise to re-think Cloud Computing. How will Pensando differentiate itself against Amazon, what will it mean for enterprise workflow and ultimately, innovation?
John Chambers and Soni Jiandani on Starting Up to Challenge Amazon
Lila Preston and Ryan Popple on Investing and Entrepreneurship for a Warming Planet
Amy Wu on How Women are Changing Global Agriculture
Renee James on New Chips to Power the Cloud
Matt Barnard and Dror Berman – Betting on Super Evolution
Fadi Chehadé and Jodi Halpern on How We Create a Civilized, Ethical Internet
Marta Kosmyna on Building Peace and Keeping People in Charge
Konstantinos Karachalios on Turning Tech Towards Humanity
Tristan Harris on Fighting Back Against Persuasive Tech
Katherine Maher on How a Collaborative Nonprofit Became the Web’s Fifth Largest Site
Andrew Kessler – Will Regulation Kill The Internet?
Andrew Keen and David Kirkpatrick on the Future of the Internet and Global Tech Platforms
Mayor Frank Jackson on What One American City Has Learned about Tech
Whurley on Quantum Computing for Everyone
Tim O’Reilly on the Potential for Tech to Remake the World
Dan Chu on Driving Into the Future
Mark Webster on How Voice Tech Will Change Society
Casper Klynge on What Silicon Valley Means to Diplomats
Amy Kruse on Neurotechnology & Human 2.0
Esther Dyson on Investing in Holistic Health
Mark Brand on Food and Community
Chip Conley on What Business Needs to Learn from Psychology
Roy Smythe on Health Data Beyond Genomics
Brooks Bell on Stopping Colon Cancer
Julia Hoffman and Michelle Stansbury on How Innovation Will Change Healthcare
Joaquin Duato on Innovating at Health’s Largest Company
Amy Wilkinson on What Leaders Think About Creating the Future
Lakshmi Rengarajan on The Power of Connection in Business
Jeff Weiner on The Business of Compassionate Leadership
Sharawn Connors on Diversity & Inclusion as a Strategic Advantage
David Plouffe on the 2020 Presidential Election
Thomas Malone on The Power of Collaboration
Rick Hernandez on the History and Future of Half Moon Bay
Bhushan Joshi on How Tech Can Help Mitigate Climate Change
Strat Sherman on The Climate Crisis, the Generation Gap, and Getting Off our Butts
Cameron Clayton on How Advanced Tech can Help the World Respond to Extreme Weather
Jasmine Crowe on Stopping Food Waste and Transforming Communities
Jane Long on Geo-Engineering
David Tulauskas on One Company’s Journey to Help Create a Circular Economy
Martin Sorrell on What Marketers Need to Understand About the World
John Chen on Cyber-security and Understanding China
Marissa Mayer on Building a New Consumer Internet
Colin Parris on Why AI Has to be Humble
Anneka Gupta on Privacy, Data, and the Future of Targeted Marketing
Craig Newmark and Marta Tellado on Shifting Power Back to Consumers
Michael Dunne on Why China Builds the Cars of the Future
Nishith Desai on Why India Is Becoming a Tech Powerhouse
Adam Burden on Cracking the Code on Tech Adoption
Agenda
Morning Activities
Golf, Coastal Walk or Bide Ride, Surfing. (Advance signup required.)
Welcome to Techonomy 2019
Josh Kampel
CEO, Worth Media Group
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
The Internet, Global Tech Platforms, and Our Precarious Moment
We’re in a dangerous interrelated global cycle of tech dysfunction, social discord, political polarization, policy failure, and climate catastrophe. Can the world get a grip on tech? How do we reset and restore?
Andrew Keen
Author, "The Internet Is Not the Answer", Digital Vertigo
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Starting Up to Challenge Amazon
John Chambers now puts his energy into startups, including Pensando, formed by four or his former Cisco colleagues. Pensando aims to enable enterprise to re-think Cloud Computing. How will Pensando differentiate itself against Amazon, what will it mean for enterprise workflow and ultimately, innovation?
John Chambers
Founder and CEO, JC2 Ventures
Soni Jiandani
Chief Business Officer and Co-Founder, Pendsando
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
How Leaders Create the Future
Wilkinson interviewed 200 of the world’s top digital and business change-makers to figure out what works. She’ll talk with practitioner Michelle Zatlyn about what that means in practice.
Amy Wilkinson
Director of Clinical Marketing, Butterfly Network
The Way to Wellville: A Path Towards Healthy Americans
Esther Dyson has made a huge personal and financial commitment to a 10-year nonprofit project to help five small American communities become healthy places by moving from short-term, self-interested thinking to long-term, collective-benefit investment in human capital.
