11:00
Registration Opens
11:30
Lunch Buffet
12:25
Opening Remarks
Kathy Kiely
President, The Ad Club
12:30
One Giant Leap
Charles Fishman
Award-Winning Author
The race to put a man on the moon was a thrilling adventure meant to remind the world of the dominant position of the USA. The leadership and vision of President Kennedy, along with hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, made this historic moment happen. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary, a lot can be learned from this inaugural moonshot. Its lessons inform the ambitious ideas across many industries that are changing our lives and reshaping our globe.
1:00
Creating an Environment that Fosters Innovation
Moderator: Elizabeth Lowrey
Principal, Elkus Manfredi Architects
Jennifer Halloran
Head of Marketing & Brand, MassMutual
Melissa Slade
Executive Director, Head of In-House Agency, Aetna
Lea Stendahl
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Suffolk Construction
Moonshots don’t just happen by chance. Groundbreaking innovations are created by setting ambitious goals and empowering a team of creative and courageous people to act on their ideas. What makes a collaborative, successful, innovative team? Our panel of industry experts will talk about how they create environments conducive to innovation and will share their own stories of moonshots in the making.
1:30
The Drive for Drug Discovery
Dr. Leila Pirhaji
Founder & CEO, ReviveMed
Her mission, to cure over 100 million people affected by a previously untreatable liver disease, is the very definition of a moonshot. The work she is focused on - developing treatments for disease with AI and technology - is a medical breakthrough. Though the pharma industry is a late adopter of AI, it’s proving to be a revolutionary alternative to the traditional time and cost intensive methods. Leila has been selected as a 2019 Global TED Fellow, one of 20 global visionaries, in recognition of her work.
2:00
Bringing Student Debt Down to Earth
David Chang
CEO, Gradifi
It’s a problem. Student debt is ballooning out of control and its impact is affecting the lives and lifestyles of an entire generation. It’s the single biggest problem millennials face - $1.5 trillion worth of student loan debt. Gradifi is working to help break the stranglehold that the cost of education has on people every day and they’re shooting for the moon.
2:30
Coffee Break
3:00
Mother of Invention
Jimmy Tingle
Social and Political Humorist
One of the top social humorists and commentators in America. Jimmy is a writer, performer and director. A real mother of invention and re-invention, he is also a graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School, a Harvard commencement speaker, and a 2018 candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. His take on our world is thought-provoking, funny, hopeful and always insightful.
3:30
A Perfect Circle: World Without Waste
Moderator: Jimmy Tingle
Lindsay Allen
Rooftop Farm Manager, Boston Medical Center
Eric Hudson
Founder & CEO, Preserve
Aaron Niederhelman
Co-Founder and CEO, OneHealthAg
Sustainability is a global challenge and innovation is the key to reducing the impact of society on our shrinking planet. This panel of visionaries look at one man’s trash as treasure to mine for household products, they look up to find the most fertile ground for farming atop Boston’s dense real estate and view the ocean as a source of economic growth and well sourced food with regional provenance.
4:00
Rich Rebuilds: Taking on Tesla
Rich Benoit
Rebel Tesla Mechanic
This former IT manager by day is passionate about Tesla electric cars. He rebuilt his first, Dolores, a saltwater-damaged model, from salvaged parts. He parlayed that passion into a YouTube channel and leveraged his YouTube fame to open an electric car garage. Literally, a viral video star who launched a startup in a garage.
4:15
A Better Way to Feed the World
Geoffrey von Maltzahn
Co-Founder & CIO, Indigo
As our planet braces for climate change, there is no more important issue than the sustainability of our global food supply and the ag-tech company Indigo, co-founded by Geoff, has created a better way to feed the world. It's just been named to the top spot on the 2019 CNBC list of disruptive companies. Geoff is also a partner at Flagship Pioneering, a company founded as an alternative to existing methods of entrepreneurial innovation.