Esther Dyson
Chairman, EDventure Holdings
Superminds: The Power of Collaboration
The Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT is the world’s premiere institute promoting collaboration as a set of tools for progress. What could we all be doing differently, together?
Thomas Malone
Director, Center for Collective Intelligence, MIT Sloan School
Gary A. Bolles
Co-founder, eParachute
What One American City Has Learned about Tech
Cleveland is in the midst of an unexpected renaissance under Mayor Frank Jackson. Business and tech are finding new pathways to civic renovation. He’ll talk about how business and tech are finding new pathways to civic renovation.
Mayor Frank G. Jackson
Mayor of Cleveland, City of Cleveland
Josh Kampel
CEO, Worth Media Group
Can We Create a Civilized, Ethical Internet?
Longtime entrepreneur Fadi Chehade took over ICANN at a key moment and became a diplomat, extracting it from the U.S. Commerce Department. But what he learned has his hair on fire as the net continues to morph.
Fadi Chehadé
Co-CEO, Ethos Capital
Jodi Halpern
Professor, University of California, Berkeley
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Quantum Computing for Everyone
What does quantum computing mean to you? Whurley is its great popularizer - he thinks of it as “this generation’s space race” and will tell us why he’s on a mission to humanize quantum computing.
William Hurley (whurley)
Founder, Strangeworks
Dan Costa
Editorial Director, Worth Media Group
Stop Trashing Plastic: One Company’s Journey to Help Create a Circular Economy
Over the past several decades, plastic packaging has become ubiquitous, but we’ve reached an inflection point with how we manage it’s end of life. It’s estimated that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. We’ll talk with David Tulauskas, Chief Sustainability Officer at Nestlé Waters North America about how the company is taking on the issue of plastic waste head-on.
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Steven Gray
Head of Content, Tech Communications Director, Meta
The Power of Workplace Connection
What makes doing business different now? If collaboration is key, how do companies encourage it internally? What has worked in a fast-growing business like 1-800-FLOWERS? A veteran entrepreneur in dialog with someone who has created a new specialty--workplace connection.
Jim McCann
Founder + Executive Chairman, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM
Lakshmi Rengarajan
Former Director of Workplace Connection, WeWork
Food and Community: How to Eat Now
Mark Brand went from the street to the kitchen, and brought street-smarts with him, along with many people who’d otherwise have nowhere to go. He’ll tell us about his efforts and preview what he’ll cook for us Monday evening at Mountain Terrace..
Mark Brand
Chef and Social Entrepreneur
How Tech Enables Climate Action and Sustainable Development
Nothing is more important than applying tech to the world's biggest problems. 5G wireless technology in particular should enable dramatic improvements in how we can address climate change.
Bhushan Joshi
Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility for North America, Ericsson
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Investing and Entrepreneurship for a Warming Planet
How does our global crisis change how we all must think about our work? What kinds of investments make sense if our goal is to arrest a rapidly warming globe? Investor Preston, a partner with Al Gore, talks with the CEO of an autonomous bus company from her portfolio.
Ryan Popple
President and CEO, Proterra Inc.
Lila Preston
Partner & Co-Head, Growth Equity & Sustainable Solutions Fund, Generation Investment Management
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Climate Crisis, Political Crisis, Tech Crisis: What Ties it All Together
The sudden global rise of alarm about climate catastrophe among youth has been bracing and challenging. What can we do to take action?
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Stratford Sherman
Partner, Accompli
Reception
Hosted Dinner Party: Superminds for Climate Change
Hosted Dinner Party: Life at Work - Culture, Balance, and Humanity
Hosted Dinner Party: Geek Dinner - Cutting Edge Tech (AI, Quantum, etc.)
Hosted Dinner Party: Super Human - Health & Wellness
Sunrise Yoga
Breakfast Open
ConnectHER Breakfast: A Women's Roundtable
Breakfast Session: Communicating in Times of Crisis
Andrew Whitehouse
Founder & Chairman, Copperfield Advisory
Morning Sessions
What Marketers Need to Understand About the World
Global big pictures R us. It has given Sorrell an edge for decades. Now he’s starting a new ad and marketing network with fundamentally new premises.
Sir Martin Sorrell
Executive Chairman, S4 Capital
Drew Ianni
Founder and Chairman, CDX, CDX (Event Co-Chair)
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Security in a Connected World and Operating Everywhere: An Industry Veteran's Perspective
Chen has long led businesses in China and worldwide even as he’s remade Blackberry and, earlier, Sybase. Blackberry, no longer a phone company, is now deploying security and other software many places as the internet of things explodes (like our automobiles).
John Chen
Special Advisor, Silver Lake
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
The Business of Compassionate Leadership
With 645 million users globally, LinkedIn is the interstitial tissue of global business. It has also avoided accusations of bias, social distortion, and other depredations. Could Weiner’s deep belief in compassionate leadership as a value be a reason?
Jeff Weiner
Chief Executive Officer, LinkedIn Corporation
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Building a New Consumer Internet
Few have had a larger role creating today’s consumer internet. With her incubator Lumi Labs, Mayer is rethinking email, calendars, and more products designed for the consumer.
Marissa Mayer
CEO, Yahoo!
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Why AI Has to be Humble
As autonomous systems, AI, and the internet of things surround us, GE Research works to insure its design is grounded in fundamental human values like trust.
Colin Parris
Chief Technology Officer, GE
What’s the Future: New Ways to Govern Tech
Tim O’Reilly is the ultimate insider, but is not content with Silicon Valley as it is. He sees the potential for tech to remake the world, if we remake tech.
Tim O’Reilly
Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Building Peace and Keeping People in Charge
How can people retain meaningful control over the use of force in an autonomous age? Marta Kosmyna’s job is convincing tech companies in Silicon Valley to care.
Marta Kosmyna
Silicon Valley Lead, Campaign to Stop Killer Robots
Dan Costa
Editorial Director, Worth Media Group
Driving Into the Future
Waymo’s chief product officer on how autonomous vehicles will change cities and our lives, and what that could mean for the environment.
Dan Costa
Editorial Director, Worth Media Group
"Alexa- How Will Voice Tech Change Society in its Next Phase?"
A short talk about why and how we should be thinking about voice technology.
Mark Webster
Founder, Sayspring
What Business Needs to Learn from Psychology
After a career in the hospitality industry, most recently at Airbnb, Chip Conley now runs an academy for mid-life wisdom. What do we all need to learn?
Chip Conley
Hospitality Entrepreneur, Modern Elder
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Lunch Break
Afternoon Sessions
How Advanced Tech Can Help the World Prepare and Respond to Extreme Weather
Extreme weather is becoming more intense and dangerous. Now more than ever we must ensure that timely, reliable weather data is available around the world. Technology offers new opportunities to help people and businesses access this data to better prepare for and respond. Meanwhile, improvements in how we manage agriculture can lead to more sustainable food production.
Cameron Clayton
General Manager, Watson Media and Weather, IBM
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
How Women Entrepreneurs are Changing Agriculture
Wu spent years studying women agricultural entrepreneurs. Reforming agriculture may be our biggest opportunity and challenge at a time of global warming.
Amy Wu
Founder & Chief Content Director, Farms to Incubators
Stopping Food Waste and Transforming Communities
Entrepreneur Jasmine Crowe built a rapidly-growing national network to save leftover food and get it to those in need.
Jasmine Crowe
CEO, Goodr
Steven Gray
Head of Content, Tech Communications Director, Meta
Turning Tech Towards Humanity
Konstantinos Karachalios oversees the standards group at IEEE, which is deeply engaged in what went wrong with tech and making it right. The engineers of the world can make that happen.
Konstantinos Karachalios
Managing Director, IEEE Standards Association, IEEE
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Fighting Back Against Persuasive Tech
The ad-driven systems of the internet giants are contributing to social decay, Tristan Harris believes. His work at the Center for Humane Technology aims to enlist the people who develop our products into an army for human values.
Tristan Harris
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Center for Humane Technology
Casey Newton
Journalist, The Verge
Diversity & Inclusion: A Strategic Advantage
Sharawn Connors, VP of Diversity and Inclusion at Micron, discusses pushing for progress in the workplace, her approach to building an inclusive culture, and why D&I is a core strategic advantage. In conversation with attorney and diversity strategist Bari Williams.
Sharawn Connors
VP, Diversity and Inclusion, Micron
Bärí Williams
Diversity Strategist, Bärí A Williams
New Chips to Power the Cloud
Renee James was president of Intel, but now is up against it, in an ambitious new semiconductor startup. What matters is the cloud, and Ampere builds chips to run it.
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Privacy, Data, and the Future of Targeted Marketing
How can personal data power the internet without it undermining our privacy and causing people to lose control? Anneka and her team work to set up laws and best practices to protect consumers, and now, are also focused on political campaigns.
Anneka Gupta
President & Head of Products and Platforms, LiveRamp
Dan Costa
Editorial Director, Worth Media Group
How Do We Know Our Technology is Safe?
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has funded a large new effort at CR to assess and monitor the tools of digital life, just as in the past for cars and washing machines. The goal: shift power back to the hands of consumers.
Craig Newmark
Founder, craigslist
Marta Tellado
President + CEO, Consumer Reports
Sarah Frier
Reporter, Bloomberg
How a Collabortive Nonprofit Became One of the Web’s Largest Site
Longtime human rights activist Katherine Maher runs the largest website that’s not a company. It got that way through uniquely leveraging community collaboration, at global scale. What can companies learn from Wikipedia?
Katherine Maher
Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Why China Builds the Cars of the Future
Few know the Chinese auto industry like Dunne. At this time of great uncertainty, how will competition on technologized vehicles evolve? Will China dominate autonomy and electrics? How soon will cars drive themselves?
Michael Dunne
Host, Driving with Dunne podcast and CEO, ZoZo Go
What Silicon Valley Means to Diplomats
The digital sphere may be dominated by large companies, but we must safeguard democratic values and social institutions, says Denmark’s formal ambassador to Silicon Valley. He works to help industry and governments work together.
Casper Klynge
Denmark’s Tech Ambassador
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Dinner among the redwoods at Mountain Terrace
Skylar Grey - Live Performance
Sunrise Yoga
Breakfast Open
Breakfast Session: What Have We Learned about the Internet, Big Tech, and New Paradigms for Governance?
Jean-Claude Goldenstein
Founder & CEO, CREOpoint
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Breakfast Session: Accelerating Corporate Digital Transformation
Bastiaan De Goei
Head of AXA Next, AXA
Drew Ianni
Founder and Chairman, CDX, CDX (Event Co-Chair)
John Suh
Vice President and Founding Director of CRADLE Innovation Unit, Hyundai Motor Company
Morning Sessions
Why India Is Becoming a Tech Powerhouse
Desai started India’s largest tech-oriented law firm. What’s the view from South Asia? Will the balance swing from China? How big is India’s promise?
Nishith Desai
Founder, Nishith Desai Associates
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Betting on Super Evolution
Innovation Endeavors is a VC firm that funds companies that seek solutions to social problems, even global ones. One theme: super evolution--the idea that startups can now harness rapid prototyping and vast pools of data to develop radical new business models quickly and at scale.
Matt Barnard
CEO, Plenty
Dror Berman
Founding Partner, Innovation Endeavors
Drew Ianni
Founder and Chairman, CDX, CDX (Event Co-Chair)
Will Regulation Kill the Internet?
Human progress doesn't improve because someone passes a law, Kessler believes. Siilcon Valley drives progress better without government agency interference. In contrast to some other speakers, he says we shouldn't apply antitrust law to tech companies.
Andrew Kessler
Writer
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Cracking the Code on Tech Adoption
A small minority of companies have cracked the code on tech adoption, according to new Accenture research. Learn what’s enabling these leaders to grow revenue at double the rate of tech laggards and why they are poised to extend their advantage over the next five years.
Adam Burden
Senior Managing Partner, Accenture
Will Geo-Engineering Become Necessary?
With the earth warming and California burning, it's hard to know what measures will really work in order to stay within the Paris Accords guidelines for only a 1.5 degree increase in global temperatures. Some believe that we'll have no choice but to consciously manipulate the climate. Long is an expert.
Jane Long
Associate Director for Energy & Environment, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (retired)
Proteomics: Health Data Beyond Genomics
An entirely new science of human health is emerging, after decades of painstaking development. SomaLogic, where Smythe is CEO, can figure out amazing things about you and your health.
Roy Smythe
CEO, SomaLogic Inc.
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
Colon Cancer: Stop the Killing
Last year long time Techonomist Brooks Bell was diagnosed and successfully treated for colon cancer. But the entrepreneur was shocked a disease that often strikes younger people is treated as a disease of the old. Now she campaigns for a new approach to examination and treatment.
Brooks Bell
Founder and CEO, Brooks Bell, Inc.
How Innovation Will Change Healthcare
New technologies are emerging that can help address everything from opiate addiction to in home elder care (robots are promising there). How will this suite of new tools change hospitals and the health care system? Where should we expect the fastest change?
Julia Hoffman
Head of Behavioral Health, Livongo Health
Michelle Stansbury
Vice President, Innovation, Houston Methodist
Aaron Strout
Chief Marketing Officer, W2O Group
Innovating at Health's Largest Company
J&J’s scale is astonishing, as are its ambitions to alter the landscape of global healthcare. How does it change a company to focus on truly global social goals?
Joaquin Duato
Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee, Johnson & Johnson
Josh Kampel
CEO, Worth Media Group
Neurotechnology and Human 2.0
We can augment the human brain and gain competitive advantage, based on what we know now. What will that mean, and when can we all get the upgrade? How does it play out in an unequal world?
Amy Kruse
Chief Scientific Officer, PlatypusNeuro
David Kirkpatrick
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy
A Political Veteran Investing for Social Progress
David Plouffe ran President Barack Obama’s first election campaign, and later served as his senior advisor. He’ll help us understand the new presidential campaign and the impact of the impeachment hearings underway. He headed up policy and programs for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Where is this hugely ambitious effort headed?
David Plouffe
President, Policy & Advocacy at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; Senior Advisor & Campaign Manager to President Obama